Video interview: The Complete Guide

It’s true that if you want to create engagement, visibility and interaction techniques on your various channels, you might as well create video content that is out of the ordinary, both for your networks and for your blog.

We are in the age of the all-video: it is the most consulted content because it is the most quickly assimilated. But in the midst of this sea of videos, you’ll have to stand out, because you’re not the only one who wants to post interviews with your employees or managers. Do not hesitate to check out our other blog articles regarding interview videos.

Here are some key tips, information and advice before you do anything. With our short guide to original corporate interviews, we look to help you include them in your communication strategy for your business. And you don’t need to be a studio to produce great stuff, much better than a Skype meeting, with higher quality. Today with an easy-to-use online video editor, you can have a professional result, and anyone in your company can use this kind of video maker, designed for beginners. Read our previous article about how to choose the right video maker for your teams for more information.

What are the advantages of conducting a company video interview?

Firstly, an engaging interview is a great way to give a zoom, a human, authentic face to your business. If it’s the co-founders, it breaks down the walls between them and their target audience of prospects or customers. If your employees are the interviewees in your video, they are perfectly legitimate to talk about you, your values and your projects. Thus, future candidates will appreciate their feedback and will be able to form their own opinion. At the same time, they will be able to put faces to the people they are likely to work with.

Video interviews are quick to do regarding filming logistics: you don’t need much equipment, except perhaps a proper camera to film the interview and a lapel microphone to make sure you get the sound. If the interviewee is comfortable with technology, they can even film themselves in selfie mode with their smartphone. With all of these relatively easy requirements, you don't need to have much experience in video production to shoot such corporate videos.

Unlike a traditional corporate film, questions and answers, often from touch and go, interview videos create much more dynamism, and allow for shorter content and introduction. By integrating the corporate video interview into your digital strategy, you can create leads, attract future prospects, but also promote your employer brand to your future potential viewers.

Types of video interview to communicate corporate culture

The Konbini Fast & Curious: a short and effective format for corporate purposes

This is the type of video that made Konbini famous. This format, known as "Fast & Curious", features a short intro and outro followed by 10 to 15 rapid-fire, close-ended questions in a dilemma style. This type of interview is very simple to produce, no need to brief the employees beforehand, the point is to be fast and spontaneous.

This is an effective format for showcasing both a job and an employee's personality, all in a quick and engaging clip.

The Fast Life: to bring out personalities during recruitment

Fast Life is another one of the viral formats created by Konbini. With regard to the script, it is not very different from “Fast & Curious,” except that you ask open questions. “Fast Life” focuses on the personal tastes and major life stages of the interviewee. How do you draw inspiration from this format? “Fast Life” can be adapted to ask questions about the professional background of your employees. This video will highlight your recruitment policy and profile diversity. It is a customised format for showing the diversification of your recruitment and to avoid “cloning.”

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'One minute with..', 'the 3QAs', or 'The Clash of Jobs': engaging formats to showcase your corporate culture

The “3QAs,” “clash of jobs” or “One minute with” are short and fun formats that should be filmed as a video meeting.

We thus advise you to ask the same questions to the various speakers. This compilation can therefore include a series of interviews with employees of the same department to describe the work environment and methods. You can also choose to interview employees from different areas to reflect the work environment in the company.

The “clash of jobs” video shows two people with differing points of view on the same job. This type of interview is a good practice implemented in particular by Welcome to the Jungle, a platform and recruitment medium that posts interviews on the key functions of recruiting companies. It is an effective way of presenting your company, its employees and services differently.

The mobile or contextualised interview: to highlight your work environment and your employees

A rather traditional question-answer format is used for the script. The originality of this format lies in the core idea of highlighting your employees, your department and your work environment at the same time. It can be in the form of a trendy “Camera Café” in your lounge area or office. Or an interview that showcases your product. One of the most famous examples of contextualised interviews is the video of “Simone,” an official spokesperson of the SNCF, whose interview takes place in the first class area of a TGV (high-speed train). It is also useful for product placement in employer brand videos!

