by "Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
Published 05/18/2017 at 16:21
by "Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
Published 05/18/2017 at 16:21
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STARS: 1
I’m an HR recruiter. Sometimes I get candidates from staffing companies, and I keep the staffing company involved in setting up interviews. I have someone from out of state interviewing for a software developer job, and the hiring manager is doing a Skype audio + screen share for whiteboarding.
The other day, I emailed the guy at the staffing company that this would be an audio + screen share Skype call so the hiring manager can go over examples with the candidate. Today while confirming the interview, this guy emailed me, “We had her go out and buy a camera for her laptop and install Skype already.”
I guess he assumed when I said Skype this meant a video call, even though I went back and checked the email I sent him where I said, and I quote, “We’re going to do an audio + screen sharing Skype conference.” He was even replying on this very same email thread!
My immediate thought was, “dammit this lady had to go waste money on a webcam that she didn’t need,” and my second thought was, “what kind of laptop does she have that doesn’t have a webcam?”
I tried very hard to not say something like, “I told you already this was audio + screen share” because emails like that often come off more negatively than intended. Instead I said, “This is an audio + screen sharing conference, not a video call. [Hiring manager] is going to be virtually whiteboarding examples, but there’s no video.”
The reply was, “Ok good to know thanks.” Which doesn’t really give me much confidence that this information wasn’t somehow news to the guy even though I told him the same thing a couple days ago.
Hopefully this lady kept the receipt for that webcam.
"For Sweden" (rallybeetle)
05/18/2017 at 16:28, STARS: 1
So you’re Toby /oldjokes
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
05/18/2017 at 16:30, STARS: 1
I don’t mind phone interviews, but a Skype interview sounds like a nightmare. Everything is delayed a few milliseconds, precious words are cut off, and nonverbal communication translates very poorly. I would never have interpreted a screen share (which I do every single day of my job) as a Skype/Facetime video call (which I have never done in a professional setting).
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
05/18/2017 at 16:35, STARS: 1
I never liked The Office.
"For Sweden" (rallybeetle)
05/18/2017 at 16:42, STARS: 1
Nobody does, because British TV is bad
"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
05/18/2017 at 16:48, STARS: 0
I could see how “audio + screen share” would sound like video to someone who’s never heard of it before. But really, if you stop and think about it, if somebody means “video”, they’re going to say video . It’s pretty obvious that “screen share” means something different.
"facw" (facw)
05/18/2017 at 16:57, STARS: 1
Skype generally works better than that for me. And IP calling/video conferencing in general is widely used. as long as you don’t go over 1080p with the video you are probably fine (beyond that you may be overload anemic residential internet upstream bandwidth).
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
05/18/2017 at 17:00, STARS: 1
Either way, since my employer limits VPN to 5Mbps/sec on a GOOD day (more like 1-2), it makes life hard enough just transferring large files. I’m not sure why I pay for 60Mbps at home when we never need more than 5-7...
"facw" (facw)
05/18/2017 at 17:03, STARS: 0
I mean video conference interviews are definitely a thing. I’m not sure they provide much value over a phone interview.
And while every laptop has a webcam these days, a desktop, which you have at your desk, which is probably a cleaner, more professional setting for a video conference, may not have one, so getting one would make sense in that case.
Of course none of that changes the fact it sounds like your office was clear that wasn’t required, so they clearly didn’t need to buy one for this interview.
"facw" (facw)
05/18/2017 at 17:05, STARS: 1
Ouch. Though if your employer is sending all traffic through the VPN instead of just work related traffic, they are doing it wrong.
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
05/18/2017 at 17:19, STARS: 1
I think being a remote employee, it doesn’t differentiate. The thing that bugs me is it’s a corporate policy to “make it fair to everyone” — but not everyone is passing around 100MB databases. I think the policy was designed for “occasional emails from home” and not “full time data analysis from home.”
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
05/18/2017 at 17:36, STARS: 1
Erm, so here are the people involved:
Candidate
Staffing company guy
Me
Hiring manager
The hiring manager wants to email the candidate, which I am setting up through the staffing company guy. Somehow the staffing company guy interpreted my instructions as “I need to have the candidate get on a video call with the hiring manager.” Which is not my instructions.
"NJAnon" (NJAnon)
05/18/2017 at 19:27, STARS: 0
Well laptop & GOOD webcam. A purchased webcam will probably have video quality above the potato level of some of the default webcams in laptops. :P