The Truth about TEFL Part 3: Selling yourself via Skype

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TEFL job interviews are all about one thing: Skype. Occasionally employers may be in the UK during their recruiting period but for the most part your opportunity to impress them with your

There are a few things it’s important to remember however, if you want to become a Skype interview pro.

personality and suitability for the job will be a virtual one. Many people dread Skype interviews, unsure of how they should behave comparably to face-to-face interviews, but once you’ve gotten a few under your belt they’re an easy and effective way to connect with potential employers with little cost to either party.

1.       It’s still an interview so don’t get lazy. You still need to dress like you would for an interview and take care with your appearance – no top half only, no ‘smart casual’ wear. This is your only chance to make an impression and you don’t want to blow the deal before you even open your mouth.

2.       Do your preparation. When an interview is going to take place in your house, it often feels like the urgency is removed. Do not trust this feeling – you need to isolate a block of time before the interview to read up on the role and refresh yourself on what you wrote in your application. Remember that you won’t have the travel time and the pre-interview coffee shop time that you would with a traditional interview. It’s possible to have notes by your laptop for a Skype interview but you don’t want to be obviously fact checking every few minutes.

3.       Think about your body language. Even over a video link the way you present yourself can say a lot about you to an interviewer so it’s as important to consider your body language in a Skype interview as it is for a face to face meeting. Make sure you centre yourself on the screen and sit a sensible distance from the camera – you don’t want to be overly close but you need to be in range of the microphone. Most importantly make sure you look directly at the camera rather than the picture of the interviewer or of yourself, to maintain good eye contact.

4.       Be aware of the pitfalls of the internet. A lot of places that hire TEFL teachers aren’t renowned for their strong internet connections or good wifi coverage so it is quite likely that there will be a problem with the connection at some point in the interview. Obviously if you have prepared your setup properly this won’t be your problem but there are a couple of things you can do to minimise the damage; firstly, make sure you speak slowly and clearly to ensure you remain audible even if the connection becomes faulty and secondly try and minimise the amount of moving you do – the less work the system has to do to maintain a clear picture the better.

5.       Act natural. Lastly, behave as you normally would in an interview. Try to resist the urge to reference or joke about the nature of the process – it might be novel to you but they do it everyday. Trying to keep yourself in a normal interview mindset will also hopefully stop you being too nervous about the different format and should help you to come across well to the interviewer.

Had a good or bad interview experience on Skype? Let me know below. If you missed the first two parts of my series on TEFL you can find them here.

The Other Side of the Desk: Interviewers are people too

The other day I was sitting in the office, getting on with my work when the conversation turned to the upcoming interviews with prospective interns – intrigued I watched as the established members of staff debated who was going to have to do it and then googled interview questions to ask. It really brought home to me the rather obvious fact that interviewers are people too – most of them are just like you!

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Chances are that most people know somebody who has had to conduct interviews as part of their job from time to time – very few companies outside of huge multinationals hire people purely to hire and fire employees and the smaller the company, the lower down the chain of command the interviewer is likely to be as there will be fewer layers of management. As your career progresses – or your job hunt if you’re particularly unlucky – you will find yourself increasingly likely to be interviewed by somebody the same age as you, somebody who, outside of the interview room, you would likely consider a peer. Somebody just. Like. You.

So why is this grand realisation so important?

Well, firstly it helps even the playing field in your mind: it can be easy to imagine the person on the other side of the desk from you as a remote, all-powerful figure because they do, in fact, have the power to affect your future. What it is important to remember is that you have the potential to similarly affect their life in turn – whoever is hired after all will be the person they work with on a regular basis. Thought about this way, interviews become much less about a supplicant and a powerful figure and more of a negotiation – you are trying to convince them to invest in you as a person and they are trying to establish that you will provide the best possible return on their investment. If you treat the interview as an egalitarian transaction, you are likely to be more comfortable and confident and, as a result, more likely to get what you want out of the meeting.

Another consequence of realising that interviewers are people too is accepting that they are as subject to the whims of fate and the caprices of human emotion as anybody else. If your interview is on a day when their train has been late or they’ve just lost an important contract you are likely to fare worse in comparison to an interviewee on a different day purely by association with negative emotion. While there is nothing you can do to affect this, it does help with the realisation of just how many unknown variables there are in any hiring decision and how little part your value as an individual often plays in such decisions.

