Episode 96 – How to impress in video interviews, with Paul Bailo

June 2, 2020 Podcast

Hello and welcome to the 96th episode of the UK’s number 1 careers podcast, and I’ve got a cracking show for you today. The graduate job recruitment process is always changing, and a big recent change has been in the exponential rise in the use of video interviews instead of telephone interviews. In this episode, I’m joined by digital interview guru Paul Bailo and we explore everything you need to do to impress in a video interview. We cover why you need to think of yourself as the star of the show in a video interview, and why investing in a few cheap pieces of equipment can make all of the difference. We look at how 85% of a digital interview has nothing to do with what you say, but why you do need to pay close attention to the ‘Triangle of love’. We explore how to do a ‘digital handshake’ in your interview, and the tips and tricks to ensure that you finish the video interview on a high. Stay tuned to the end of the episode as well, as I reveal a brand new service that will be able to help you practice recorded video interviews. No matter where you are on your job search, you are going to have to do video interviews, so make sure you listen to the episode today. As always, a full transcript and all the links from today can be found in the show notes at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/digital.

MORE SPECIFICALLY IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

  • Why you need to think of yourself as the star of the show in a video interview
  • How a few pieces of equipment can make all of the difference
  • How 85% of a digital interview has nothing to do with what you say
  • What the ‘Triangle of love’ is, and why it is so important
  • How to do a ‘digital handshake’ in your interview
  • The body language and non-verbal tips you need to be using
  • How to end a digital interview on a high

SELECTED LINKS INCLUDE:

Transcript Episode 96 – How to impress in video interviews, with Paul Bailo

Announcer: Welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast, your home for weekly information and inspiration to help you get the graduate job of your dreams.

James Curran: Hello and welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast, with your host James Curran. The Graduate Job Podcast is your home for all things related to helping you on your journey to finding that amazing job. Each episode I bring together the best minds in the industry, speaking to leading authors, graduate recruiters and career coaches who bring decades of experience into a byte size show. Put simply, this is the show I wish I had when I graduated.    

And a very warm welcome to the 96th episode of the UK’s number 1 careers podcast, and I’ve got a cracking show for you today. The graduate job recruitment process is always changing, and a big recent change has been in the exponential rise in the use of video interviews instead of telephone interviews. In this episode, I’m joined by digital interview guru Paul Bailo and we explore everything you need to do to impress in a video interview. We cover why you need to think of yourself as the star of the show in a video interview, and why investing in a few cheap pieces of equipment can make all of the difference. We look at how 85% of a digital interview has nothing to do with what you say, but why you do need to pay close attention to the ‘Triangle of love’. We explore how to do a ‘digital handshake’ in your interview, and the tips and tricks to ensure that you finish the video interview on a high. Stay tuned to the end of the episode as well, as I reveal a brand new service that will be able to help you practice recorded video interviews. No matter where you are on your job search, you are going to have to do video interviews, so make sure you listen to the episode today. As always, a full transcript and all the links from today can be found in the show notes at www.graduatejobpodcast.com/digital.

Before we start let me tell you about the brilliant course I’m working on cunningly titled “How to get a graduate job”. This course is packed chock full of decades of experience into one step by step guide of everything you need to do to get a graduate job. There are videos, guides, handouts, cheat sheets, example CVs, example covering letters, example answers to those annoying 200-word competency questions, help with telephone interviews, video interviews. Look if you need to know it to get a graduate job it’s in my course. The course is going live in August, but to be the first to hear about it and get it at a never to be repeated price with special bonuses, head to graduatejobpodcast.com/course and leave me your email. Right, on with the show.

James: I’m very excited to welcome to this show, all the way from the East Coast of the USA, executive of Digital Strategy and Innovation and global author, Paul Bailo. Welcome to the Graduate Job Podcast.

Paul Bailo: Hey James. Thanks for having me.

James: It’s great for you to be able to join us today. We’re going to dive into the detail of one of your recent books, which is the Essential Digital Interview Handbook. But, Paul you’re more than just the author of this one book. Do you maybe want to introduce yourself properly to the listeners with what it is you do?

Paul: Yeah, so Paul Bailo. I have a PhD, MBA, a bunch of other master’s degrees and MBAs. I’m an executive playing in the world of digital strategy, innovation, and data. I teach graduate classes at NYU and also at Columbia University in the masters of applied analytics. The book, The Essential Digital Interview Handbook, is basically on data and data insights, actionable insights when I was writing, working on my PhD.

