Virtual Interview

Objective: 

Participants will be able to practice virtual conversation in a professional setting.

Total Time: 90 Minutes

Material required:

Students should carry their smartphones or computer labs with internet connection and headphones should be available

Instructor note:

With the current ongoing pandemic the trend of Virtual Interview has elevated. Use this session as the simulation for virtual interviews

Opening Protocol:

• Greet the participants

• Take attendance

• In pairs, ask participants to share with each other how they are feeling

• Recap the previous session by asking 1-2 participants to share with the class, what they learnt and did in the previous session

5 Minutes

Concept Discussion and Demonstration:

Why virtual interviews

• Ask participants whether they have ever attended any video call

• Even if one person says yes, ask the following:

• which platform did you use

• what was the purpose of video call

• who all were connected on that call

• what were the basic features on the platform they used

• why didn’t they do a personal meeting instead of virtual meeting

• Help students understand that meeting personally is not a possibility everytime. Virtual meetings save our time and money, and everyone should be comfortable using virtual meetings now

How virtual interviews

• Ask students to sit in their original groups

• Ask them to open their handbooks and understand the basics of virtual interviews, including etiquette a person should follow. Give them 5 minutes to read and discuss

• Now use 5 minutes to ask questions to check for their understanding of the concepts

• Ensure that learners understand why virtual interviews are done

15 Minutes

Activity 1: Understanding the platforms

• Ask students to install Google Meet, Zoom Meeting, Microsoft Teams applications in their mobile phones. Give them 10 minutes to install all the 3 Apps

• If some students already have these Apps installed, they can help their group members to ensure that everyone has installed the Apps

• Divide the class in 4 groups

• Tell them that 3 groups are going to do a presentation activity to convince group 4 to use the mobile application they are recommending. Group A will present Zoom, Group B will present MS Teams, Group C will present Google Meet. 

• Each group will present for 3 minutes each and they will all get 5 minutes to decide what they want to say in their presentation

• At the end group 4 will decide which platform they would prefer and why

30 Minutes

Activity 2: Practice

• Divide the class in groups of 3

• Tell them that we are now going to practice virtual interviews where person A will become interviewer, person B will be the interviewee and person C will just observe and note down the glows (positive feedback) and grows (constructive feedback). The observer will sit with the interviewer and will observe how well people are using virtual interviews. 

• They have to make real video calls to each other via Zoom or Google Meets to do the activity. 

• All the pairs will do the activity simultaneously. Wherever possible, teams should try to record their interviews

• Give them 5 minutes to do one interview

• After 5 minutes, ask all the observers to come in front and share their observations. Trainer should try to identify the challenges people face while doing virtual interviews. Address the common problems and give suggestions

• Now demonstrate doing a virtual interview first as an interviewer and then as an interviewee. Ask one of the participants to play the role of the other person. Through your demonstration, participants will learn the ideal way of handling a virtual interview (the trainer should use accurate phrases and etiquette)

• Send the teams back and now ask them to change the role. The person who was the interviewee earlier will now become interviewer 

• Again give them 5 minutes to do the conversation again and then call the observers to see if they found this round to be better than the previous one

25 Minutes

Closing Activity:

• Ask one observer to volunteer and come infront 

• Tell the class that this observer is representing you all and will create a checklist of the preparation that you all should do before appearing for the virtual interview

• Ask the volunteer to involve all the participants by taking their suggestions and create one checklist in 5 minutes

• Close the activity by ensuring that all the participants are feeling more confident about attending virtual interviews

10 Minutes

Closing Protocol: 

• Thank the participants for their time

• Announce the next time you will be visiting them

• Share the topic of the next session

• Collect 1-2 most interesting activity sheets/artefacts from students and show to Nodal officer and institution head after session

• Click pictures of the artefacts for documentation

5 Minutes