Institutes provide video-conferencing and skype facilities for placement interviews as it saves employer’s time, money.
Elizabeth Scaria (22), a final-year MBA student of Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research (SIMSR) at Vidyavihar, was shortlisted by a MNC two months ago for campus interview, but she was apprehensive. Not because of the interview but because it was a virtual one.
After an hour of grilling through Skype (voice/video calling over internet), she got her first job in a multinational company, MU Sigma. Set to join on May1 at its Bangalore office, Elizabeth is one of the three students of the Institute hired by three companies through virtual interviews taken through either Skype or videoconferencing.
The company had only one vacant post and it saved time, energy and money of the employers as they could not afford to waste time to come down to Mumbai to hire only one person. Virtual interviews are common in IT industry but campuses have started equipping themselves only recently when the world started witnessing second phase of slowdown.
Virtual interviews through video-conferencing or Skype are taking off in most of the city’s B-schools, CA institutes and IIT-B. Skype can be downloaded from the Internet and doesn’t require additional cost. Setting up a video-conferencing system would cost Rs.50,000 to Rs5 lakh, depending up on the quality of the video.
“The technology saves an employer’s cost and time,” said a final-year MBA student and placement committee member of Welingkar Institute of Management and Research. The institute provided assistance for virtual interview to 30 students in this placement season.
Despite high demand, not every institute is equipped to have such an infrastructure. Most government institutions which can’t afford, use private facilities. “The trend is rising as this year six companies wanted video conferencing and Skype for summer placement. Eleven students got selected in these companies. The number was six in the final placement of 2011,” said Ankit Rampuria, member of campus placement committee of JBIMS.
How different are these virtual interviews from the traditional one-on-one? “My college has video-conferencing facility but the company preferred Skype. The mode chosen was different as I couldn’t see them but they could see me. It was a tough experience as I couldn’t know their reaction,” said Scaria of SIMSR.
Hitesh Suri, first-year student of JBIMS, said interviews through video conferencing is almost similar to a face-to-face one. He was recently hired by a bank for summer internship through a video-conference interview. “Videoconferencing mode is almost equivalent to personal one, so it went easy and I got selected,” Hitesh said.
An HR executive from an FMCG company, who is not authorised to talk to media, said interviews through Skype is tougher with or without video.
“Every level of interaction reveals a different personality of a candidate. While video conferencing is close to a face-to-face chat, still the camera can’t pick up all the emotions of the interviewee and the interviewer. Apparently, fewer candidates can crack the interview.”
IIT-Bombay installed a video-conferencing system last year but the system was used this year. “Till now, six companies had conducted virtual interviews of over 25 students. Companies who hire PhD, MPhil and MTech students demand this mode more as they want senior bosses based in remote cities to talk to candidates personally before confirmation,” said Prof Ravi Sinha, head of campus placement cell, IITB.
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