The Teams Or Virtual Interview

The night before

• Download the app. Don't join a Teams meeting in a browser for the first time five minutes before an interview. Test the link. Test the camera. Test the mic.
• Set up your shot. Camera at eye level — stack books under the laptop if you have to. Nobody wants to interview your ceiling fan or the underside of your chin.
• Light in front of you, not behind. A window at your back turns you into a silhouette.
• Background: clean and neutral. Skip the blur filter if your bandwidth is marginal — it eats connection quality and it smears your face.

Fifteen minutes before

• Wired connection if you have one. Close every other application. Kill notifications on the laptop and flip the phone face down.
• Have your resume, your notes, and your questions on paper next to the camera — not in a window on screen. Your eyes moving around the display is visible, and it reads as reading.
• Get the interviewer's cell number in advance, or make sure your recruiter has it. Technology fails. How you handle it failing is part of the interview.

During

• Dress the way you'd dress in person. All of it. People stand up.
• Look at the camera lens when you're making a point. Look at the screen when you're listening. That small habit is the difference between engaged and distracted.
• Panel call? Write the names down as they appear on screen. Use them.
• Silence is longer on video. Let the interviewer finish. A half-second pause before you answer prevents talking over people on a lagging connection.

After

Thank-you note the same day. Short. Reference one specific thing from the conversation so it doesn't read as a template.

The point

Treat video as a professional skill, because it is one now.