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First post, by 386SX

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Hi,

Just some thoughts, I was reading that a company job interview I had, didn't go well with the usual automatic negative mail and the "good luck for your job career.." mail line. This make me think about what went wrong beside I know the job description being not perfectly compatible but still enough imho, the technology part of the modern remote video job interview might have been a bigger problem, cause these modern 4G phone connections that can't even reach the 3G speed forcing to downgrade the live interview to an 'audio only' one to save bandwidth. I suppose this didn't exactly help stressing the interview.
I found also that the wifi usb I'm using (a modern one) slow down even more the real time upload speed compared to a usb tethering on the same smartphone, probably some low energy settings of the linux kernel module, something I didn't notice before but only after trying to understand what went wrong. Something like 10MBps on cable vs 0,8MBps on wifi speed difference while download speed was similar.
So I was thinking about how sad it is when a technology problem that would have never been real "in a real life job interview" scenario, can actually "decide" your own professional future. Anyway let's hope for the future job interviews and that modern technology might help me a bit more when everything seems depending on it so much these days. 😉
Thanks

Reply 1 of 4, by Intel486dx33

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You are a “Salesman trying to sell your services”.

In Silicon Valley we had job fairs where companies would send their representatives to interview potential employees.
So you would print out about 50 or more ONE page resume and put on your nice casual office clothes or maybe a suite
And go meet people at these booths usually these job fairs are held a Convention centers, Big hotels, or Office buildings.
Just meet everyone even if the company does not interest you.
Shake hands and talk about what you are looking for and like.
Ask questions and SMILE ALLOT.
Put on a Happy face and make them feel good about you.
If they like your personality they will call you for an interview.
I think a good happy outgoing personality is just as important as your education and job skills and history.

Reply 2 of 4, by badmojo

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Sorry to hear about the lost opportunity, it’s always a kick in the nuts. I went through the process recently - during lockdown - and a friend advised that I spend some money on a decent webcam and headset. It did make a difference I think; one less obstacle in a difficult, stressful setting.

It’s different for everyone but I was relieved that I didn’t have to do face to face, I freaking hate interviews and my flight mechanism was less triggered being at home.

Starting a new job in lockdown though has been a bit shit - finding it really hard to get to know people and how stuff works.

All the best with future interviews 👍

Life? Don't talk to me about life.

Reply 3 of 4, by 386SX

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Thanks for the opinions. 😉
I am not used to live remote video job interviews or similar configs so I thought about everything computer related even installed an amplified PCI audio card to boost the headphones output but I forgot to actually test the upload speed of my cheap internet connection assuming that the wifi hotspot connection would have never been a problem for such low speeds, instead the point was specifically to put the phone where there was more signal in the house. Ironically the wifi connection has been probably the real bottleneck even if only few meters far. The webcam config I think was enough good but anyway I didn't find settings to tweak in the live conference browser invitation considering they were different for sure from the saved guvcview camera linux settings.

Maybe I just didn't expect this happening cause I did have good feeling about how the interview ended even if having health problems it's difficult to appear really optimistic but I usually do smile a lot some might even say too much and this is probably something I need to think twice in the interviews because I suppose it appears as not being serious. We know how much stressing job interviews are, maybe I probably forgot the right balance between to smile and when not to.
What make me think a bit about is that from the other part none seems to smile at all ever. They ask you about your professional experience and if you take too much time it's not ok.. but if you take too few time it's not ok too. They do know your experiences from the resume, they ask you about it but it takes time and it's not easy to compress decades of life in some minute talk; also things like asking motivations of why some might have changed jobs decades before would take hours to explain when considered each person specific career periods. And everytimes is the same story... it seems they want the absolute best for any positions no matter how important. Generic job openings disappeared and they'd search for astronauts even for some low end office jobs.

Reply 4 of 4, by 386SX

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Also I quite confirmed that this cheap latest RTL based Wireless N 300Mbps 2,4Ghz USB keys, doing a speed test on a native Win o.s. with its drivers works more or less as expected with both download/ upload speed @ 20Mbps on a 4G wireless hotspot on a slow Atom based system, instead of the 10Mbps/0,8Mbps of the much more powerful linux system I did set up for the interview. So on linux I suppose I should have used an older USB adapter or the USB tethering option with less signal.
I've seen now there're also linux specific driver instead of the one that came with default installation but for "kernel 2.6.18 ~ 4.17" for Ubuntu 18.x. A bit old for newer o.s. I suppose but I might try compiling them and to see if they still works in newer kernels.