How to Prepare for a Video Interview at Home
You need four things for a video interview at home: a quiet room, light on your face, a stable connection, and enough practice on camera that talking to a lens stops feeling strange. The video interview tips below cover the set-up, how live and recorded interviews differ, and how to practise by recording yourself, so the format never gets in the way of your answers.
Key takeaways
- Face a window or lamp, use the quietest room, and sit against a plain wall or tidy shelf.
- A laptop raised to eye level is easiest; a phone works if fixed sideways at eye level, plugged in, on Do Not Disturb.
- In a live interview, pause a second before answering and look at the camera when you speak.
- In a recorded interview, read the instructions screen for thinking time, answer length and retakes before you start.
- Record yourself answering five common questions, review with sound off and then sound only, and fix one thing at a time.
Video interview tips for your set-up
Do most of this the day before. Set up once, test it, then leave everything where it is.
Light
Sit facing a window or a lamp so the light falls on your face. With a window behind you, you're a dark outline. Overhead tube lights on their own cast shadows under your eyes, so put a table lamp in front of you if you have one.
Interviewing in the evening? Test the room at that same hour the day before, because light at 4 pm and at 7 pm looks very different on camera.
Sound
Pick the quietest room in the house and shut the door and windows. A room with curtains, a bed and cupboards echoes less than a bare one.
Wired earphones with a mic sound clearer than most laptops' built-in microphones, and they stop the interviewer's voice echoing back. Wireless earbuds are fine as long as they're fully charged and paired to the right device.
Tell everyone at home when the interview is. In a joint family flat in Hyderabad, that might mean asking for the pressure cooker to wait half an hour. Nobody will mind.
Background
A plain wall is best, and a tidy bookshelf is fine. Clear away anything you wouldn't want an interviewer staring at for 30 minutes: laundry on a chair, a poster, an unmade bed.
Virtual backgrounds and blur will hide a messy room, but they flicker around your head and hands. Use blur only when there's no clean wall to sit against.
Phone or laptop
A laptop is easier. You get a bigger screen and a fixed camera, and you can see the interviewer and any shared screen properly. Raise it on a few books so the camera sits at eye level; a laptop on your lap films the ceiling and your chin.
A phone works if it's all you have. Prop it sideways (horizontal) at eye level on a stand, plug it in, and switch on Do Not Disturb so a call or notification doesn't take over the screen mid-answer. Install the interview app the day before and sign in.
On either device, close other apps, pause updates and downloads, and sit near your Wi-Fi router. Keep mobile data on your phone ready as a backup hotspot.
What to wear
Dress as you would for an in-person interview, top to bottom. Track pants under a formal shirt are a gamble you lose the moment you have to stand up. Plain colours look better on camera than fine stripes or checks, which shimmer.
Live and recorded interviews are different
You'll meet two kinds of video interview, and each needs slightly different preparation.
Live video interviews
In a live interview you're on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet or a similar app with a real person. You can ask them to repeat a question, and the conversation flows as it would in a room.
Two things change: timing and eye contact. Most connections have a small delay, so wait a second after the interviewer stops before you start, or you'll talk over each other. When you speak, look at the camera rather than at their face on screen, because that's what reads as eye contact on their side.
If your video freezes, say so straight away: "Sorry, you froze for a moment. Could you repeat the last part?" Interviewers deal with this every day.
Recorded video interviews
A recorded (one-way) interview has nobody on the other side. A question appears on screen, you get some time to think (often 30 seconds to a couple of minutes), and then the recording starts and runs for a fixed time. A recruiter watches the recordings later.
Freshers tend to find these harder than live interviews. There's no face to react to, and the clock sits there on screen. Four habits make it easier.
First, read the instructions screen to the end. It tells you how long you get to think, how long each answer can run and whether you get retakes. Some platforms allow one or two retakes, some allow none.
Second, plan during the thinking time instead of writing a script. Choose your point and one example, then start speaking.
Third, aim to finish a little before the timer runs out. An answer cut off mid-sentence looks worse than a shorter complete one.
And smile when the recording starts. Talking to nobody feels odd, but on the recording you should look like you're talking to a person.
"Tell me about yourself" turns up in both live and recorded interviews, so read our guide on how a fresher should answer "tell me about yourself". In a recorded round, keep that answer to around 60 to 90 seconds.
How to prepare for a virtual interview by recording yourself
Record yourself answering interview questions on the device you'll use on the day. Nothing else you do will help as much.
Set up exactly as you will for the interview: same room, same lighting, same earphones. Open your phone's camera, or start a video call with only yourself in it. Choose five common questions. Give yourself 30 seconds to think, then answer each one in a single take without stopping.
Watch the recording once with the sound off and notice where you look, whether you fidget, and whether you seem interested. Then play it again as sound only. Listen for filler words ("basically", "like", "actually"), long pauses and answers that wander.
Fix one thing and record again. Take a BSc Computer Science student in Bhopal who does this four times over a week: by the end she can hear the difference herself, and that sticks better than anything someone tells her.
When the answers sound natural, ask a friend to run a live mock over a video call with questions you haven't seen, and to tell you honestly whether the light, sound and eye contact worked.
Plenty of video interviews come after an online aptitude or technical test, so practise that part too, timed, on Interview Prep.
On the day
Restart your device an hour before. Test the camera, mic and link 30 minutes before. Keep a glass of water off-camera, your resume open in another window or printed beside you, and the recruiter's phone number written down in case you can't connect.
Join a live interview three to five minutes early. With a recorded one, start once you're settled rather than the minute the link arrives, unless there's a deadline.
When it's over, wait until you've definitely left the call or the recording has stopped before you relax or say anything.
Practise for the rounds around your video interview with timed tests in Interview Prep.
Frequently asked questions
Is it okay to give a video interview on my phone?
Yes, if you can't get a laptop. Fix the phone sideways (horizontal) on a stand or a stack of books at eye level, plug it in, turn on Do Not Disturb, and test the interview app on the phone the day before.
Should I look at the screen or the camera during a video interview?
Look at the camera while you're speaking, so the interviewer feels you're making eye contact. Look at the screen while they're speaking, so you can read their reactions.
How many retakes do I get in a recorded video interview?
That depends on the company and the platform. Some allow one or two retakes per question, some allow none. The instructions screen tells you before you start, so read it carefully.
Can I keep notes in front of me during an online interview?
A few keywords on a sticky note near the camera are fine. Reading out full answers is a bad idea: your eyes move, your voice goes flat, and interviewers notice.