Something you do have control over however is your behaviour in the interview: it’s important to pay attention to the clues an interviewer drops about the kind of person they are. People are usually drawn to similar personality types so if your interviewer seems particularly outgoing or friendly, react accordingly; if they seem more reserved, make sure your demeanour mirrors theirs.

At the end of the day it is your interviewer as a person who makes the decision about you and so it is as a person that you need to visualise them when doing your interview preparation – make sure you treat them like a human being and remember that in a year or two it could be you sitting in the chair on the other side of the desk.

Looking for more interview advice? Take a look at Dressingto Impress , Interview Danger Zones and Ten Tips for Reducing Interview Stress.

Dressing to Impress: top tips for interview outfits

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They say you only get one chance to make a first impression and that’s especially true when it comes to job interviews. You usually have less than an hour to make yourself memorable and to ensure that your best features are highlighted and that you leave them with a positive memory of you, both as a potential employee and as a person. At the same time, as we all know, interviews (and interviewers) are terrifying and unpredictable – sometimes they can go incredibly well and sometimes you can feel like you’ve stepped into the coliseum without a shield. With this in mind then, the last thing you want is for your appearance – one of the few variables in the situation that you can control – to let you down. You might be the brightest legal mind of our generation or a technical wizard but all that’s going to stick with your interviewer if you don’t take care with your appearance is the huge ladder in your tights or how greasy your hair looked. Lest you completely freak out however, I am here to sort you out with my five top tips on what (and what not) to wear to your interview.

1. Business smart and formal-smart are not the same thing. Obviously everybody wants to look their best in and interview and stand out from the crowd, and smart dress is important however there’s no need to go overboard. Unless you are auditioning for the Wolf of Wall Street you should not turn up in a three piece suit – it’s pretentious and out-dressing your interviewer will do you no favours. Ditto bow ties, hats and hipster accessories – your clothes should be the velvet backdrop to your sparkling personality, not the main attraction. Likewise ladies dresses that you would wear to ascot are not interview appropriate – stick with the basics here and try to keep to muted tones with maybe one key colourful piece rather than eye-catching patterns or haute-couture styling.

 2. Read the information they give you and abide by it. Increasingly, many industries are taking a much more relaxed attitude to dress in the office, especially if your role isn’t client facing and this sometimes translates into a recommendation for smart-casual interview wear. This is not a trap – take them at their word. Turning up suited and booted to an ‘informal’ interview is not appropriate and will leave them with the impression that you would not be a good fit for their more casual work environment.

3.   3. Personal grooming is not optional. I’m not suggesting that every interview should be preceded by a spa day or – as one book rather unrealistically suggested – a haircut. Showering, deodorising, trimming your nails and moisturising (guys and girls) however should be mandatory interview preparation. You want to look your best and shiny hair, neatly trimmed nails and well-tended skin are, unsurprisingly, an important part of that. Even if it’s not part of your normal routine, you need to make an effort for interview days.

4.      4.  Pay attention to the details. It can be the smallest imperfections sometimes that utterly preoccupy a person – and this is as true of interviewers as it is of anybody else. So shine those shoes, carry a spare pair of tights and if you’re nail polish is chipped either re-apply or take it off. A friend once told me that her father, who held an influential position in a big company, once told her that he judged interview candidates by the quality of their shoes, so it’s worth taking the time to go over your appearance with a fine tooth comb – and a sticky roller.

5.       5.. Wear something comfortable. Runners will tell you never to get new shoes before a race and the same is true for interview outfits – do not buy new clothes for the occasion! The whole experience is going to be excruciatingly uncomfortable mentally and emotionally as it is – there’s no need to add physical discomfort to the mix. Wear something you love, something that gives you a boost when you see yourself in it. If you feel you need to wear heels (girls) or uncomfortable dress shoes (boys) carry a spare pair for before and after the interview – after all during should be largely sedentary. Make sure you have layers so that you’re not too cold or too hot and make sure your clothes fit you the day before the interview, as there is nothing worse than a last minute, panicked rummage through the wardrobe or run around the shops.

Ultimately, if you follow only one of those rules make it the last one – the way you feel physically will transmit itself through your performance at interview and feeling comfortable will make you look comfortable. For more information about the importance of appearance in interview success check out my article on the halo effect.

