Top 10 Best Practices for Winning Your Video Interview

How to look prepared, professional, confident  and human when the interview is on camera.

Video interviews have made job hunting wonderfully convenient. 

No commute. 

No parking. 

No reception desk. 

No wondering whether the person walking toward you in the lobby is your interviewer or somebody from accounting looking for the washroom.

But video interviews have also created an entirely new collection of ways to accidentally sabotage yourself.

You can have the perfect résumé, the right experience, and a brilliant answer to every question — and still spend 45 minutes looking like a witness in a documentary because the sun is blazing through the window behind you. 

Or position your laptop so low that the interviewer spends the meeting staring up your nose. 

Or forget that the camera is showing the pile of laundry behind you.

A video interview is still an interview. The technology should disappear into the background so you become the focus.

Top 10 Best Practices every JobHacker should follow before clicking “Join Meeting.”

1. Put the Light in Front of You — Not Behind You

Your interviewer wants to meet you, not interview your silhouette.

Detailed Instructions: 

Never sit with a bright window, lamp, or direct sunlight behind you. 

Your webcam will compensate for the bright background by darkening your face, making you look like you're participating in a hostage negotiation.

Instead, face the natural light. Ideally, position yourself facing a window with soft daylight illuminating your face. 

If natural light isn't available, place a lamp slightly behind and above your computer screen so the light falls evenly across your face. 

Avoid harsh overhead lighting that creates deep shadows under your eyes.

Before the interview, open your camera app and look at yourself. If you can clearly see your eyes and facial expressions, you're in good shape. If you resemble someone being interviewed anonymously on 60 Minutes, move the lamp.

2. Raise the Camera to Eye Level

Don't make your face look like a float coming down Broadway in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Detailed Instructions: 

One of the most common video interview mistakes is placing a laptop flat on a desk. 

That means the webcam is pointing upward, giving the interviewer a spectacular view of your chin, nostrils, ceiling — and very little else.

Raise your laptop so the camera is roughly at eye level. 

You don't need sophisticated equipment. A laptop stand works. So does a stack of books. So does a sturdy shoebox.

Position the camera so your eyes are approximately one-third of the way down from the top of the screen. 

Your head and shoulders should be visible, with a little space above your head. 

You want the framing to resemble a professional television interview — not security camera footage from a convenience store.

3. Look Into the Camera When You Speak

Looking at the camera creates the closest thing video has to real eye contact.

Detailed Instructions: 

This feels unnatural at first because your instinct is to look at the interviewer's face on the screen. 

Unfortunately, when you do that, you often appear to be looking slightly downward.

The trick is simple: when you're listening, look at the person. When you're making an important point, look into the camera. That creates the impression of direct eye contact.

One useful hack is to move the video window containing the interviewer as close as possible to your webcam. Some people even put a tiny removable sticker beside the camera as a visual reminder: LOOK HERE.

Don't stare unblinkingly into the lens for 45 minutes like you're auditioning for a horror movie. Just use the camera deliberately when answering important questions.

4. Control What Is Behind You

Your background is part of your first impression whether you intended it to be or not.

Detailed Instructions: 

Before the interview, turn on your camera and study the entire frame, not just your face. What's behind you? Laundry? An unmade bed? Half-eaten cereal? Political posters? A collection of 47 stuffed animals?

The interviewer shouldn't be trying to figure out your home life while you're explaining your leadership philosophy. 

The best background is clean, simple, and visually quiet. A wall, bookcase, tasteful artwork, or organized office works beautifully.

Virtual backgrounds can work, but use them carefully. If your hair keeps disappearing into a virtual beach in Maui every time you move your head, turn the background off.

You want the interviewer thinking: “Interesting candidate.” Not: “Why does his left ear keep disappearing?”

5. Test the Technology Before the Interview

The interview is not the time to discover your microphone doesn't work.

Detailed Instructions: 

At least 30 minutes beforehand, test everything:

• Camera.
• Microphone.
• Speakers or headset.
• Internet connection.
• Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, or whatever platform the employer is using.
• Meeting link.
• Password.
• Computer battery.

If the platform requires an update, install it beforehand. Close programs that may slow your computer and plug your computer into power. If possible, have the interviewer's phone number or email nearby in case technology fails completely.

And learn where the Mute button is. Few things weaken a powerful answer about strategic leadership quite like hearing someone in the background yell: “WHO ATE THE LAST PIECE OF PIZZA?”

6. Silence the Digital Universe

Your interview should not sound like you're working inside an airport control tower.

Detailed Instructions: 

Turn off notifications. All of them.

• Email.
• Slack.
• Teams.
• WhatsApp.
• Text messages.
• Calendar alerts.
• News notifications.
• LinkedIn.

Put your phone on silent and move it out of sight. 

Close unnecessary browser tabs and applications. 