Brut-style interviews: top-tier production for special occasions

Brut is a viral medium that only broadcasts video on social networks and provides meticulous interview formats. With a duration of 3 to 5 minutes, this journalistic format is a formidable format in terms of production. Brut films the interviewee by zooming in and out throughout the duration of the shoot. This trick can be used to provide alternating shots (medium shots and close-ups) without working on transitions while providing close-ups of the face during the interviewee’s responses to better capture emotions.

These videos are consistently subtitled and include a set of keywords that contextualise the answers. They also use shots of illustrations to build on the interviewee’s responses. In addition, the volume of the music in the video changes according to the different shots, creating an atmosphere that is appropriate to what is said in the interview. This type of interview can be used, among other things, for management announcements.

The long QA (Question-Answer), ideal for virtual management interviews

Long QAs can last for up to 20 minutes. This format is similar to journalistic formats used for celebrity testimonials. Keep in mind that 20 minutes is a very long time for a video. The questions must therefore be used to draw out new, valuable information. Production questions are a classic format based on a fixed shot your employee, livened up by filmed or animated illustrations, with an intro and outro. The originality of the format lies in the preparation of the script. The idea is to have all the questions answered without the interviewee having viewed them beforehand. The interview thus makes it possible to deliver transparent and sincere content. This is one of the preferred formats for spreading a corporate message on a large scale.

The GRWM (get ready with me) video : for a peek into the lives of employees

A making-of type of video with a hand-held camera (don’t forget your stabiliser!). This video format is used to show YouTubers getting ready for their day. The format is ideal for describing the tasks and job of an employee. Or for promoting the work of a manager. One example is the work of communication professional Isalou Beaudet-Regen who went even further by making videos of managers from the time they wake up, called "morning magic".

Ideas for interview questions for new recruits

If you are welcoming someone (or recruiting), you need to get away from triviality and present the new recruit with key information they will need, especially internally, to facilitate integration. You will have to be original, look for inspiration, to stand out from the crowd of future candidates. Ideally, you should alternate between professional and personal questions, to keep things light. For example, your interviewee can start by answering questions such as the following:

• What are your reasons for applying?
• What is your job in three words?
• What is your background?
• Where did you study?
• Where did you work?
• What department do you work in?
• How would you like to develop?
• What are the main factors that made you consider working for our business?
• If you had to describe the company in a few words?
• What makes you get up in the morning?
• What is your motto or philosophy?
• What are your main challenges?
• What do you expect from this new professional adventure?
• If you had to choose a mentor, who would you choose?
• When was the last time you laughed a lot?
• Your favourite movie quote?
• What is your pet peeve?
• Among your set of skills, what is your incredible talent?
• If you had to take three things to a deserted island, what would you take?
• Out of 10, how would you rate the reception in society?
• Your favourite film?
• What is your greatest quality?
• What has been your best moment since you arrived?
• What did you think of your first day in the company?
• How do you see yourself in the next five years?
• What message do you want to tell future recruits?
• What's the biggest accomplishment you want to share with our audience?
• What do you feel about our business culture?

With these different points, you will make sure that the answers in the video will encompass a good and complete message that represents your company in the appropriate manner to your viewers.

Some key ideas for interviewing your managers in a video made with a video creator

Interviewing your staff also involves the managers and co-founders: in this way, the latter agrees to play the game, by revealing themselves a little. This transparency on the part of the managers can create a climate of trust, and above all reassure your viewers, whether they are potential candidates or even your customers. Indeed, external people often think that the managers and/or founders have a rather austere image. Therefore, interview videos can be important to create an engaging image of your management by allowing them to share the story of the corporation.

As an interviewer, if the corporation has several founders, you might as well interview them at the same time, to create interaction.

