With the majority of interviews being conducted online right now, it has become increasingly important to have masterful interview skills to edge out the competition. Luckily, in the modern age, there are a variety of ways to conduct interview practice online to ensure that you fire up your webcam or walk into your interview or ready to crush it!
Just like when you visit the gym to train to gain strength, you can also train those interviewing muscles to learn how to let yourself shine in interviews. So how do you get a personal trainer and get jacked interviewing muscles? Well, you can try out hiring an amazing interviewing coach for the small cost of your entire life’s savings (we’ll get to that later). Or, you can have a go at using some other cool online interview practice tools to save you some coin so you can celebrate after you get your nice offer! Here’s a couple of online interview practice options to consider before your big day.
Before Getting Started
Interviewing face-to-face with someone is an entirely different ball game than connecting with them over the phone. The onsite or video interview presents an entirely different format, where you’re now being judged on visual cues like your body language, confidence, and the level of eye contact that you’re maintaining. You also can’t rely on having a set of materials around you, like your computer and your interview study guide. Don’t forget to dress to impress; you’re in the big time now so you can’t get away with the gym shorts and sweatshirt look that you used to ace your phone interview. Last but not least, be on time!
Option 1: Doing an Online Mock Video Interview With Friends or Family
This is the vintage method to shake the rust off of those interview skills! Using a friend, colleague, or family member to practice a mock interview is the oldest and most popular method in the book. It’s a great way to put yourself in the setting and mindset of being interviewed, without the high stakes of talking to the actual hiring manager. Connecting with a person gives you the chance to practice your newly polished answers and ask your interviewer questions that you prepared beforehand. Unfortunately, this route comes with a big roadblock which is bias. It’s pretty unlikely that you’ll get a completely unbiased assessment of your practice interview from the friend or family member that conducted the interview. Getting great feedback is awesome, but you need to be 100% certain that you’re receiving accurate feedback.
If you do go with this option make sure that your interview practice buddy isn’t afraid to give you the cold hard facts. You don’t want to be flying into your next interview thinking that your answers are perfect, only to find out in the post-interview feedback that they need some work.
Simulate your next interview
Prepare for the questions that are really going to be asked in your next interview.
Option 2: Hiring an Online Interview Coach
Interview coaches have probably been around since the invention of formal job interviews. Now, I’m no anthropologist but I’m sure you can find traces of early civilization folks in business casual attire meeting with their interview coach to land their dream “Senior Operations Manager, Hunter Division” role.
Unfortunately, in this day and age, interview coaches will cost you a pretty penny. That figure is actually around 200 bucks an hour to be specific. There’s no denying that utilizing an interview coach can be incredibly effective. The opportunity to practice with someone in your industry and get clear feedback from them is invaluable. However, chances are you’ll need multiple sessions with your coach which can add up to quite the hefty sum.
Option 3: Interview School!
Interview School is an online mock interview practice tool that harnesses the power of Artificial Intelligence to analyze things like your confidence, tone, answer duration, and the content of your answer. Gone are the days of scheduling practice interviews with a friend 2 weeks in advance. Interview School is there when you need interview practice and feedback 24/7. You can use its question sets built from real interviews, which are made from actual questions reported from previous candidates for the same position. Or, you can even build out your own question sets and practice them. Need to practice custom-made questions at midnight before your big job interview? Check. Sitting in the rideshare car on your way into the office before your scheduled time? You might annoy your driver or fellow passengers, but yeah why not!
Option 4: Piecing Together Your Own Interview Tool
You can definitely make your own jury-rigged interview practice tool, if you’re really into that DIY lifestyle. For example, you can use an online flashcard builder like Quizlet, then build out your interview questions one-by-one. You could even record yourself answering those interview questions with your smartphone or webcam. Then, you could gather and watch back the recordings to grade your interview performance. The plus is that it’s free!
There are quite a few downsides to this approach, however. First off, you need to research questions then build out question sets for each of your various interviews. Second, you need to spend time watching all of your recordings back, which can be incredibly time-consuming. And finally, you need to critique your own performance, again, which can be quite challenging and filled with uncertainty.
Option 5: Big Interview
BigInterview is an online interview tool that bundles video lessons and practice tools to help you prepare for job interviews. It relies on a curriculum made up of video and text-based lessons, teaching you how to answer classic behavioral questions. You can also practice within the platform by recording yourself answering those questions.
Unfortunately, Big Interview doesn’t provide any feedback on your online practice mock interview. You’ll be back to the drawing board asking friends or family to critique your practice interview performance. While the in-depth training is helpful, many interviews these days move far beyond the realm of classic questions. You need to make sure that you’re ready to tackle job-specific material in addition to behavioral and situational interview questions.
Final Thoughts:
Start Practicing Interview Questions Now!
According to Glassdoor, every corporate job attracts 250 applicants on average. Gain an edge over these other applicants by learning from previous interviewees.
Let your confidence and preparation carry you to success! With most interviews being conducted online, being able to crush online video interviews will be key. Check out Interview School for the best tool out there (completely unbiased)!
