Guide
Online interview tips: how to do well on Zoom, Teams and Google Meet
An online interview is still an interview, but with extra things that can go wrong. Here's how to set up, sound clear, handle a dropped connection and come across well on camera.
Updated · by Kalyan Kaushik K N
Treat it like an in-person interview
It's easy to relax too much when you're interviewing from home. Dress as you would for an in-person interview, at least from the waist up, and plan to be ready ten minutes early. The interviewer is judging the same things: your answers, how clearly you speak and how you carry yourself. The camera just changes how those come across.
The day before: test everything
Most problems in online interviews are technical, and most can be found the day before.
- Install the app and update it. If the invitation is for Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Meet, open the link early and install whatever it asks for. Updates have a habit of starting just as you join.
- Check your name. Your display name should be your real name, not a nickname or a family member's account.
- Make a test call with a friend on the same platform. Check they can see and hear you clearly, and that screen sharing works if you might need it.
- Charge your laptop and plan to keep it plugged in during the interview.
- Save the details somewhere offline: the meeting link, the interviewer's name, and a phone number or email in case the call fails.
Set up your space
Camera and framing
Put the camera at eye level, about an arm's length away, with your head and shoulders in frame. Move the call window to the top of your screen, near the camera, so looking at the interviewer and looking at the lens are almost the same thing. Our guide on eye contact on video calls covers camera position, lighting and framing in detail.
Lighting
Face a window or a lamp so your face is evenly lit. Avoid sitting with a bright window behind you, which turns you into a silhouette.
Background
- A plain wall, a tidy bookshelf or a neat corner of a room all work well.
- Remove anything distracting or personal from view.
- Built-in blur is fine if your room isn't suitable, but test it first: some blurs flicker around your hair and hands when you move.
- Avoid novelty virtual backgrounds for interviews.
Noise and interruptions
- Choose the quietest room you can and close the door and windows.
- Tell anyone at home when the interview is, and ask not to be disturbed.
- Silence your phone and turn off notifications on your computer, including chat and email pop-ups. If you might share your screen, close anything you don't want the interviewer to see.
Get your audio right
Interviewers will forgive a grainy picture more easily than bad sound. If they can't hear you clearly, your answers lose their impact.
- Use earphones with a microphone if you can. They reduce echo and background noise compared with laptop speakers.
- Check the right microphone is selected in the app's audio settings before the interview.
- Speak slightly slower than usual. Small audio delays make fast speech hard to follow. See our guide on speaking pace.
- Don't talk over the interviewer. With a short delay, it's easy to start speaking just as they do. Leave a brief pause after they finish.
- Mute only if there's real noise. Staying unmuted makes the conversation feel more natural, but mute if a dog barks or a door slams.
If the connection drops
It happens to most people at some point, and interviewers know that. What matters is how calmly you handle it.
- Don't panic. Close the app and rejoin using the same link.
- If the picture freezes but sound works, turn off your video for a moment and say so: "My video's struggling, I'll turn it off for a moment so you can still hear me."
- If you can't rejoin within a couple of minutes, email or call the contact you saved, apologise briefly and offer to continue by phone or to reschedule.
- When you're back, say where you were: "I think I lost you while I was talking about the project deadline. Shall I pick it up from there?"
Having the backup contact details saved offline is what makes this easy.
Body language on camera
On camera, the interviewer mostly sees your face, shoulders and hands, so small things matter more.
- Look at the camera when you speak, especially at the start of each answer and for your main points. Look at the screen when you're listening.
- Sit tall with your back supported. Slouching looks worse on camera than in person because the frame is so close.
- Keep your hands visible at times when you gesture, but keep gestures small and within the frame.
- Avoid touching your face or fiddling with your hair or a pen.
- Nod and smile while listening. On a call, the interviewer can't hear your small sounds of agreement, so visual signals matter more.
- Don't read from notes. A few prompts next to the camera are fine; a script is obvious on camera.
Common mistakes
- Joining at the exact start time and then fighting with an update or the wrong microphone.
- Watching your own video instead of the interviewer or the camera.
- Long answers. Online, long answers feel even longer. Keep most answers to one or two minutes. For behavioural questions, the STAR method keeps them focused.
- Forgetting the background until you see it on screen.
- Typing notes during the interview. The interviewer hears the keys and sees you look down.
Online interview checklist
- App installed and updated; test call done on the same platform.
- Display name is your real name.
- Camera at eye level, call window near the camera, self-view small.
- Face lit from the front; tidy or blurred background.
- Earphones with a microphone, correct mic selected.
- Phone silenced, notifications off, others in the house told.
- Laptop plugged in.
- Meeting link and a backup contact saved offline.
- Water nearby and a few short notes next to the camera.
Practise it out loud
The best preparation for an online interview is practising on camera. In Kayavak, choose Interview and answer real questions out loud while it gives gentle nudges like "Come back to the camera" or "Sit tall". Try a Mock interview, where the interviewer asks each question out loud and follows up on your answers. Your report covers eye contact, posture and gestures, pace, filler words and answer length. For a phone interview, choose Voice only. See interview practice for details, or download Kayavak free.