First, you can start to ask some basic but engaging questions such as the following:

• How did you meet?
• How did you find the name of your organisation?
• How did you come up with the business concept? The tool?
• If you had to describe the concept/tool/application/brand in three words?
• What was your greatest challenge while coming up with the product and/or the idea?
• What do you think of having doubts as an entrepreneur?
• What obstacles did you face?
• Any failure that taught you a lot?
• What qualities do you look for in your future recruits?
• What career opportunities are available to candidates?
• Is there any advice you want to tell the future candidates who may watch this video?
• What has management taught you?
• What are your plans for this organisation in the next five years?

To add a little dynamism during the conversation, you can alternate in the same interview or in another video if it is easier for you, with more binary and especially lighter questions, for example:

• Being in the field or being in the office?
• Work or politics?
• Pride or pride?
• Formal or informal?
• Vertical or horizontal organisation?
• Idealistic or optimistic?

#1 Job battle video interview

The idea of this type of corporate interview is to imagine a sort of virtual confrontation between two people who have the same job, but in two different companies.

The aim is to get their different responses on a number of interview questions: What is your training? What qualities are essential for this job? Your greatest challenges? Your job in a few figures? The question you are most often asked?

#2 Informal interview of managers

Depending on the image you wish to project of your corporation and its management to future recruits and customers, it is important to humanise the leaders (or entrepreneurial co-founders: in short, the decision-makers). Indeed, making them appear more human to their teams will also allow you to decentralise the image of the leader, the boss, and the action of leading externally.

The main objective of this type of interview is to immerse oneself in their lives without being too inquisitive. For example, the interviewer may ask the following questions to the interviewees:

• What kind of music do you listen to in the morning?
• What are your favourite activities?
• What are your qualities and shortcomings?
• What do the paintings that hang in your office mean to you? Which one are you are particularly attached to?

#3 Informal employee video interview

After your managers, why not have the same interview subject with your internal teams? In this way, candidates who wish to apply to your company will have the opportunity to discover the future people with whom they will be working with. By watching your video, you will allow them to look to their future colleagues in a more human, less professional way, and to evaluate possible chemistry. Here again, for the set of questions, feel free to be creative. These are more open-ended questions.

Referring back to childhood always has an astonishing effect. Indeed, as children, you may find that your employees wanted to do something else and shared their stories about their dreams. In this type of interview, the audience is also curious about:

• The identity of the organisation?
• The history of the recruitment?
• What is the job? Which department? Accounting? Legal? Treasury?
• The main mission?
• The background of the interviewee? His/her career path?
• How does he/she evaluate his/her performance?
• A typical day?
• Your typical week?
• The 3 necessary qualities?
• A passion in life? A favourite actor? A favourite actress?
• A favourite sport?
• A club that the person supports?
• A new process he/she wants to try in their position?

#4 The Express Employee Interview

The Express Interview can combine elements of the dilemma interview with those of the Offbeat Collaborator Interview. This means that you can present dilemmas and questions that require slightly more extensive answers, all in a shorter video time than the offbeat interview.

How about making it yourself, as an expert? Do you want to start making video by interviewing your employees or managers with a simple web solution? You can use a device, an easy platform on your laptop, or even on your mobile phone, to make a great interview for organisations. When you shoot your interview with your smartphone or your webcam, while recording, be careful about sound and audio effects (distractions from the surrouding) and lighting in your office, to avoid future technical difficulties.

Once your video interview, whether of your employees or your managers, has been edited and finalised (lighting, background, highlighted goals, transitions, microphone, graphic charter, highlighted keywords, etc.), it must be broadcast to measure its impact on your audience. Social networks remain the reference channel for reaching a maximum number of people, especially your subscribers, who are sensitive to your themes, otherwise they would not follow you.

But as you can imagine, social networks are not identical, and do not address the same target, the same type of viewer. Tik Tok remains THE social network for young people, for those under 25. On the other hand, if you have a more B2B target, LinkedIn is the one to use.

And depending on the social network chosen, the format of the video will vary. Here are some tips, for a better practice.