I thought there was a sort of logic of human behaviour in the digital arena that has never been done before. I noticed that, early on, digital was taking over in terms of the art form for communication. I authored a bunch of white papers, and I realized no one in their right mind would read any of those, so I decided to write a simple, interesting book called The Essential Digital Interview Handbook.

James: Brilliant. It’s a book that we’re going to dive into in detail today. Video interviews were rapidly growing in use anyway, and have really skyrocketed since the Corona pandemic, so it’s nice and timely to get you on the show to talk about your book.

Paul: Yeah, it seems like digital interviews, digital communication was growing massively right before the crisis with the virus, and now it’s just taken over. I just wanted to make sure that we understand when we talk about interviews, it’s not just interviews. It’s all lines of communication during the using of digital channels. What we talked about today could also be used for executive meetings, it could be used for professors, it could be used for people giving keynote speeches. But, today we’re focusing on that specific interview, but there’s a lot of what we’re talking about that a lot of different groups could be using today.

James: Definitely, and if you get these skills right, they’re ones that will be able to go with you throughout your career.

Paul: Exactly.

James: Listeners, the links to all of the show notes today, the links to the book, a full transcript will be in the show notes at graduatejobpodcast.com/digital. If we maybe start and dive straight into the book, what I really liked in the book, Paul, was that you used analogies of show business to describe different topics and ideas, and that was a really nice and simple idea that I could get my head around. I liked, at the beginning, you said how listeners need to realize that they are the stars of the show through a digital interview. Could you maybe start by telling listeners what you meant by that?

Paul: In the research, what seemed to happen is a lot of people that we interviewed and we looked at, they would just basically say, “I have a digital interview,” wake up five minutes before the call, flip open the laptop, and think they’re going to be successful. But, what they quickly need to realize is the fact that they are the star. They need to be thinking like a star, acting like a star. Not like a diva or anything, but think of themselves as a Broadway actor, but you’re not only the Broadway actor. You’re the sound person, you’re the cameraman, you’re the teleprompter, you’re the dress person, you’re the script-writer. You’re everything, all wrapped up in one, but you are the star, and everything else around you in order to have a hit Broadway show, which means you have to be thinking like a Broadway star.

A Broadway star doesn’t just end up on stage. The Broadway star practices, the Broadway star puts on make-up, the Broadway star looks at their costume design, the Broadway star knows where to stand, the Broadway star knows where the mics are, the Broadway star knows where the camera is, the Broadway star knows what the environment is and the background. If you think like a Broadway star, it helps sort of understand how you’re going to be extremely successful with your digital interviews and controlling all that. The only problem is that you have to do all of it. You have to be in charge of the camera, you’re going to have to be in charge of the lighting, you’re going to have to be in charge of the sound, you’re going to have to be in charge of your background.

You are everything and everything, but the main focus is you, and we have to keep that as a critical component here. It is all about you, and everything a Broadway star would do, you have to do in order to be successful at your digital interviews.

James: I think that’s a really important mind-set switch to take is just so that listeners know that they need to take responsibility for giving a great performance of all aspects of it: as you said, the equipment, the lighting, all the different aspects that we’ll talk about today.

Paul: Absolutely. The key is a Broadway actress or actor doesn’t just show up on the stage. They prepare. When you do your digital interviews, you have to prepare. First of all, you have to make sure you have the right camera. The critical piece with the camera is that clean the lens. I was just watching, in the United States, there’s this show called CNN. It’s a major news show, and the interesting thing is everyone’s doing — their guest speakers are at home, and this lady was a world-renowned expert on viruses. The only problem was is she didn’t clean the lens, so it was sort of like there was a piece of dust always covering her face.

You have to prepare, as a Broadway actor or actress, and the first thing you have to make sure you have is a camera: a camera that has a lens that’s clean, a camera that is high definition, a camera that is at the right angle. We talk about cameras. You want to make sure that the camera angle is eye-to-eye. You never want to be looking down at the camera. That indicates to the hiring manager that you’re dominant. You don’t want to look up at the camera because that shows that you’re subservient. You want to be looking at that camera eye-to-eye. Just like a Broadway show, you want to look straight at your audience.

