Contents

• What is a recorded interview?

• Why you should know about recorded interviews

• Recorded interview = Interview

• Don’t fret about having to give answers on the spot

• Tackle your nerves

What is a recorded interview?

Recorded interviews are much like a phone or online video interview, except at no point in a recorded interview will you have to live chat face-to-face with a person.

The questions are pre-prepared and presented to you as text, audio or even video formate. You’ll then have a set amount of time to record a response and send it over to the organisation; hence their other name of “one-way interviews”.

Why you should know about recorded interviews

Recorded interviews are steadily growing in popularity with companies increasing the range of roles that are recruited for using this technique.

While the technique is used in the early stages of the interview process for all kinds of roles, it is more commonly used for roles where the company is expecting a large number of applicants such as graduate or entry-level role, or simply for remote roles.

This technique is often used to pick out promising candidates before inviting them to a face-to-face or live video interview at a later stage.

Now you've been invited to a recorded interview, here are three tips to ace them:

1. Recorded interview = Interview

First things first, treat it like a real interview.

One of the reasons employers do recorded interviews is to check your communication skills. If you treat it like you're speaking to a screen you don't come off as natural.

To combat this, try to pretend as much as possible that you're speaking to a real person.

It also means you need to prepare for the interview like any other. They’re going to be asking real interview questions so make sure the you’ve done the usual prep beforehand.

Our post on four things to research about a company before an interview is a good place to start.

2. Don’t fret about having to give answers on the spot

The majority of the time when a question comes up they will give you at least thirty seconds to prepare an answer before you have to start making a video.

Enough time to form a sensible answer so you won’t be caught off-guard when you’re answering a question.

3. Tackle your nerves

Getting a hold of your nerves can be easier said than done, of course.

Try to take it from the perspective that it’s kind of easier than speaking to a real person because there’s not that person there at the time actively judging your answers as you say them.