InterviewStream: An Intern’s Perspective

Guest post below by Latifah Adeleke, recently hired PR Intern for InterviewStream and Senior at Baylor University.

As an upperclassman at Baylor University, searching for internships to satisfy the necessary “experience” most employers require has become a pressing issue for me. I spent most of April and May of this year researching, applying and interviewing for possible summer internships. Unfortunately, most of my searching was done in vain and I was unable to successfully land any of the positions I had applied for. I felt like I wasted a great deal of my time and energy on the long, drawn out hiring processes that ultimately only rendered a few good references and lots of information on the background and history of companies hiring college students in the Waco and Dallas areas. Fortunately things happened much differently when I showed interest in working for InterviewStream.

I gave up on my search for a summer internship and went home to Dallas where I picked up a reliable warehouse job that wouldn’t teach me any skills I could add to my resume, but provided me with a stable pay check, mindless work and plenty of opportunities for overtime. Like most college students, I spent my summer working, taking classes for transfer credits at a local community college and contemplating ways to make myself more marketable after graduation. Then, like a message from above, I received an email from Linley Pisano.

Pisano, a former InterviewStream intern and Baylor Bear, reached out to upperclassmen in the journalism department interested in pursuing PR or marketing careers in technology and HR. Having little to no experience in either field, I was initially discouraged that InterviewStream would be able to make use of my strong writing and social media skills, but Linley assured us that marketing and public relations would be a center focus at InterviewStream. To move forward all I had to do was send in my resume and wait for further instructions.

At this point, summer was coming to a close, my summer courses were complete and I was in my final days of working at the warehouse before I would return for school. I anticipate graduating in December, so the pressure of having a solid internship under my belt was at its greatest. I sent my resume to Alison Pruett and the wait began.

To my surprise I received a response within hours and was sent an invitation to complete a video interview by the end of the following week.

Video Interview!?!? Whaaat???

With the hope of acquiring this internship, I started doing research on InterviewStream that led me to the website, this blog and even the ever so entertaining ScaryInterview site. Most importantly, I learned that InterviewStream is heavily involved with college career and success centers, including my very own Baylor University.

My research led me to the Mecca of interviewing practice for Baylor Students, powered by the InterviewStream practice platform. What made this resource all the more valuable for me was being able to know exactly what would be required of me to complete my video interview for InterviewStream.

Here I found:

• Example interviews created by other students
• A practice space to prepare for my actual interview with InterviewStream
• The opportunity to learn hands-on about the software I would later use
• A platform to receive feedback from professors and other students
• How to best interview with a webcam
• Lots of tricks and tips from interviewing professionals

It’s not often that such in-depth information, specific to your impending interview, is made available so I took full advantage. The enticing question “Would you hire you?” sprawled across the home page made me eager to conduct my first mock interview. Many of the questions I was asked were familiar, others stumped me, but overall it was great practice.

From my mock interview I was able to:

• Better gauge how loud or soft I should speak to be audible
• Keep my eyes on the camera to give my interviewer a sense of “eye-contact”
• Find the best places in my house to use my webcam (concerning lighting and such)

Finally I was ready for my official video interview. Just as I suspected, the process was the same. I went through sound and video checks and started my interview. A woman (who I would later learn was Alison Pruett) asked a question and I was given two, two-minute attempts to respond before moving on to the next question. About seven questions later, I was done with the interview and completely confident about the finished product.

The “In-Person” Interview

After my pre-recorded video interview was reviewed, I was invited to visit the headquarters for a  final, in-person interview. “Great! Only, I’m still in Dallas!”

Having made it all the way to the third round of interviewing, the possibility of not being able to schedule the four-to-five hours off work at my existing position to get to and from the InterviewStream headquarters made me fear that my journey for this internship had ended. I shared my conflict with Alison to which she replied “Don’t worry about scheduling time off, we can do a live video interview.”

Whaaat?!?! A Live Video Interview???

This is when it all made sense. I saw the true benefits of this technology already. How awesome would it be if you conducted every job interview you ever had from the comfort of your own bedroom or on your lunch break at work? You could be as comfortable as you need – I mean think about it, you don’t even have to wear pants!

Not only was I able to complete the live online video interviewing process but I used the same familiar platform my school let me practice with, and I was still able to convey both my excitement and eagerness to join InterviewStream in my facial features, inflection and body language; something often lost through phone interviews and email.

I later found out that I and a co-intern had been selected out of the eight finalists to join the InterviewStream PR & Marketing team. It’s truly an honor to be part of such an innovative and revolutionary technology that is literally changing the views of the hiring process and interviewing as it’s been known for decades.

I’ll keep you posted on my progress, until then…

Happy Interviewing!