The camera is critical, but the most critical piece is having eye contact with that camera, and you want to make sure you learn that behaviour. When you start preparing, you want to make sure that you have your script, just like a regular Broadway actor or actress. Your script of what you want to talk about could be easily posted behind the camera when you’re doing your digital interviews. If they’re asserting key points or themes that you want to present during your digital interview, post it right behind the camera at eye levels so when you’re looking at the camera, the hiring manager realizes you’re looking at him or her, but you could also glance at all the critical points that you plan to make during that interview, and that’s really like your script.

Sometimes, people do get a little bit nervous when they’re doing their digital interviews because it is a little unusual to be always looking at the camera as you’re talking to this person, so sometimes it’s a little awkward for people, and they do get nervous. If you could have all your critical points right behind you and the camera hanging on your wall or hanging on the sides of your computer, that’s a great way to actually have your script.

James: Completely agree, and that’s one of the benefits of being able to do a video interview is that, in a face-to-face, interview, you can’t just spread your notes out on the table in front of you. It’s not going to go down too well with the person who’s interviewing you. With a digital interview, you can — as you said, if you do it well and you do it slightly just eye level behind the camera, it’s something you can get away with.

Sticking with the technology, then, at the beginning, most people will have some form of camera embedded in their laptop or in their tablet. Would you suggest that people invest in a decent quality webcam?

Paul: I would, and I know people don’t want to spend a lot of money, but I think when you go for an interview, depending on the role, you have to buy a new suit, or a new jacket, or a new tie. Webcam cameras are relatively inexpensive. My suggestion to get peak performance would be is to get an HD type of camera. Logitech makes pretty good cameras, but also not just the camera, but get the tripod, because the tripod will help you get you at that right level.

If you don’t want to spend money on the webcam camera and the tripod, and you have your laptop camera, what you could do is put books underneath that, make sure the little camera is clean, but get that camera and your laptop eye-level. You may want to boost it up, but the preference is, and based off of the research, it’s better to have a high-definition camera with a tripod that allows you to really get that eye level really nice and unique.

James: Yeah, and as you said, the price of this tech isn’t very much. For 30 or 40 pounds, you could get a top-of-the-range high-definition webcam, so it’s not a huge investment, and it’s something that you will be using a lot, going forward, as well.

Paul: Exactly, so it’s not just for the interview. You could use it all the time, so it’s actually worth investing in in terms of the camera. The other thing that, I think, and I use all the time, personally — everything I’m recommending here, I’ve done the research. There’s no sponsorship with any of these companies, and everything that I wrote in the book is everything I’d personally buy and I use today. For sound, in the research, I found the best mic to be is, from a company called Blue, and they make a snowball Blue mic.

Blue is a company that came out of the music industry, and they build high-quality music sound equipment, but they make an unbelievable mic that has three different levels, and there is a level specifically made for interviewing. You get this from Amazon, but the quality is extremely crisp. It also comes with a really cool stand that has rubber bands. It’s a little something out of Star Wars or something. It looks like an old RCA radio, so if you get it with the stand and everything, people, whoever comes into your office or sees this, they’d be like, “What is that?” but it looks really cool, but the sound quality is off the charts, and that’s relatively inexpensive. You can get the snowball Blue mic and the stand for not too much, but once again, you can use it all the time, and people will notice that sound quality.

James: Yeah, I podcast with the Blue Yeti microphone, which is really good, so yeah definitely recommend Blue as top quality.

Paul: Yeah, top quality, once again to your point, it’s not just for the interview. You could keep using this throughout your daily lives when you’re talking to people or talking to your friends, but the camera is critical, the sound is critical. Then, lighting, you have to have, really, three lights, because a lot of people basically go in their office, or go into their room, and they have ceiling light. But, the only problem with that is that light shines down on your face and it creates shadows.

What you can do, relatively cheap again, go to Home Depot, or also in Amazon, they sell them with little stands, and little umbrella lights for 20 US dollars or 25 US dollars is three stands. You’d have one to the right, one to the left of you, one in the back. You really want this natural lighting around you so that you could see. They could see you in those shadows. It’s almost like in the United States, when you were in elementary school, they would take a yearly photograph of you, and what you’d have is the person there, and they’d have these lights with the little photographic umbrellas. You want to have a light to the right focusing on the right side of your face, your left side of your face, and a backlighting so that your back is illuminated.

