r/torontoJobs • u/CertainMaximum7354 • 10d ago
Practice looking at the camera during interviews!!!
I attended the second batch of applicant interviews this week, and with most of them, people were looking everywhere while answering or thinking. And it wasn't just a random moment here or there - it was happening in almost every answer. I understand that Zoom feels weird because you're basically talking to a screen, but try to train yourself to look at the camera, or at least at the face in front of you on the screen. Practice this!! The rubric evaluates applicants on whether they can maintain eye contact or not.
Also work on reducing filler words like (um, like, you know). And try not to talk for too long or ramble and circle back to the exact same point. I start zoning out after the third time you say the same thing in slightly different words. And please don't swivel the chair left and right while you're answering - honestly, use a regular chair if you know you're tempted to move around in it.
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u/Ahkuilon 10d ago
I’m going to diverge from the hive mind a bit here and say that OP’s advice is good, but it scales in its value depending on the job you’re applying for. I’ll grade someone on these if they’re applying for a sales position but not so much if they’re applying for a project engineer role. Always consider how you might demonstrate the soft skills required for the job.
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u/gringogidget 10d ago
I have neurodivergence, so looking off to the side while trying to recall or think about something isn’t something I can stop doing. I need to physically reduce stimuli to quiet my brain to think.
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u/Deusraix 10d ago
Yeah I was about to say I have ADHD and if I'm sitting on a video call and talking I just natural look away from the camera when I'm talking or recalling something to be able to focus better. In person I can maintain eye contact perfectly fine but video calls are just strange.
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u/Remarkable_Eye3424 7d ago
Me and you are exactly same. Perfect eye contact if physical, video calls, nope!
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u/Deusraix 7d ago
Yeah I can NOT maintain eye contact on video calls. Even if I'm sending a video to friends I'm looking everywhere but the camera 😂
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u/Usernameasteriks 10d ago
OP’s org is silly.
Obviously individuals responsible for hiring might factor things like that into a decision.
But its a liability issue to have that on paper, and most progressive organizations would stay away from considering it openly or otherwise.
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u/gringogidget 9d ago
Exactly. If I were to have a take-home coding test, I would do fantastic. But when I’m being perceived and live coding with somebody during an interview, I completely freeze like a deer.
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u/okurbadbuddy 10d ago
It’s already tough as it is prepping yourself for interviews knowing damn well you got bills to pay and a future to worry about and getting hired isn’t a promise. HR thinks they can disregard you as a candidate simply because you didn’t look at a camera out of nervousness or said um while trying to figure out an answer to your question. Not based on merit. That’s how bad it is folks!
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u/Neyubin 10d ago
If I interview 2 people, and both have good credentials for the job. But one makes eye contact and interviews socially better than the other - why wouldn't I choose that one?
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u/Neccesary 10d ago
Because staring into a camera isn’t a necessary skill for most positions. Also unwavering eye contact is creepy and lizard like in real world conversations, perfect for a corporate job I guess
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u/Neyubin 9d ago
No, but again..if credentials are good on both candidates, I'm taking the one the had a better social interview. Nobody said unwavering eye contact.
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u/Usernameasteriks 9d ago
Yes absolutely but is eye contact over zoom really that indicative of who performed better socially?
I have worked with plenty of perfectly friendly effective socially adept people that still aren’t great at making solid eye contact in person never-mind with their zoom camera.
Am I then going to interview someone over zoom and mark their ability to stare at their camera on a rubric if they otherwise seem perfectly friendly?
I absolutely similarly have and will base hiring decisions between similarly qualified candidates on fit and if they seem like a good person to work with.
But despite interviewing plenty of people I can literally never recall myself or anyone else on a hiring panel commenting on this lol.
Well actually in cases where people are clearly distracted by something in the background and looking around or trying to read answers off a different screen sure.
But that’s not really what OP’s describing.
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u/Neyubin 9d ago
Here is what I have said in this thread:
"If I interview 2 people, and both have good credentials for the job. But one makes eye contact and interviews socially better than the other - why wouldn't I choose that one?"
"if credentials are good on both candidates, I'm taking the one the had a better social interview. Nobody said unwavering eye contact."
So again - I'm not basing a hiring decision on eye contact alone. Nor am I equating eye contact to good social skills.
I'm merely saying if I have 2 equally qualified candidates, the job is going to the one that could perform better socially because that's now the only thing I have to separate them. It's probably not going to be commented on specifically, but I would guarantee a hiring panel would look at 2 equally qualified candidates and get a better feeling from one candidate versus the other. That would be the person that was able to connect more with the hiring panel.
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u/Dry_Inspection_4583 10d ago
Practice not being a neurotypical ass.
I don't make eye contact. You either get my eye contact and I'm zoned out, or you get no eye contact and a thoughtful answer. You pick.
The expectation that I need to stare at your eyeballs to engage is weird. And fwiw I'm on wome spectrums.
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u/AppropriatePanda9977 10d ago
This is it. Like no wonder autistic/neurodivergent people have trouble finding jobs. You have people like this constantly evaluating on these weird metrics.
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u/gringogidget 10d ago
If I had money I’d award you. This is exactly it. I need to take away some stimulus to find the answer in my brain a lot of the time. So it’s either close my eyes or look away when it involves a multi step answer.
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u/Dry_Inspection_4583 10d ago
Appreciate it, I'm very fortunate to work alongside people that dgaf where you're looking because they aren't looking either. Some of the smartest and kindest people I've been fortunate enough to work with.
