During this time of social distancing, our clients are conducting video interviews instead of meeting candidates in-person. So here are a few tips for a productive video interview.

If you are an employer scheduling the interview, we recommend planning an extra 5-10 minutes at the beginning of the call to test technology and work out any kinks. You might also want to offer alternate times (i.e., after your kids are asleep).

For candidates, best practices include:

As a completely virtual company (we've never had an office) we are often asked, "Which provider do you use for video conferencing?"

And our answer is, "Several of them."

Because we like having options. And that's true now more than ever as some conferencing providers are getting overwhelmed. Redundancy is comforting. We're scheduling our calls with a backup plan now.

In late-2018, we made the leap to a new file management system, Google Suite, and Office 365 - including the most transformative element: Microsoft Teams. Now 16 months later, we cannot imagine life without Teams.

We've been getting requests from organizations who are just now migrating to Teams so we created a short video to illustrate our approach:

Here are some of the insights we learned along the way:

In any business career there will be lots of decisions: good, bad and ugly. Kathy Caprino, writing for Forbes, asserts that good decisions have noticeable traits in common. And the reverse is also true.

I’ve seen careers stalled and sometimes ended by someone’s inability to make a clean apology. Here is some great advice about apologies from Connie Dieken, writing for The Huffington Post.  “An effective apology can influence others, mitigate damage and maybe even bolster your credibility in the long run,” she writes.

Lot of us grew up believing that if you just do good work, the work will speak for itself. That’s one of those beliefs that is true only if your supervisors are paying attention. When there is a lot going on, management probably won’t notice good work unless you speak for it. The further up you go in any organization, the work stops speaking for itself. You have to speak for the work.  So, what’s an effective approach to speaking for the work?, asks executive coach and author Scott Eblin.  He offers five road-tested steps that most senior execs appreciate:

This is a practical article about survival.  It’s about what to do if you are in a job you actively dislike — perhaps hate — but for whatever reason, you can’t quit and walk away.  There are bills to pay and no new job beckoning.  So you’re stuck.

Looking for a new job is not much fun and is seldom easy.  But attitude matters a lot, and it’s important to keep your spirits up.  Priscilla Claman, writing for the Harvard Business Review, says it’s important to manage your feelings. “Becoming negative, cynical, or depressed will work against you. When you get angry with yourself, it shows, she says. “Don't believe you can easily fake energy and enthusiasm. Most interviewers will pick up your real feelings.”