Christopher Lawrence

Check out this great video on interviewing. Be sure to check back next week for part 4 of this five part series.

Check out the transcript below!

Christopher – What would’ve happened if you, like, had a sneezing fit or something? 

Karmal – It would’ve got recorded. 

Christopher – So then you went and you clicked the link and you did the interview–

Karmal – I did the interview.

Christopher – So I’m curious, how did you, let’s step back for a second here. Because the things that I would be thinking about if I’m doing an interview. So you did this at home–

Karmal – Yes.

Christopher – It wasn’t in their space–

Karmal – No.

Christopher – This was in your home. Great idea for the employer in so many senses. But I think some people they get a bit nervous in front of video whereas if they’re in front of somebody, they would perform differently. Like, I’m awkward in front of video lots of times but when I’m in front of people I’m way more natural. 

Karmal – And for me, because you’re not face-to-face, you’re not reading body language and facial expressions on a video, and you don’t get to replay, once you’re in the real interview there’s no replay or re-recording, it is what it is, so you don’t even get to see how you performed or what it was like.

Christopher – How long did you get to answer each question?

Karmal – It was anywhere from, so, the question would come out printed, you got 90 seconds to think about it, where I scribbled furiously, and then it was between two and three minutes for the recording, depending on the question.

Christopher – Wow, yeah, between two and three minutes. So, what would have happened if you, like, had a sneezing fit or something?

Karmal – It would have got recorded. And I went over on one question. I’m talking away and I wasn’t paying attention to the time and I went 30 seconds into the next question’s 90 second

think about things in between. So they whole missed the last 30 seconds of my– (laughs)

Christopher – Oh my gosh. So it sounds like you had to pay attention to a lot of moving parts

while you were doing this. It’s almost like a test eh.

Karmal – It is.

Christopher – Whereas you go in, read the question, and then the timer starts.

Karmal – And I imagine I looked a little frenetic ’cause I had a surface tablet but then I have two big monitors, so the surface tablet’s down here where my camera is, my two monitors are up here, my paper’s over here. So I’m looking here, I’m looking at the timer, I’m looking at the camera, I’m looking at my paper, I’m looking at the camera, I’m looking at the timer. So I was probably just bouncing all over the place in the video.

Christopher – Interesting, yeah. Great learning experience–

Karmal – It was.

Christopher – And we’re hoping that you guys are taking something from this. Your answers are different, or at least you respond differently, than when you’re behind a video.

Check out this great video on interviewing. Be sure to check back next week for Part 3 of this five part series.

Check out the transcript below!

Karmal – So, I decided to go with something a bit more colorful.

Christopher – I know for me, I would have looked at, what was I wearing?

Karmal – Yes.

Christopher – What was behind me?

Karmal – Yes.

Christopher – So, what did you wear? And, what did you put behind you?

Karmal – So, I decided to go with something a bit more colorful. Now unfortunately, my office at my house is in our spare bedroom, which has really bright pink walls. So, I tried to set the video so that the pink walls were down at the bottom. I couldn’t get rid of them entirely, ’cause they come halfway up. But, so they were a little bit behind me, but I just tried. And, they have a cutout where the head and the shoulders are. And, my head was really small, and my shoulders were really big. 

Christopher – Oh, wow!

Karmal – Yeah, so it was hard to get. And, I was trying to keep centered in there, so I wasn’t off-centered. So yeah, it was quite the process.

Christopher – That’s interesting.

Karmal – And, you don’t get to replay one you’re in the real interview. There’s no replay or re-recording. 

Check out this great video on interviewing. Be sure to check back next week for Part 3 of this five part series.

Check out the transcript below!

Karmal – So, I decided to go with something a bit more colorful.

Christopher – I know for me, I would have looked at, what was I wearing?

Karmal – Yes.

Christopher – What was behind me?

Karmal – Yes.

Christopher – So, what did you wear? And, what did you put behind you?

Karmal – So, I decided to go with something a bit more colorful. Now unfortunately, my office at my house is in our spare bedroom, which has really bright pink walls. So, I tried to set the video so that the pink walls were down at the bottom. I couldn’t get rid of them entirely, ’cause they come halfway up. But, so they were a little bit behind me, but I just tried. And, they have a cutout where the head and the shoulders are. And, my head was really small, and my shoulders were really big. 