Interview danger zones: where does it all go wrong?

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So you’re a veteran of the job hunt: you’ve mastered the CV and got your cover letters primed to perfection. Invitations to interview are coming thick and fast but for some reason you’re just not managing to seal the deal. Even when you think it’s gone well things don’t work out and you start to ask yourself where am I going wrong? Feedback from the interviewers is seldom revealing: unsurprisingly they’d have you believe that you were perfect but somebody else was just a bit more perfect – nobody likes to be the bearer of bad news, after all. In reality, few interviews go without a hitch and all we can do is focus on smoothing out as many of the hitches as possible. One of the ways to do this is to identify your interview danger zones.

BEFORE THE INTERVIEW

How do you prepare for an interview? If you are an under-preparer then this could be a potential danger zone. Doing your research is an expected part of the interview process these days – you need to know your stuff not only when it comes to the company and your interviewer but also the field in which they work and current market trends. You don’t have to become an expert overnight but you need to sound confident and familiar with the business if you want to work for them!

During a skype interview once, for which I had done fairly cursory research, the interviewer said “if you read the profile on me…” I was forced to admit that I hadn’t and it was clear that that didn’t go over well.

Alternatively you might be an over-preparer, which can be an equally problematic danger zone. While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with doing your research, keep in mind that the information you’re busy memorising is stuff that they already know. You’re not going to impress if you simply recite information about their company – if you have a chance to mention any of it at all. A better technique is to read up on some of the more recent developments in the company or one or two areas you find particularly interesting and think of a way to link it to your personal interests or experience. That way not only is it easier to bring up in the interview, you will come across as much more analytical and prepared than you would do simply reciting facts.

DURING THE INTERVIEW

Although you can never predict the direction an interview will take, there are certain questions that are the bedrock upon which such meetings are built. These are the big questions, the broad questions and for many people (myself included) these are where you fall down. Even though it seems like you can prepare for these questions, when they arrive it’s always an unpleasant shock. A lot of interview preparation guides provide ‘slick, professional’ techniques for dealing with this situation but I find that in such moments I can barely remember what I wrote on my CV let alone what I read in a book three days before. My advice would be to recap the progression of your CV (people assume this is redundant but you’d be surprised how little attention it receives from the interviewer once they’ve made the decision to ask you in) and give clear reasons for your decisions in each situation. If you’re feeling brave you can also give some details about your duties in each post and how it contributed to the skill set you’re presenting to them.

More than once I have had an interviewer recapping my CV to me and have had to correct them because they have gotten the timeline completely wrong, despite my helpful dating alongside each position or have failed to take in how my education and experience overlap. It is up to you to direct them to the information you want them to remember.

If broad questions don’t faze you and you are happy to chatter on about yourself ad nauseam then it may be the more specific questions that trip you up. After all, if the worst comes to the worst you can always say something about yourself but if you don’t know how you would deal with a specific situation or the answer to a technical question then you’re in trouble. The important thing to remember in these situatio

ns is that you need to give some kind of answer – any answer – rather than remaining silent. If you think you have an inkling it’s perfectly acceptable to ask for further clarification which may then help you answer the question but if you genuinely have no idea pull a classic politicians move and deliberately misinterpret the question into one you can answer – then talk at length and hope they’ll move on. It might not fool them but it will show them that you can think on your feet and have a good knowledge of topics relating to the one they’re interested in.

AT THE END OF THE INTERVIEW

The final question in every interview – and I do mean every – is the one that strikes dread into the hearts of many “do you have any questions?” The answer by the way is yes you do if you want to have any chance of getting this job. Think of some questions – preferably intelligent and preferably prepared in advance. I intend to write more about developing good stock interview questions in a later post but for now will just content myself with two pieces of advice – make them relevant or interesting and capable of stimulating discussion but don’t overdo. When they ask “is that everything?” they are not questioning the brevity of your inquiries they are simply making sure you have the time to say everything you want to. Do not get sucked into the black hole of trailing out increasingly weaker questions every time that sentence is uttered. Decide on your questions and stick to them.

Hopefully this will be helpful to anybody heading off to interview this week – let me know in the comments if you have any different danger zones or advice to offer for this situation. You can also check out our general tips for interview success here.