The most critical piece of this whole stage environment or arena that you’re creating is also if you can invest in a piece of seamless paper. Once again, you can get huge rolls of this. Seamless paper is paper that’s used by professional photographers, and it’s relatively inexpensive, and it really does an unbelievable job of refocusing that light, it doesn’t shine or anything. It’s called “seamless paper“, and you’re really creating that environment of you being that star for your digital interviews because you have the camera, you have your sound, you have your lights, you have your seamless paper, and the seamless paper should be either a blue marble or a black marble. No fancy colours or pictures in the background. You’ll have your script behind the camera, and as you could see, we built this whole sound stage, Broadway stage for you: lights, camera, action, with your script in the back.

James: Amazing, and if you did that, you’d be in the top less than 1% of people who put that level of effort in, which is immediately going to make you stand out, especially when people are watching hundreds of these interviews and they see one where you can tell that someone’s put some thought and energy into it, just really stand out from the crowd.

Paul: Absolutely, because my research indicates 85% of a digital interview has nothing to do with what you say. It’s how you look, which is just how a Broadway star goes in, and then when the curtains open up, you’re like, “Wow,” and that wow effect is having the right lighting, having the right camera, having the right sound, having the right background.

I cannot tell you how many people, after regular meetings that I’ve had, not even interviews, but meetings that I just have, having the camera, having the sound, having the background, having the correct lighting, they all just say, “Wow, that’s real impressive?” I don’t even have to open my mouth to say anything because most people are basically just waiting up, turning on their laptops, and whatever’s the background is the background.

I know for a fact when I’m watching the news, and I see people who are being interviewed from their houses, and people are like, “Wow, let me film this in my library,” and when they do this, and I’m watching them on TV, I am not listening to them or watching them. What I naturally do is try to figure out what books they have in their library, right? It’s a complete distraction.

The critical piece to your digital interviews is what I call the “triangle of love”, and the triangle of love is from the camera angle from your right shoulder to your left shoulder to the top of your head. That’s where 85 to 90 per cent of the communication happens. The rest of it is noise. You want to make sure that your head and shoulders are really just that focal piece that’s consuming that angle. You also want to, from a behavioural standpoint of view, you want to sort of move forward. You don’t want to stick your whole face into the camera, but you want to lean in a bit, right? That’s a human behaviour mannerism that says, “Wow, you’re interested in this job. Wow, you’re interested in what I’m saying. Wow, you’re really attentive.”

The other thing in your stage is to make sure that you have a nice-looking chair because the chair is what’s also going to be showing up on the Broadway shoe. You want to make sure you don’t have a chair that forces you to rock back and forth or swivel, but a nice chair that looks professional. It’s part of your screen setup. It’s part of the stage setup. This environment that you’re creating allows you to project professionalism.

When the interview starts, I don’t want you to be waving to people like you’re in Disney World and waving to the camera. What I’d like you to do is just bow your head 10 degrees, and what we’ve identified is the fact that when you bow your head 10 degrees, the other person will bow their head 10 degrees most of the time. That is called the “digital handshake”. It’s not waving your hand like the prince or princess. It’s bowing your head not like a complete bow in Japan, but a 10-degree bow of your head is how you shake hands in the digital interview.

You have to not only create the stage with the sound, the lighting, the background. You also have to create your script, but you also have to make sure you have the correct digital interview mannerisms that reflect that you’re a professional person highly interested in this job. It’s no frowning, no shaking or rocking on your chair like Mick Jagger, leaning into the camera, making sure you have eye contact with that camera, making sure that you have all your notes prepared behind the camera, and most importantly, make sure you have the right wardrobe. Make sure that you brushed your teeth, make sure you combed your hair. Maybe you have grease on your face, maybe you need a little bit of makeup, and make sure your costume design doesn’t impact the lighting.

In other words, if you wear a lot of jewellery and you now have three lights on you because you’re the Broadway star, that jewellery may be shining, so you don’t want a lot of bling during your digital interviews that could distract the hiring manager from looking at and hearing you as you’re speaking about your great background. Once again, it’s this whole concept of being a movie star, being a Broadway actor or actress. It’s all about creating that ambience of, “Wow, this person is the perfect person for this job.” You don’t even have to say anything yet. We haven’t even talked about what to say. It’s just creating that environment.

