How to Conduct Web Conference Interviews: Policies and Procedures

Step 1

Determine How Interviews Will be Conducted
  • Make sure both the person coordinating the interview and the committee chair have a Mason Zoom account
  • Make sure the coordinator has permission in the platform to schedule on behalf of the committee chair

TIP: Meetings are scheduled on behalf of the Committee Chair so that they can be initiated seamlessly on the day of the interview and do not interfere with other meetings the scheduler may be hosting that day.

Step 2

Schedule Sessions
  • Review Securing your Zoom Meeting
  • Schedule on behalf of the committee chair
  • Title the Interview “Meeting with Mason Dept of X” followed by the candidate’s initials. This will help keep the sessions organized and keep the word “interview” off their calendar.
  • Meeting ID: Select Generate Automatically
  • Enable Waiting Room
  • Select Telephone and Computer for audio so the call can easily transition if there is an issue.
  • Under Advanced Options
    • You can identify other committee members as “Alternative Hosts”
    • Disable Join before host
    • Save
    • Copy and paste the information for that specific meeting and send it in a separate email

TIP: Schedule a separate meeting for each interview & leave a 10-15 minute gap between meetings in the event of technical issues.

Step 3

Test with Candidates
  • The same meeting link created to schedule the interview can be used for testing
  • Test for the candidate’s audio/video connection
  • If the interview coordinator cannot test with the candidate or the candidate needs more testing, Zoom also has a test site available at https://zoom.us/test.

TIP: The candidate should be in the same location and using the same device they plan to use for the interview. Allow time to troubleshoot any issues with their device or network before the day of their interview.

Step 4

Conduct Interviews
  • On the day of the event, the committee chair will initiate the Zoom meeting connection.
  • Once connected, the host can use the in-meeting controls to access more options.

TIP: Use these features to change how a person’s identity is displayed (from a phone number to a name). You can also do a quick test with the candidate before the meeting, then put them back in a waiting room until you are ready to start.

  • If you wish to stay connected to the committee member(s) after the interview, have a separate link scheduled for that purpose OR remove the candidate from the meeting

TIP: The Remove Participant option allows the removal of a participant from a meeting. The participant cannot rejoin unless Allow removed participants to rejoin is enabled in the host’s settings.

Recording Interviews

  • Let the candidate and committee know that the interview will be recorded
  • Only the meeting host can initiate the recording
HR recording policy
  • All recorded interviews must be downloaded by the requesting party to a CD or flash drive and included with all the paperwork generated by a search committee.
  • ITS, Enterprise Collaboration, or Zoom administrators are not responsible for compliance with record retention.

Phone Interviews

Follow steps 1-3 above to schedule the meeting

To start a phone call into the meeting:

  1. The candidate can use the information from the Meeting Invitation email to call from their phone.
  2. Once connected, the candidate and any committee members using Zoom for the meeting will appear on the participant list.
    • Right-click on their name to edit how names are displayed, mute/unmute the candidate’s audio, and expel them from the meeting once the interview is over.
Last modified: August 31, 2022