Mallory is from Ohio, and lives 6.800 km away. Yet we could say with certainty that she fits our team and has the skills we were looking for. We recruited Mallory via our interview suite, an HR software program for asynchronous video interviews. As she has undergone the candidate selection process with this new and innovative tool, she would like to share her experience. Here we go Mallory, the stage is yours…
Have you ever worked 4,200 miles from home? You may not think this is a big deal, but I am a college student from a small town with a population of 300 people and I have been working in Berlin, Germany at viasto for two months. You may be wondering how a US college student scored an internship in Berlin for the summer – let me tell you of my journey.
I was accepted into a program called “Intrax Internships Abroad” (IIA) and was given the opportunity to work in Berlin for 2 months. IIA then coordinated an interview with viasto and I was informed that my very own interview would be using asynchronous video interviewing. After I received my log-in information for the interview, I became very nervous for many reasons since I have never participated in a video interview.
- How was this going to be personable? How were they going to figure out if I was a good candidate?
- I was curious as to how an asynchronous video interview would turn out with the unreliable wireless Internet provided on my college campus.
- I was interviewing for a company that has created their own interviewing product – they have probably critiqued and conducted tons of interviews.
- Even though the position did not require knowing the German language, were they going to care that I knew literally one word in German?
After being nervous and anxious, I realized that there are various benefits to asynchronous video interviewing. I was able to take my time until my pre-interview jitters disappeared. With video interviewing you can begin your interview whenever and wherever you want. As a busy college student with exams, classes, and meetings this was amazing.
“Hi and welcome to your video interview”
I began my interview – it introduced me to the company, the interview structure and showed a picture of Johanna who is in charge of Marketing at viasto. I was able to test the sound and video quality before I began my interview which was great since I had poor Wi-Fi access. I was then able to review three of the questions I was going to be asked during my interview. I scribbled down some notes and carried on to my first question.
“Hi and welcome to your video interview. Please present yourself briefly, tell us a little about your academic course and let us know why you would like to intern with viasto in the summer position”. I had 2 minutes to review the interview question and reflect how I wanted to answer. Then I had another minute to give my answer. I could literally feel myself become more relaxed and comfortable after the first question.
It was a very structured interview. The questions were clear and concise and gave an opportunity for an introduction, to share knowledge relating to the position and an opportunity to be innovative and think on my feet. I didn’t need to be perfect; I just needed to be myself and answer the questions how I wanted to without the pressure of only having a few seconds to respond. I also had the opportunity to share my excitement about the video interview and to express my concern about not knowing any German and ask my own questions.
Improve Recruiting Processes
After my interview, not only did I go blog about video interviewing on my personal blog, but I also went and had a conversation with my Human Resources Professor. I had learned in his class and from my own experiences that recruiting processes can be long and tedious. You have to review applications, schedule meetings and interviews, conduct numerous interviews throughout different steps, and if a candidate is international you have to spend even more time and money on the process. We compared the hassle of a normal recruiting process and how video interviewing eliminates many of them.
After working at viasto I’m even more excited about video interviewing and I also learned that I can definitely get by without knowing German, but my co-workers are amazing at trying to help me understand it (Google Translator is a plus). 🙂
Cheers, Mallory