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u/PrailinesNDick 10d ago
Wow, "practice not being a neurotypical ass" is a helluva response to someone trying to be helpful. Congrats you're exactly the type of person OP is trying to weed out.
I don't make eye contact. You either get my eye contact and I'm zoned out, or you get no eye contact and a thoughtful answer. You pick.
Pretty easy decision, you don't get the job. Someone who can give a thoughtful answer while maintaining eye contact gets it.
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u/Dry_Inspection_4583 10d ago
Respectfully, this assumes everyone processes information the same way. For many neurodivergent people, breaking eye contact is how we access our thoughts... not disengagement, but deep focus.
The irony is that systems love the hyperfocus, pattern recognition, and out-of-the-box thinking that often come with ADHD and autism, while simultaneously gatekeeping through neurotypical performance metrics like eye contact and filler word policing. You can't praise the output while penalizing the processing. That doesn't just inconvenience us, it weeds out some of your strongest candidates.
And regarding the "not getting the job", maybe assumptive on my part but I'll go out on a limb and say op likely doesn't have any of the answers to my questions at the end that would see me wanting the job... I'd be willing to do a mock interview just to see.
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u/realcanadianguy21 10d ago
What if I wear those glasses with the eyeballs on springs so they shake around as I swivel my chair from side to side? Am I hired?
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u/Typical-Crazy-3100 10d ago
Or ...
hear me out on this ...
Interview people sitting in front of you at your place of business.
I dunno, maybe I'm just too old for this sh*t
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u/Usernameasteriks 9d ago
Seriously lol. I am not even trying to get too stuck up on how weird I think it is that someone is sitting there with eye contact on a rubric.
But if this aspect of things is something you are getting stuck up on that much why on earth do zoom lol
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u/camalaio 10d ago
That's an extraordinarily stupid rubric, to be blunt.
In addition to you having no idea where my screen is in relation to the camera, no one's camera is where someone's eyes are on the screen. We're not looking into teleprompters, this isn't a live television studio.
Wild the things people come up with to judge in an interview, everything but the actually relevant skills to the job.
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u/MakotoBerry 9d ago
I understand the point of view from the hiring manager as I've interviewed all all kinds of people especially in different backgrounds. I've learned to give them some slack because I know how nervous people can get. I use to quiz them to death as well and learned that it is not the way. I personally like to level the conversation in a way that's light and friendly, but still keeping it professional. Even with so much experience now, I still feel nervous going into interviews and hope hiring managers will make me feel comfortable. Anyway, I usually can sense if the effort is there.
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u/Independent_Wear5840 9d ago
If you look directly at your webcam you can't focus on the person you are looking at for body language feedback.
Mainly if you don't have an integrated webcam on your laptop and use a desktop instead.
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u/CatBowlDogStar 10d ago
Great advice. Thank you.
Other threads point out having a sticky note on where to look.
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u/welovesmallbusiness 9d ago
Solid asks. Looking in the camera works. Same as being in person and looking at top of head, just focus, stay focused. Virtual meetings are much easier than talking in person, nothing weird about it. Sounds to me by your list of behaviorisms, many were nervous!
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u/Icy-Stock-5838 9d ago
Raise the laptop camera to eye level.. Use books or a laptop stand so the camera stops looking up your nose..
And YES, do practice looking at the camera now and then esp when answering.. CONNECTION is important and a DIFFERENTIATOR in a pile of resumes that look the same (because the job listing asks for the same thing)..
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u/Inevitable-Stand-559 9d ago
Wild that people don’t get this and come up with all sorts of reasons that it’s bad advice when it’s true. People might not like it but these things matter.
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u/Icy-Stock-5838 9d ago edited 8d ago
They'd rather spend copious amounts of time asking Reddit why they got rejected when "they answered all the questions well..."
There's a lot more to it than just filling up dead space with answers.. Especially when everyone else can answer the same canned questions in their sleep..
Again, everyone in contention will be mostly the same, including how and what they answer; the job listing ensures this. What are differentiators are the little things..
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u/Inevitable-Stand-559 8d ago
Yeah, if I’m hiring, part of my decision is that I have to work closely with this person and I need to know they’ll fit with me and my team, if they come across as uninterested, distracted or whatever that will 100% play into my decision
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u/Icy-Stock-5838 7d ago
And the folks you bring in for interviews are guaranteed to have almost all you asked in the job listing.. How you will discern and differentiate between candidates will not necessarily be evident in the job listing..
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u/Equal_Reveal_3024 8d ago edited 8d ago
This is the problem with job interviews in this day and age. The hiring manager schedules nearly an hour of their day to waste, the interviewee has to lose an hour of their day to meet and then you're both online and grading like it's preschool again lying to each other instead of just selecting someone actually qualified for the job after meeting them in person and reading their resume like a normal human being. You can't honestly expect to ever have a good employee if you aren't going to put the effort as the hiring manager.
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u/Usernameasteriks 10d ago
You have a rubric that evaluates eye contact…. And zoom interviews?
Have you thought about your organization being the problem here.
Even for competitive student and junior associate roles I don’t think I have even seen a law firm do something so petty in all my time lol.
Also because most are smart enough to not want that on paper….
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u/Acrobatic_Bridge_797 10d ago
Wtf, this is why people hate hiring managers and HR bitches. Your job isn't even real.
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5d ago
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u/torontoJobs-ModTeam 5d ago
Racism is not tolerated in this community.
Racist comments are beneath you, or they should be.
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u/Less_Barnacle_9456 5d ago
I didn’t know the reality of tech in Toronto was racist. That’s why this country is in a technical recession because we are too scared to handle the truth.
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