I have been interviewing a lot of people for various types of university positions over the years. Most often these interviews are conducted using a video-conferencing system. Here I provide some tips to help people prepare for a video-based job interview: We (and many others) typically use Skype for interviews, not because it is the best system out there (of commercial platforms I prefer Zoom), but because it is the most widespread solution.

I have seen/heard several questions about what type of headset to use for skyping on MacBooks over the last few days. Here are my suggestions: USB headset: Since MacBooks do not come with a separate microphone input (only line level input), regular PC headsets with two mini-jack cables won’t work. I have good experience using USB headsets from Logitech. I have a couple of 250s, but since one of them broke during travel I also got a more durable H555.

The latest beta version of Skype (for OSX only, apparently) offers something called “Skype Access”, which makes it possible to pay for access to commercial WiFi networks through a per minute basis using your SkypeOut account. I recall reading this when I downloaded the latest beta a couple of weeks ago, but didn’t think much about it before I opened my MacBook at the Brussels airport last week and saw a “do you want to pay using SkypeOut” message on screen.