These interviews only grow more difficult the further the job is from you. Interviewing for a position in San Francisco when you live in Los Angeles is an hour’s flight away- not too bad. But it’s when the positions are located on the East Coast or overseas, that’s where the difficulties mount up. Booking a flight and hotel, car rentals, and taking the time off from work become impossibly expensive the first time around. Finding the budget and time to keep this up for each interview is next to impossible for virtually everyone.

Thank goodness for Skype.

Without the video and voice calling software app, we’d all be deep in quite a few frequent flyer miles. Founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, Skype has enabled individuals from around the world to create an account with the program and a unique username for which to find one another with. You can call others within the system, video conference, and call others with mobile phones and landlines too though calling via mobile and landlines does cost a small fee.

Funnily enough, there is an episode of The Simpsons that does touch on predicting the future of Skype. The episode featured a look into the future- at the year 2010 when Lisa was a young college student. To communicate with the rest of the Simpsons back home, she used a Picture Phone that was part old-school rotary device attached to what looked like a computer screen that played a live picture from the home. When Marge promises to Lisa that her father Homer will be nice to her fiancee, she holds up her crossed fingers. Lisa reminds her mother that they are on Picture Phone and Marge makes a quick excuse for her hand gesture. Lisa brushes it off and Marge exhales loudly with a big “whew!” that Lisa once more reminds her, “Mom, Picture Phone.”

Such is the way with Skype when conducting meetings or interviews via webcam. Just like a face to face conversation, there is an etiquette to keep in mind when being interviewed on Skype- whether you are the interviewer or the interviewee.

 Keep Eye Contact

Where should you look, the camera lens or at the little picture on your monitor of the opposite person? The answer, according to The Consumerist, is the webcam. Maintain eye contact much like you would with an actual person. The camera will record your smiles and facial tics so try to loosen up and relax as much as possible. Remember to blink and try to keep from nervous gestures such as twirling your hair or picking at your nails during the interview. Don’t open a browser window to your favorite website and skim through the site either- there is a time and a place for that and now is not the time for it.

Unsure of how you look or are behaving? Practice makes perfect, try to practice with a friend by having them Skype you for a mock interview.

Maintain Professional Dress

What? You think just because you’re interviewing from home that this is the chance to throw a blazer over your pajamas? Or that you can dress up the upper half of your body while keeping the lower half, the one that the camera doesn’t see, cocooned in fleece sweats? I guarantee you the one time you do that will be the one time that your computer gets knocked off your table and you have to pick it back up, exposing your less than professional dress. You can keep it business casual but remember this is your interview and appropriate dress will speak volumes as to who you are.

Pay Attention to the Details

It’s the little things that matter and in the case of Skype, the little things tend to mount up. You’ll want to make sure you have a strong signal on your computer and that your wireless network doesn’t cut out on you with a slow connection. Be sure that your computer also has plenty of battery power too.

Your Skype profile speaks volumes as to who you are. Inc. Magazine dishes on the importance of keeping your account username simple- your first and last name work just fine, as opposed to “If I’m talking to somebody for a business interview and their Skype address is ‘motherofalldrugaddicts’ or something, I certainly think that would be problematic.”

Also keep your account photo preferably a photo of yourself and a nice one at that and pay attention to the various time zones of the people you’re interviewing. Make sure that they know about the time the interview is ahead of schedule and are comfortable having an interview at that time.

Keep a Quiet Environment

Don’t decide to host your interview at a noisy Starbucks or when the kids are home running around. Don’t decide to meet in a room with your old dorm posters of Pink Floyd on the walls either. Plan to schedule your interview in a nice, well-lit, quiet, and decorative space. If your space is not clean or well lit or quiet, tidy it up and do everything you can to make for a peaceful environment. This includes silencing your cell phone and also the email alerts on your Outlook.

Niklas Zennstrom is noted for saying that “if you can use a web browser, you can use Skype.” And the further our technology develops and enables us to work in ways that don’t necessarily mean going the distance in terms of mileage, the more likely you’ll be noting Skype interviews for job positions cropping up in the future.

via forbes.com