These 7 Tips Can Save Your Online Interview (part II)
If you haven’t read the previous article, start there.
Tip #5 — Prepare Your Drawing Board 📝
In many interviews, we used to have a paper and a pencil, or a whiteboard, to share our thoughts. Be it a technical design, a screen wireframe or a simple workflow diagram. You want to have a tool that you can use to draw on your screen and share it with the interviewer. So, find a tool you like, and practice it. This way you can concentrate on talking about the design during the interview, instead of wrestling with a tool.
I can recommend Excalidraw. It is very easy to use, doesn’t need to be installed or logged-in, and you can create a shared session to share with the interviewer. Very easy to learn and to use, with easy keyboard shortcuts.
There are some common questions about design, like “describe the design of a project you worked on”. I think it is fair to prepare the designs of such projects in advance. Just make sure you draw them on your own, and don’t reuse something that you’re not 100% sure you can explain.
Tip #6 — Be Ready To Share Your Screen 🖥
In most of the technical / practical interviews, you will be asked to showcase how you actually do some work. Be it writing code or creating a user experience. Be ready to do it.
For coding, have your favorite IDE (Integrated Development Environment) open with a clean project, so you can start coding right away. If you’re a designer, have your AdobeXD / Sketch / Balsamiq open and ready to roll.
You may also want to search the web while sharing your screen. Make sure you have a clean browser window — close tabs or open a new browser window, so you won’t get confused between other tabs. Sounds trivial, but believe me I saw some odd stuff.
Tip #7 — Join On Time ⏰
As always, you don’t want to be late for your interview. Nowadays, you don’t need to drive, find parking, find the entrance to the building etc. But you do need to do some prep, so don’t connect at the last moment.
Click the link of the video conference in advance. Try doing it the night before the interview, or at least half an hour in advance. Make sure you have the software installed if needed, log-in, tune it, and test your mic and camera. If possible, change the virtual background as suggested above.
When the time arrives, join a minute or two before the call. This will help you fix any last-minute issues, and make sure you’re waiting for the interviewer and not vice versa.
Conclusion
As always, think about the user experience. In this case, the users are the interviewers. So do your best to make sure they have a great experience. Or at least, that the setting doesn’t harm their evaluation of your capabilities. With these tips, maybe it can influence their evaluation, in a positive way, setting you apart from other interviewers.
If you have more tips, please do share them in the comments, so others can learn too.
Good luck with your job search!