James: So much brilliant advice, and the chair, I find, is such a big one. With the clients I coach, we’ll do mock interviews, and you often find out that there’s a chair that you didn’t think was very squeaky actually becomes very squeaky when people are under pressure and rocking more than they might do. It’s just practicing and finding these things out so that you can get rid of them before the interview itself.

Paul: Exactly, and that’s when people get nervous. The other thing I had problems with is when people do get nervous, they actually have a dry voice. What we recommend is actually taking a teaspoon of honey before you start your digital interview. It soothes your whole throat. In your preparation, just take that honey, and it just relaxes you.

James: You talked there about making sure you’re not doing anything to distract or detract from the interview itself. In terms of what people wear, are there any particular colours that people should err to or from?

Paul: Great question. It all depends on the tone of the person’s skin. You want to make sure, if you have a round face, you want to make sure you have the right collar that goes with it. If you look really good in red, you may not look really good in red during the digital interview. You really want to be playing to your strengths what you’ll really look good in, colours that work for you. I like dark blue and blacks, neutral colours. I don’t like the bold colours, because you may look great in this in a face-to-face interview. It may not look that good with all the lighting through a digital channel.

You’re going to have to practice and review, maybe even set it up, record yourself in Zoom or Skype, and then really see how you look. But, it’s really you got to get the right colour that’s not distracting, so if you’re wearing a blouse and the blouse is really colourful and everything, you want to make sure it’s not overpowering with those colours, because then that person will be paying attention to the colours of your blouse, or your suit, or your dress, and not really what you’re saying and not how your facial features. You want to really be careful with the colours you’re wearing and also the jewellery you’re wearing, like we said. The only thing that matters is that triangle of love. It’s the only thing that really matters.

Once again, the research is indicating 85 to 90 per cent of this is all about look. If you get the right background with the right lighting, wear the right clothing, not these crazy colours, but natural professional colours, you should be in really good shape without even saying anything.

James: Sticking with the non-verbal and body language, any top tips for making sure you get the right balance with body language? Not too much movement, but making sure you look alive?

Paul: Yes, that’s a great question. One is obviously no rocking back and forth, lean in, don’t be wandering your eyes. The most critical piece to this is not looking around the room distracted. Now, you may not be distracted, but you may be looking down as opposed to looking in that camera. The critical piece here is to make sure your body mannerism is focused and that you’re not slouching in your chair, and you’re not rocking back and forth, and you’re not playing with anything in your hands. The full attention should be on that camera, and you have to constantly be thinking like you’re a movie star, you’re a Broadway actor or actress, and you want to make sure that you are that focused, and you have to keep remembering that you’re on camera.

People sometimes forget they’re on camera, so they do things that they normally shouldn’t be doing. They may be fiddling, they may be looking around, touching things on their desk or something. Just stay still. The only thing that matters is the focus of that triangle of love: top of your head, to the right shoulder, to your left shoulder. That’s what you want to be focusing in on.

James: I couldn’t believe how you mentioned in your book that you’ve interviewed some people who were eating at the time. Just blew my mind.

Paul: Yeah, so you don’t want to have any popcorn or food in your mouth as you’re doing your digital interviews. You also don’t want to have any noise or background. Sometimes, in our research, we’ve seen people have birds, parakeets, and it was so weird. They’ve done all this work, and all of a sudden, you hear — the parrot was taught to say, “More food, more food, more food,” and in the background of the digital interview, you’re like, “Who’s saying, ‘More food, more food, more food’?” and the person didn’t realize the parrot was even making these noises because this person was so familiar with it. This is just normal life for them.

The critical pieces is really to make sure, when you have a digital interview, your wife, your husband, your boyfriend, your girlfriend, the dog, the cat, the UPS, the FedEx person is nowhere to be seen, no sounds. It’s almost having a, once again, Broadway show, and then all of a sudden, there’s a big noise outside or something. It’s a distraction. No noise whatsoever. Pure silence in your sound room, in your studio room. You’re the Broadway star. It’s all about you. No noise, no distractions. Just you and the hiring manager. Critical pieces.