On Facebook

You can receive all kinds of information on Facebook: news, if you follow the press, sponsored commercial posts, ads, posts from friends, etc… It’s up to you to make your way through this tide of information.

According to a study carried out by Emarketer, since 2017, the average time spent on Facebook on a daily basis has tended to fall, particularly among younger people, to reach an average of 37 minutes of video consumption in 2020, with a video not exceeding 3 minutes in order to be sufficiently referenced.

In addition to attracting attention quickly, it will be necessary to include subtitles, as the video will tend to start automatically, without sound. And give importance to the beginning of your video, to the intro video, to catch the attention in less than 3 seconds, as it is the rule.

For a classic post of your interview

• If you choose the portrait format: 9:16 , 720 x 1280px. To get the best result with this format, think of filming the interview with an American shot, i.e. from the head to the hips. Ideally, the interviewee should be close enough.
• If you choose the landscape format (horizontal phone), used by default on Youtube: 16:9, 1280 x 720px.

To include your interview in sponsored content

• If you choose a square format (preferred for sponsored content): 600 x 600 px
• And if you choose a landscape format: 1280 x 720 px

On Instagram

Instagram is THE social network for video, which accounts for 80% of its content, and is mainly viewed on mobile (hence the importance of the square or vertical format).

Instagram is less B2B oriented, but rather B2C, towards a relatively young target (under 30). If you want to post a video interview, remember to adopt a more relaxed tone, even if it is about your teams or your managers.

As with Facebook, be aware that most of your videos are likely to be viewed without sound, hence the importance of subtitles.

In the news feed

In the Instagram feed, it will be the square or vertical format for your interview.

Important: on Facebook, you can afford to have a 3-minute interview. On Instagram, however, it is recommended not to exceed 60 seconds.

In stories

Here again, the vertical format should be preferred (or shots filmed in 1080 x 1920), and the length should not exceed 15 seconds. If this is the case, your story will be split, or even divided into several parts, which is not really optimal for the user experience. You can play with this, creating suspense at the beginning of the story, and encourage people to watch the next one. It’s up to you to see how you use these 15 seconds of story!

On LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the “serious” social network for recruiters and companies, since it is aimed at your B2B clients, or your future candidates who will apply for the jobs you publish. Here, it is preferable to broadcast more corporate, more professional video interviews, with a more composed gesture, to talk about your brand, your identity, your values, particularly through your teams, your managers, and why not, through a customer testimonial?

And on LinkedIn, it is recommended not to exceed 2 minutes. Here again, think about subtitles.

Choose the .mp4 format, and a quality higher than 1,440 x 1,080 px. The .mp4 format will allow you to set up your video correctly.

On Snapchat

Snapchat is the Instagram of the under-20s. It’s the social network where teenagers (over 180 million every day) share mostly videos, especially video content, whether it’s advertising or challenges, as was the case during the first confinements in 2020. You’ve probably seen those videos of young people dancing on stairs, to the music of Maggie Lindemann’s “Pretty girl”.

Like Instagram, Snapchat works with stories, so you have to take into account that every ten seconds your video will be interrupted. It’s up to you to grab attention immediately with your interview, or to keep the suspense going by simply posting a photo of the interviewee first. You can even keep the identity of the interviewee until the end, for teasing purposes (especially if the interviewee is a celebrity, for example).

Remember to shoot in 9:16, which is a resolution of 1080 x 1920 px.

On Twitter

Even if Twitter is not the social network of choice for video, it is becoming more and more popular to be seen in the middle of the mass of tweets, knowing that the longevity of the latter is extremely limited. Of course, remember to upload the video directly to the platform so that it is visible (do not upload the Youtube link, otherwise you will only have a video thumbnail in your news feed).

As when you publish your video interview on Facebook, you can use landscape or portrait format. Ideally, the latter is recommended for Twitter.

Do you want to produce a video interview yourself for broadcast on social networks? You don’t need to hire an agency. Thanks to interview video software, you can do your own interviews. Check out our platform!

👉 Ask for a demo of the Pitchy online video editing software