I've been on quite a few interviews in the past several weeks. Luckily, there's no shortage of tips, tricks, musings and even in-depth reports full of stats on how to knock it out of the park in a phone or face-to-face interview. I know all the buzz questions. I can recite my resume in my sleep—in fact, my boyfriend says I do. I've perfected my just-firm-enough handshake. And my mom keeps asking me why I always answer her phone calls with, “Hello, this is Caitlin.”
But tomorrow morning, I will experience a first. A long-distance interview over Skype. I'm excited by the novelty, but can't help but wonder what kind of Internet-iquitte I should be aware of. What's the Skype equivalent of a handshake? Is it weird that the first time these people see me, it will be in my bedroom? If one of my cats jumps up on my lap is that kind of like a cute ice-breaker or a sign of un-professionalism? (That reminds me—I need to change my Skype name. Right now it's Grizabella, after my first cat.)
And then there's the clothing. An in-person interview almost always requires a suit, no questions asked. But I'd feel pretty silly putting on my business attire, just to sit in front of my computer. And what about the all-important eye contact? Do I look into the camera or at the faces on the screen?
Most (ok, ALL) of my Skype experiences are with my parents, half of which are usually spent with frozen screens as a result of the $20 web cam we bought them as a gift, and the other half with one of us putting our eyeballs up super close to the camera lens.
But the more I think about it, the Skype interview may just been the perfect balance of the impersonal phone interview and the high-stakes face-to-face. It's uncharted territory for me, but at least I don't have to worry about having bad breath or sweaty palms. My gut tells me to just tidy my room, put on a nice sweater and follow the interviewer's lead.
To all of my 16 followers, I'd love to hear your experiences and thoughts. I'll let ya know how it goes.