Christopher – Oh, wow!

Karmal – Yeah, so it was hard to get. And, I was trying to keep centered in there, so I wasn’t off-centered. So yeah, it was quite the process.

Christopher – That’s interesting.

Karmal – And, you don’t get to replay one you’re in the real interview. There’s no replay or re-recording. 

Check out this great video on interviewing. Be sure to check back next week for Part 2 of this five part series.

Check out the transcript below!

Christopher – The job search process is, in my opinion in terms of a first world, we’re very privileged to live where we live.

Karmal – Yes.

Christopher – It’s kind of an inhumane process, like there’s–

Karmal – It really is.

Christoper – Hi everybody, this is Christopher Lawrence with Change My Life Coaching, and I am here with a friend and colleague, Karmal Beninger. Karmal and I went to college together. So actually, Karmal is here with me today because she had to do her very first video interview for a job. So, Karmal is a job-searcher right now, and there is a trend moving forward now with doing video interviews, and so there’s all sorts of different things. So, I wanna help our followers understand how you could do this by using Karmal’s experience. So Karmal, can you tell us just a little bit about the process? So you applied for a position.

Karmal – Yep.

Christopher – And then what happened?

Karmal – So I received a call from the HR department at the company, and they said that they

were doing rather than a phone interview that many of the companies are doing, they’re actually doing video interviews. So they’re prerecorded video interviews, not a live face-to-face interview, and they gave you a few days to do the interview and gave you a deadline of when it could be completed.

Christopher – So they sent you an email back?

Karmal – That’s right, with the software that you needed to work with and–

Christopher – So you had to download a software?

Karmal – It was just online, so you just clicked a link and it loaded itself, yeah.

Christopher – Okay, yeah. And did you even get a phone call from them to tell you, or it was just the video?

Karmal – Just the phone call saying that I was had been selected for going forward and that the next step would be the video interview.

Christopher – Interesting. So then, tell us how you did this. You scheduled a time for yourself,

or did you just click on it and go, or?

Karmal – So I figured I’d give myself a couple days to figure it out on my own ’cause I’ve not ever done a video-anything before. So, I figured I’d give myself a couple days, do a bit of research. They give you a practice interview

Christopher – Oh.

Karmal – So you can go in and you can practice and everything ahead of time. And then they give you, I think it was three pre-interview questions that you can practice as many times as you want. So I went through those a couple of times over the couple of days, and then I made sure that I had everything done the day before that the deadline was.

Christopher – Wow okay.

Karmal – Yeah.

Christopher – One of the things that I’ve often observed doing career coaching, and what I’ve seen happening over the last two decades, or certainly the last decade, I think it’s gone on for a long time, but in the past, it’s like a job interview is done over a lunch. You’d go in, you’d shake hands, if you submitted a resume, you would hear from them at least with something. Now, I mean, somebody posts a job up and you’re getting hundreds of applicants within hours. Organizations as a matter of process have had to streamline these systems–

Karmal – Absolutely.

Christopher – To save costs and money. In doing so, they’ve actually made the application and interview process, the job search process, is in my opinion, in terms of a first-world, we’re very privileged to live where we live. 

Karmal – Yes.

Christopher – It’s kind of an inhumane process, like there’s–

Karmal – It really is.

Christopher – There’s less and less and less human contact like this. You can’t go in and submit

resumes in person anymore, and so these people who are able to establish a relationship and this is the thing.

Karmal – Yes.

Christopher – We know that it’s all about relationships, but if you can’t go in and do that, which kind of lends credibility to go do some networking.

Karmal – That’s right.

Christopher – You know, even networking, I mean people are, there’s a lot of skepticism now around what does this person want from me?

Karmal – Right.

Christopher – It’s not the way it used to be.

Karmal – No.

Christopher – Where you could pick up the phone and say I wanna job with you.

Karmal – That’s right.

Christopher – So tell me what it’s gonna take to get there. It’s like look at our website, follow our online system, and now, you don’t even get a phone interview, right?