James: That’s such good advice. I’m interested to pick your brains on another aspect of digital interviews, which is group digital interviews. Here in the UK, for the graduate recruitment process, the final stage is normally a face-to-face assessment centre where the candidates will get together and do a group exercise together. But, due to the current COVID situation, recruiters are taking all of the stages online. One stage is the group interviews. It’s a remote digital interview with everybody dialling in. Any advice you’d give people on how they can navigate this? Because, it’s difficult enough when you’re all sat around a table, but when you’re all dialling in remotely and you can see five, six faces around the table, how can people perform well in a situation like this without talking over each other or just not saying anything at all?

Paul: That’s a great question. Group interviews are very difficult. The first thing I would do is just take a deep breath. The same thing that we’ve been talking about still holds true about the lighting, and the camera, the background, no noise, and the mannerism. The critical difference is that you should call the person’s name when you’re referring to them, or when you’re talking to them. In other words, it may be, “Anthony, great question,” so there’s no confusion. What you don’t want to do is just talk to the camera, to a group of people. If someone asked you a question, you want to just randomly give it to the whole group.

You want to try to make contact with each person in that group in that arena. In other words, if there’s five people interviewing there with you, you want to try to make five emotional contacts with each person. The best way to do this is, during the introduction, each person you should bow your head 10 degrees when that person’s name is mentioned. “Oh Mary, very nice to meet you,” bow a little bit. “James, very nice to meet you,” a little bow. Then, during that conversation, so there isn’t any confusion about who you’re directing that response to, if there’s someone from finance or someone from marketing, or someone from legal, you want to make sure that that person is the person you’re directing the question and responses to.

Using a person’s name not only helps build that relationship, it helps focus that digital interview directly to that person. But, they are really tough because I could tell you right now, the research has shown that the hiring group is very poor at orchestrating who’s asking the questions and then how that candidate responds. It’s a little bit tricky, so what we recommend is the fact that you may want to take control of that interview. In other words, lay out the ground rules in the beginning. You may say, “I know these five wonderful executives in the digital interview today. How would you like me to proceed? Do you want me to go individually, across the board, or who will be asking the questions?”

You may want to start getting the rules of engagement before you actually get into the actual interview, but they are really tricky. It’s not because of the candidate. It’s because most people on the other side doing the hiring are not well-orchestrated or have determined how they’re actually going to proceed with their digital interviews in terms of questions and responses.

James: That’s excellent advice there. One maybe final question before we move to the weekly staple questions. What advice would you give people, interview’s gone well, how can they finish it and close out on a high note?

Paul: Great question. The way you want to close is after you have your question and answer, at the very end, you want to say thank you, you want to ask for next steps, and you want to be very clear and say, “I want the position.” That’s the first piece of this. It’s, “Thank you. Thank you for your time and consideration. What are the next steps?” and let them know they’re highly interested, because my research indicates that after the digital interview, most hiring managers only remember the beginning and the very end, but they really remember the very end more than they remember the beginning, and they usually always are very fuzzy about the middle.

If the last thing you could say is, “I want this job,” there’s a high probability that they will remember that, “Joseph wants the job, Paul wants the job,” so those last words are critical. Then, when it’s actually over, sit down and just wait. Let the hiring manager close their video first. Let them close their sound first because what we’ve noticed is there’s a high percentage of people who forget to close either the video, camera piece, or the audio piece. If you’re just waiting there, you might be able to hear a little bit of a titbit of what they’re thinking about you, unbeknownst to them, and you just want to take a moment and wait. Let them turn off their camera first, take a deep breath, still stay in actor/actress mode, wait a minute or two, and then shut down your camera, shut down your audio, and confirm everything’s shut down, and then take a piece of paper and pencil, and write down what worked for you, and write down what didn’t work for you so that next time you’ll be ready again.

James: That advice at the end is so powerful, and you forget so quickly the key things that you might have learned during the interview, so you do really need to do it when it’s fresh in your brain, and the best time to do it. Great advice about making sure everything is disconnected. It’s caught out a few politicians in the time when people who think they’re not mic’ed up, and they still are. Make sure that doesn’t happen to you, so thank you, Paul. Some very brilliant, high-quality advice there that’s really going to help people with virtual interviews. As we move then to the weekly staple questions, first question for you. What one book would you recommend that listeners should read?

