Fri, 5 Sep 2014Imagine the scene. You are about to start a formal job interview. Your name is sugarplumfairy23, you are wearing your pyjama bottoms, the cat is scratching your leg and you can see your interviewer but you can’t hear them.

This is the kind of scenario you could find yourself in if you are poorly prepared for a Skype job interview. 

According to Cititec, an increasing number of job interviews are conducted via Skype (50% more this year than last year), requiring candidates to perfect their techniques.
Luckily, global recruitment firm Cititec has compiled a list of top tips to help the likes of sugarplumfairy23.

The are include the following:

• Test the connection beforehand by chatting to a friend, and make sure no one else using the connection is streaming or downloading.

• Avoid using a smartphone or tablet unless it can be rested on a surface. No employer is impressed by you holding a device in your hand and it looking like a recording of the The Blair Witch Project.

• Make sure all other programs aside from Skype are shut down during the interview, including notifications. Receiving Facebook updates and tweets during your talk is unprofessional.

• Make sure your Skype account and profile contains only professional and pertinent information. No one is impressed if your user name is “xxxBoneKrusherxxx” and you like “eating tortilla chips in the bath”.

• Although you're probably at home for your interview, don't ‘turn up’ wearing an old t-shirt or your pyjamas. Dress as you would to a person-to-person interview if you were hoping to obtain your dream job. This includes the bottom half even if you don’t expect to have that seen on camera. It is also sensible to have a glass of water to hand, similar to a face-to-face interview. But make sure it is a clear glass and not your favourite chipped Batman mug.

• The best way to appear sincere in an interview is to maintain eye contact; however, this is difficult in a Skype interview. Remember to look directly into your web-cam, and not at the screen, in order to maintain direct eye contact.

• Remember that the person will see everything that surrounds you and not just you, so don't sit in front of that dubious painting of a scantily-clad vixen or hunk, the poster of a cat dangling from a branch or the pile of dirty washing you are going to be doing later.

• Make sure you follow up with a 'thank you' letter after the interview. It's polite, and it's a way of making sure your interviewer has a physical reminder of your talk.