While both telephone and video have increasingly become tools utilised by businesses for interviewing potential employees, an entirely remote interview process is a new concept for most of us. 

Unless you have been previously employed in a fully remote role, it is unlikely that you have interviewed with a company and never had the chance to check out their offices or meet your potential team face to face. 

Due to COVID-19, remote work, and in turn remote interviews, have been thrust upon businesses across the globe – whether they were ready for it or not. 

At Ometria, we’ve always been committed to evolving and refining our practices so we can provide the best candidate experience possible. It is something we are passionate about, and taking our approach remote is no different. 

We’re recruiting new Ometrians to join us and we want to make our remote hiring process as smooth as it can be. So, we have put together a guide to interview with Ometria, the remote edition.

Who, what, when

So you’ve applied for a role with us – what happens next?

How exactly your interview process will run depends on the role you are interviewing for – this dictates the number of stages and the Ometrians you will meet. In general, the process typically involves a telephone interview, meeting a minimum of two members of your team via video interviews and participating in our Authentication interview (more on this later). 

Once we have reviewed your application and we think you might be a great match, we will send an email inviting you to an initial telephone interview. 

All of our initial telephone interviews are conducted by our Talent Team. Typically, these conversations last 30 minutes and involve discussing your experience, what you are looking for in a role and what you know about Ometria so far. We also provide loads more information on what it’s like to work here, the responsibilities of the role you have applied for and a clear outline of what the next steps will be. 

You can also use the initial telephone interview to ask us any questions or share any reservations you may have – we will do our best to answer all of your inquiries and if we need to get further information from the hiring team, we will keep you updated. 

(Side note: We understand that working remotely comes with its share of challenges – weak telephone signal being one of them! If you are concerned about this affecting the call, just let us know and we can set up an online call instead.)

Zoom, zoom, zoom

Your telephone interview went swimmingly – now what?

Once you have completed your initial telephone interview, the rest of the process will be conducted via video. This gives you a chance to put a face to the name(s) of your team and hopefully gives an even better feel for what it’s like working at Ometria!

As a business, we use Zoom for all of our remote communication needs and we have incorporated this into our interview process. New Zoom details are sent for each stage of the process, and are unique to your session. 

Prior to your interview, we recommend downloading and setting up a Zoom account with enough time to iron out any problems. The FAQ page on the Zoom Help Centre (linked below) is a great place to start if you run into any difficulties, but we are always on hand to help. Simply let the Talent Team member you are coordinating with know if you run into any difficulties and we will work through these with you. 

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/sections/200277708-Frequently-Asked-Questions 

Ready, set, (nearly) go

Pre-interview nerves are totally normal, so we recommend a few practices to make the experience as relaxed as possible. 

Establishing your Zoom account is the first step, but it is also important to set up your interview space. We recommend a space that is well-lit, and has a simple background to avoid any distractions. It’s a good idea to let others in your household know when you will be interviewing and how long it will last in order to avoid anyone interrupting or accidentally popping up behind you. 

Try out your video and audio in advance of your interview to address unforeseen issues. We recommend asking a friend or family member if you could try Zoom with them to ensure everything is in working order.

If you do run into any trouble on the day of your interview, don’t worry! We’ve all had our fair share of connection/audio/video issues over the last few months and no one on the interview team is going to mind. If you need to take a minute to sort out an issue during the session, simply let the interviewers know (the chatbox feature is a great tool if your audio is playing up!)

Once you have completed a video interview with us, the Talent Team will be in touch to gather your feedback and update you on the interview team’s thoughts.

Authentication

You’ve met with your potential team, and you’re more knowledgeable about the role – now we want to get to know you a little bit more about you. Of course, you have already chatted through your expertise and achievements, but we also want to better understand who you are, how you like to work and how you think.

This is where the Authentication interview comes in. Every Ometrian has completed it and it is an important part of how we maintain and enhance our culture as we grow. Now that we are working fully remotely and are without the physical space of the office, which is where our strong culture is best portrayed, the Authentication interview is more important than ever.

The Authentication process lasts two hours, consisting of a one-hour interview with two senior members of the business and two 30-minute interviews with Ometrians from the wider business. The interview gives you the chance to interact with people outside of your department and get a broader perspective on working life at Ometria. 

The Authentication is conducted via Zoom, so all of the tips outlined above are still useful to bear in mind. We understand that two hours is a long time to talk – so feel free to take a quick comfort break to use the bathroom or to grab some water between interviews, as you would do if you were on site with us.

We want to make sure that interviewing with Ometria, whether in person or remote, has the most authentic, informative and enjoyable process we can offer. Hopefully, the above information gives some insight on what to expect and how to best set yourself up for success.All of our current vacancies are listed on our website, so please check them out at https://ometria.com/careers

If you are in an interview process with us and have any questions or queries, do not hesitate to reach out to your point of contact in the Talent Team for further clarification. 

Interviewing remotely may be different but it doesn’t need to be difficult!