An incoming email notification flashing across your screen can break your concentration at exactly the wrong moment. Even worse, constantly glancing toward another screen makes you look distracted.

For the next 30–60 minutes, there is only one important thing happening on your computer: the interview. Treat it that way.

7. Dress for the Job — From Head to Toe

Yes, wear pants.

Detailed Instructions: 

Video interviewing produced one of the strangest pieces of career advice in history: “You only need to dress professionally from the waist up.”

Ignore it.

Dress exactly as you would if you were walking into the company's office. It changes how you sit, how you move, and how you feel. 

And eventually someone will ask you to grab something from across the room.

You do not want your carefully cultivated executive presence destroyed because the hiring manager suddenly discovers you're wearing SpongeBob pajama bottoms.

Also avoid extremely busy patterns, tiny stripes, or clothing that blends into your background. Simple, professional, comfortable clothing works best. You're not dressing for the camera. 

You're dressing for the role you want.

8. Sit Forward, Use Your Hands, and Bring Some Energy

Video drains energy. You have to deliberately put some back in.

Detailed Instructions: 

People often become strangely motionless during video interviews. 

They sit back, cross their arms, stop gesturing, and speak more quietly. 

The result can make an enthusiastic person appear disengaged.

Sit comfortably upright and slightly forward. Keep your shoulders relaxed. 

Allow your hands to appear occasionally when you speak. 

Smile when appropriate. 

Nod when listening. 

Let your personality travel through the screen.

You may even need to increase your normal conversational energy by 10–15 percent because cameras flatten body language. 

Don't become a game-show host. 

Just make sure the person interviewing you can see the same enthusiasm they'd experience if you were sitting across the table.

9. Keep Your Cheat Sheet Nearby — But Don't Read From It

Notes are your backup system, not your script.

Detailed Instructions: 

One advantage of video interviews is that you can discreetly keep a few reminders nearby. Use them.

Prepare a single page containing:

• The interviewer's name and title.
• Three accomplishments you want to communicate.
• Numbers supporting those accomplishments.
• Two or three stories you can use for behavioural questions.
• Questions you want to ask.
• The company's biggest challenges or priorities.
• Your closing message.

Put the page beside or directly behind your monitor. 

Don't cover your desk with pages of notes, and don't read answers. 

Interviewers can immediately tell when someone's eyes are moving across a document.

Your notes should trigger your memory. 

They should never replace the conversation.

10. Rehearse the First Five Minutes

Don't let the most important meeting of your week be the first time you've seen yourself on camera.

Detailed Instructions: 

Record yourself answering three basic questions:

• “Tell me about yourself.”
• “Why are you interested in this opportunity?”
• “Why should we hire you?”

Then watch the recording. 

Yes, everyone hates doing this. Do it anyway.

You'll immediately notice things you never realized you were doing. 

Maybe you say “umm” every eight seconds. Maybe you rock back and forth. 

Maybe your camera is too low. 

Maybe your answer takes six minutes when it should take 90 seconds. 

Maybe you're speaking so softly that the interviewer will need subtitles.

Fix those things before the real interview.

You don't need to memorize your answers. 

In fact, don't. You want to sound prepared — not programmed.

Rehearse your stories, your opening, and your major accomplishments until you can talk about them naturally. 

Then stop rehearsing and have a conversation.

👉🏻 The JobHacker's Video interview Check Sheet

Here is how to put this into action today.

1. Put the Light in Front of You — Not Behind You
2. Raise the Camera to Eye Level
3. Look Into the Camera When You Speak
4. Control What Is Behind You
5. Test the Technology Before the Interview
6. Silence the Digital Universe
7. Dress for the Job — From Head to Toe
8. Sit Forward, Use Your Hands, and Bring Some Energy
9. Keep Your Cheat Sheet Nearby — But Don't Read From It
10. Rehearse the First Five Minutes

Bottom line

The Camera Isn't the Interview. You Are.

A good video interview shouldn't feel like a video interview. 

The lighting works. The camera disappears. The technology behaves itself. 

The background isn't distracting. And within a few minutes, two people are simply having a conversation about a problem that needs solving — and whether you might be the person who can solve it.

That's the objective.

You don't need a television studio. 

You don't need expensive equipment. 

And you certainly don't need to look like a YouTube influencer.

You need to be prepared, professional, curious, confident, and human.

Get the basics right. 

Eliminate the distractions. 

Know your stories. 

Look into the camera. Smile.

And remember: they invited you to the interview because something about your background already caught their attention.

Now your job is simple.

Make it easy for them to imagine you on their team.

Keep Hacking

This playbook is one move. There are plenty more.

Keep digging into JobHackers.Global for practical strategies on positioning, proof, outreach, interviews, the hidden job market and getting around the systems that screen good people out.

→ Explore More Job Hacking Strategies

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