Karmal – No, that’s right.

Christopher – Yeah. So, I know for me, I would’ve looked at like what was I wearing?

Karmal – Yes.

Christopher – What was behind me?

Karmal – Yes.

Christopher – So what did you wear and

what did you put behind you?

Karmel – So I decided…

Christopher – The job search process is, in my opinion in terms of a first world, we’re very privileged to live where we live.

Karmal – Yes.

Christopher – It’s kind of an inhumane process, like there’s–

Karmal – It really is.

Christoper – Hi everybody, this is Christopher Lawrence with Change My Life Coaching, and I am here with a friend and colleague, Karmal Beninger. Karmal and I went to college together. So actually, Karmal is here with me today because she had to do her very first video interview for a job. So, Karmal is a job-searcher right now, and there is a trend moving forward now with doing video interviews, and so there’s all sorts of different things. So, I wanna help our followers understand how you could do this by using Karmal’s experience. So Karmal, can you tell us just a little bit about the process? So you applied for a position.

Karmal – Yep.

Christopher – And then what happened?

Karmal – So I received a call from the HR department at the company, and they said that they

were doing rather than a phone interview that many of the companies are doing, they’re actually doing video interviews. So they’re prerecorded video interviews, not a live face-to-face interview, and they gave you a few days to do the interview and gave you a deadline of when it could be completed.

Christopher – So they sent you an email back?

Karmal – That’s right, with the software that you needed to work with and–

Christopher – So you had to download a software?

Karmal – It was just online, so you just clicked a link and it loaded itself, yeah.

Christopher – Okay, yeah. And did you even get a phone call from them to tell you, or it was just the video?

Karmal – Just the phone call saying that I was had been selected for going forward and that the next step would be the video interview.

Christopher – Interesting. So then, tell us how you did this. You scheduled a time for yourself,

or did you just click on it and go, or?

Karmal – So I figured I’d give myself a couple days to figure it out on my own ’cause I’ve not ever done a video-anything before. So, I figured I’d give myself a couple days, do a bit of research. They give you a practice interview

Christopher – Oh.

Karmal – So you can go in and you can practice and everything ahead of time. And then they give you, I think it was three pre-interview questions that you can practice as many times as you want. So I went through those a couple of times over the couple of days, and then I made sure that I had everything done the day before that the deadline was.

Christopher – Wow okay.

Karmal – Yeah.

Christopher – One of the things that I’ve often observed doing career coaching, and what I’ve seen happening over the last two decades, or certainly the last decade, I think it’s gone on for a long time, but in the past, it’s like a job interview is done over a lunch. You’d go in, you’d shake hands, if you submitted a resume, you would hear from them at least with something. Now, I mean, somebody posts a job up and you’re getting hundreds of applicants within hours. Organizations as a matter of process have had to streamline these systems–

Karmal – Absolutely.

Christopher – To save costs and money. In doing so, they’ve actually made the application and interview process, the job search process, is in my opinion, in terms of a first-world, we’re very privileged to live where we live. 

Karmal – Yes.

Christopher – It’s kind of an inhumane process, like there’s–

Karmal – It really is.

Christopher – There’s less and less and less human contact like this. You can’t go in and submit

resumes in person anymore, and so these people who are able to establish a relationship and this is the thing.

Karmal – Yes.

Christopher – We know that it’s all about relationships, but if you can’t go in and do that, which kind of lends credibility to go do some networking.

Karmal – That’s right.

Christopher – You know, even networking, I mean people are, there’s a lot of skepticism now around what does this person want from me?

Karmal – Right.

Christopher – It’s not the way it used to be.

Karmal – No.

Christopher – Where you could pick up the phone and say I wanna job with you.

Karmal – That’s right.

Christopher – So tell me what it’s gonna take to get there. It’s like look at our website, follow our online system, and now, you don’t even get a phone interview, right?

Karmal – No, that’s right.

Christopher – Yeah. So, I know for me, I would’ve looked at like what was I wearing?

Karmal – Yes.

Christopher – What was behind me?

Karmal – Yes.

Christopher – So what did you wear and

what did you put behind you?

Karmel – So I decided…