Video Recorded Interview

[camus12]

Just received notice that I now need to submit a video interview for my application. The questions are pre-recorded and you're to answer them on the spot in front of the webcam. It's like an interview in that you have one chance to hear the questions and then answer immediately, except of course you're talking to your own image in the webcam.

 

This sounds incredibly nerve-wracking to me! They say "The best preparation for the interview is to be able to articulate your background, professional and personal experiences, and reasons for your interest" Has anyone else had to do this? Any tips?

[fuzzylogician]

Wow. That really sounds like a terrible requirement. This is the first time I hear of a faux-interview requirement like this and it's really upsetting! The school gets to look at you in their spare time if/when they so please, and you get suboptimal interview conditions, for obvious reasons. Seems very unfair to the candidates. 

 

Here are some thoughts on how to prepare for this interview, in no particular order:

- Compile a list of likely questions and prepare their answers. Try and get everything you'd like to convey to the adcom into these answers, because no one is going to ask you any follow-up questions on anything interesting that you might say! 

- If the website doesn't specify, I'd contact the school and ask what approximate length they expect for each answer, otherwise it's hard to know how much detail they want and when to stop talking. 

- Look up and read some interview advice on the forum - there have been several posts just in the last few days and there are other older posts. These posts will help you with potential questions, with what to wear, etc. 

- Practice in front of the camera, to get comfortable with the situation of talking to a camera with no one really on the other end. 

- If you need to, prepare postits with key words that you could read without obviously looking away from the camera. Don't put whole texts on there, just some important reminders of things you want to say. 

- If you get very nervous at these things, try and prepare yourself scripted opening sentences for expected answers. I don't recommend doing this for entire answers because it'll sound unnatural, but most people will get more comfortable once they're already talking, so the hard part is getting started.