Paul: The book that I read personally, I always refer back to this book, so this isn’t a book you just read. This is a book that you’re always going to keep and go back to. The book that I always go back to is a book by Marcus Aurelius. It’s the Memoirs of Marcus Aurelius, and it’s hard to say it’s actually a book. It’s a book of his memoirs throughout his reign as Emperor of Rome, and through his leadership in battle. There are critical pieces in that memoir book that will resonate with you and make you not only a better person, but a better interviewer, and also change your life if you just read a few excerpts of his book and his memoirs. It will probably resonate with most of your listeners here. I think it’s actually one of the best books ever written. Once again, it’s a book. It’s called Memoirs of Marcus Aurelius, and it’s his writings throughout his life that have been translated into many different languages. It’s about leadership, it’s about morality, it’s about trust, and it really resonates with people throughout their lives. It does with me.

James: Brilliant, and that will be linked to in the show notes at graduatejobpodcast.com/digital. It just goes to show that good advice, even when it’s 2,000 years is still just as relevant now as it was back in 140 AD or whenever it was that he wrote it. Top recommendation there. The next question is what one website or internet resource would you point listeners to?

Paul: All the stuff that we’ve talked about on phone interviewing or digital interviewing, you could go to the phoneinterviewpro.com. There’s a lot of good content there about what you need to do in terms of job search and information. The other thing to do, really, and I know people looking for work don’t have a lot of money. If you do a search on the Essential Digital Interview Handbook, there are a lot of articles I’ve wrote that could really — you don’t have to go out and buy the book, but don’t tell my publisher I said that.

There’s a lot of interesting articles that you could — because people are looking for work, and if you don’t have a lot of money, I understand that completely, but there’s some really good articles that are out there in relationship to the Essential Digital Interview Handbook, and it’s also the books in most libraries. But, if you go to — there’s an interesting articles in Forbes and Fortune about the book and Bloomberg, so I would just do a search on the Essential Digital Interview Handbook, and you could get some really good titbits from some of those websites.

James: Excellent, and I will dig those links out and, again, put them in the show notes for you.

Paul: Perfect.

James: Final question then, today, Paul. What one tip would you give listeners that they can implement today to help them on their job search?

Paul: Believe in yourself. Start thinking that no matter how bad you think it may be, the universe is not made for you to fail. The universe is made for you to be extremely successful. I guarantee that all your listeners will get a job. It’s just a matter of when, where, and how much. What I would do is just look in that mirror every day and just say, “You are great, you are fabulous, you would be very well-rewarded for your hard work, and you will get the job that you want. You just have to stick with it.”

That’s why I recommended the Marcus Aurelius book because that will help you when you’re feeling a little bit down, that maybe you don’t have the drive you want, that you’ve been rejected multiple times. Don’t worry about it. You’re going to get a job, guaranteed. Guaranteed, you’re going to get a job. It’s a matter of when, where, and how much.

James: Paul, inspirational note there for us to finish on today. What is the best way that listeners can find out more about you and the work that you do?

Paul: I would just go to phoneinterviewpro.com. It’s called phoneinterviewpro.com. There’s information on the Essential Digital Interview Handbook. It’s a great website for resources, and once again, everything that we spoke about today is based off of data and actionable insights. It’s not opinion, it’s not perception. It’s fact. Everything we talked about today is what the data has said works.

James: Excellent. Paul, thank you so much for appearing on the Graduate Job Podcast.

Paul: Love to be here. Thank you.

James: Many thanks to Paul for his time today, so many hints and tips for you to think about to improve your performance in digital video interviews. Digital video interviews aren’t going away, so you need to ensure that you know how to do them, and more importantly, to do them well. As part of this I’m pleased to announce a new service to help you practice video interviews. Using the exact same recorded video interview software which the graduate recruiters use, you will be able to practice an interview and then get feedback from me. How it works is, using my web based software you will record a video interview from the comfort of your house, then crucially we will go through it together, and analyse and feedback on how you answered the questions, and how you came across in terms of all of the points that Paul mentioned today. To make it as realistic as possible, I will tailor the questions specifically to the company and the stage of the application process you are at, so that each practice is unique. For more details check out http://www.graduatejobpodcast.com/videointerview. Practice makes perfect, so don’t leave anything to chance as you apply for your dream graduate job. You don’t want to be heading into the video interview for the first time without having ever practiced one before. Ok, that is the end of episode 96, I hope you enjoyed the episode today, but more importantly, I hope you use it, and apply it. See you next week.