Video Interview Examples

What is a video interview? This is where you meet with your candidates virtually.

Often the need for this type of interview begins when a company shifts to a remote work environment and at first, the hiring manager will use Skype, FaceTime, or even Google Hangouts to interview candidates for open roles.

As the number of open roles in a given company grows, hiring managers are forced to combine video interview tools with ATS, scheduling, and assessment tools and realize that they're overwhelmed with platforms that don't integrate well with one another.

Enter interview intelligence platforms.

Interview intelligence software like Pillar allows you to manage the entire process in one place. This means that you can easily connect with candidates, screen them, send them assessments, integrate scheduling, and then invite them to a video interview all within the same platform.

What's more, you can use video interview intelligence to get an accurate read on candidates.

This is done by analyzing their nonverbal cues such as their body language, facial expressions, and voice. The software will also take into account the content of their answers and how they match up with the job requirements.

When you're conducting a virtual interview there are a few things to keep in mind.

Virtual Interview Tips: How to Prepare for a Virtual Interview.

1. Make sure you're in a quiet place with good lighting.
2. Pay attention to your body language - candidates will see this clearly.
3. Do your research on the candidate and don't be afraid to ask questions.
4. Be prepared to answer questions about your company, team, role details, and personal experience.
5. Take your time - remember, this is being recorded.

Hypothetically, let's say that you're interviewing candidates for an open role.

During the interview, you want to ask candidates the same questions to assess their hard skills, soft skills, and past performance to be sure that they can competently perform if hired.

Virtual interview example questions for a salesperson role might be:-What experience do you have with selling SaaS products?

-What are some of the deals you've closed?
-How do you approach new prospects?
-What do you think makes you successful in sales?
-How do you deal with objections?
-Can you give me an example of a time when you went above and beyond for a client?
-What do you think the three most important skills are for success in sales?

Video interview software will allow you to turn these questions into prompts that can be asked of each candidate.

You can also add follow-up questions and rate each candidate's answers on a scale of 1-5. This way you can compare candidates side-by-side to see who is the best fit for the role.

Once you've decided on your candidate, you can use the video interview platform to send them a job offer.

You can also use the software to keep track of your hiring progress and performance over time. This is done by tracking your time-to-hire, quality-of-hire, and cost-per-hire metrics.

A great virtual interview tip for employers looking to use video interview software is to check out the different features each platform offers.

Some video interview platforms will provide you with the ability to do a live video interview while others may only offer recorded interviews.

It's important to find a platform that offers the features that you need so that you can make the most out of your investment.

Video Interview Questions
and Answers

If you're currently building out a virtual interview process, we have a great ebook you can download to serve as your guide.

It will show you how to build an effective, efficient, and equitable hiring process.

We talked a bit about how to prepare for a video interview in the first section. But, we wanted to go a bit more in-depth here and give you some specific tips on how to make sure you're nailing your video interviews and creating a fantastic candidate experience.

If we begin with the end in mind, the goal of any job interview is to gather enough information about the candidate to make an informed hiring decision.

Step one is understanding what a great employee avatar looks like. Begin by working alongside your team leaders to create a list of characteristics and skills required to perform well in the role, and fit the team, and company culture.

Then, turn that list into a series of semi-structured questions to ask in the interview.

Instead of asking questions like, "tell me about yourself," you want to focus on questions that will assess a candidate's ability to do the job.3 commonly asked video interview questions and answers for salespeople are:

1. Can you tell me about a time when you had to sell a product or service that was new to the market? How did you approach educating prospects?
2. What was the most challenging sale that you closed? Tell me about the obstacles you faced on the customer journey.
3. How do you approach new prospects? Can you give me an example of the outreach strategy that you'd use to reach our ICP?

The answers to these 3 questions will quickly make you aware if someone's prospecting strategy will fit your desired customer base.

We have quite a few resources available as you structure your interview questions:

‍This article was specifically written with manager candidate’s interview questions in mind, but feel free to connect with someone on the Pillar team or check out pillar.hr for many more resources on the topic.

Once your list of questions is created, define what your interview process looks like. What are the required steps?

We recommend a 6 step process:
1. Phone Screening
2. First Interview
3. Second Interview
4. Task or a Video Assessment Interview
5. Final Stage
6. Reference Check

Let the interviews commence!

Online Interview Examples

We've covered quite a few virtual interview questions to ask candidates in the last two sections, but let's talk about the differences between online and face-to-face interviews.

In online interview examples, questions will be more role-focused.

Since most online interviews are with remote companies a candidate's ability to show competence in the areas required to succeed in a remote work environment is essential.

You may want to focus on questions related to:
Virtual Communication Skills
Proactivity and Self-Motivation
Ability to Handle Feedback
Flexibility and Adaptability

5 sample interview questions and answers for remote workers are:
1. How do you stay organized and on track when working remotely? Can you give me an example of a time when you had to manage multiple deadlines?
2. What tools or methods do you use to stay in touch with your team members? In a perfect world how often do you communicate with them?
3. We're a remote company, and sometimes things happen that are out of our control. How do you handle shifts in focus, change, and unexpected obstacles?
4. Can you share a time when you had to give or receive feedback virtually? How did you handle it?
5. What tools do you use to keep yourself accountable and on task when working from home? How has your approach changed since you began working remotely?

Asking these questions will help you create context for the required skills needed and assess how the candidate would perform in a remote work environment.

Remote or virtual interviews will differ from a face-to-face interview in several ways.

The most obvious is that you will not be able to read body language as easily in a virtual interview. This can be both a good and bad thing.

On the plus side, the remote interviews eliminate distractions and include people who can't travel a great distance to be there face-to-face.

Face-to-face interviews have several upsides as well.

You'll be able to build rapport more easily and get a feel for the person's energy and how they interact in person.

You can also show off your company culture if you choose to do the interview on-site.

This means giving tours, showing workstations, and introducing the candidate to employees they may be working with.

The bottom line is that each interview style has its pros and cons. As the hiring manager, you'll be tasked with implementing company hiring procedures, so it's important to understand the different types of interviews and how to conduct them.

We recommend using tools like interview intelligence software to increase your interview efficiency while eliminating opportunities for unconscious bias.

Pillar created interview intelligence software with hiring managers in mind. It's an AI-driven platform that analyzes both the content of your questions and the responses given to identify top talent allowing you to make objective hiring decisions fast.

Best of all, it saves users hiring 4-5 new employees per month around 250 hours per year.

‍Schedule a demo to see how much time we can save you, today!

Video Interview Examples

Great teams start with great interviews.