I ran a poll on LinkedIn over the past 7 days. I asked people whether they should look at the camera or the people on the screen in a virtual interview. The motivation behind this, was that I’ve seen lots of posts on LinkedIn recently about how candidates should look directly at the camera for video interviews. I strongly disagree with this advice! Anytime I’m in a virtual call, I’m looking at the person I’m speaking to. Why?
1) I’m focussing on building a connection with them, and this helps if I’m looking at them rather than a circular shiny spot at the top of my screen
2) I can pick up on body language and facial cues which are an important part of communication
3) I feel much more comfortable – lacking training in acting I feel really weird talking into a lens of any type!
I was really interested to see other people’s take on this. The results are in! 72% of respondents think you should look at the interviewer on the screen rather than the camera lens during a virtual interview.
I think an important insight is that there is a mix of recruiters, career coaches and HR professionals on both sides of the poll. Similarly, there are seasoned industry professionals (many who would be taking part in recruitment activities) on both sides of the fence.
For candidates I coach, I will be using this data to explain some recruiters may have strong preferences one way or the other, so if they are comfortable with it, it might be worth moving between the camera and the screen (as some commentators suggested). However, if they feel that this might impact their performance, or increase anxiety around their interview, I would be telling them 72% of people prefer looking at the screen, and hopefully, most recruiters understand that by not looking at the camera, candidates are instead focusing on building rapport and connection with them.
My takeaway for people involved in interviewing candidates remotely is to understand that different people have different preferences – with the vast majority preferring to look at you on the screen! By not looking at the camera, candidates may be focusing on listening to you, building rapport and engaging with you on the screen and they might feel more comfortable and able to be themselves more in doing so.
Certainly, if you are ruling out candidates that aren’t looking directly at the camera lens, it sounds like you’re missing out on the majority of talent out there!