Video interview: 5 original ideas for companies

Would you like to create a successful corporate video interview on screen that is out of the ordinary? An original format with a lot of benefits? It’s true that if you want to create engagement, visibility and interaction techniques on your various channels, you might as well create 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 the interview.

Here are some tips, information and advice before you do anything. Our short guide to original corporate interviews to include in your communication strategy. And you don’t have to be a studio to produce great stuff, much better than a Skype meeting, with higher quality 😉

What are the advantages of conducting a company interview?

• Firstly, the interview gives a zoom, a human, authentic face to your company. If it’s the co-founders, it breaks down the walls between them and their target audience of prospects or customers. If it is an interview with your employees, they are perfectly legitimate to talk about you, your values and your projects. 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 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.
• Unlike a traditional corporate film, questions and answers, often from touch and go, create much more dynamism, and allow for shorter content and introduction.
• By integrating the corporate interview into your digital strategy, you can create leads, attract future prospects, but also promote your employer brand.

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 as much as possible, 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: you can start with top ideas, such as:

• 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?
• 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 professional 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?
• 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?

• Ideas for interviewing your managers

Interviewing the members of your company also involves the managers and co-founders: in this way, the latter agree 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 candidates (or even your client), who often have a rather austere image of them.

Ideally, if the company has several founders, you might as well interview them at the same time, to create interaction.

First, you can ask some basic questions: 

• How did you meet?
• How did you come up with the concept? The tool?
• If you had to describe the concept/tool/application in three words?
• Is it possible to have doubts when you are 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?
• Any advice for candidates?
• What has management taught you?

To add a little dynamism, 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 Fast & Curious interview

Definition: Do you know the Fast & Curious? It’s a very popular interview format, launched by the media company Konbini a few years ago, which became very popular with companies during the first containment. Indeed, it was a way to maintain the link with its community, one of the best marketing ressources to attract and maintain contact. The objective is simple: several questions are asked in a binary way, in the form of a dilemma: sea or mountain? Morning or evening? Tea or coffee? Office or telework, etc. The aim is to answer quickly, thus bringing dynamism and above all spontaneity to the exchange.

And discover the Fast and Curious interview with Sophie, Client Success Manager at Pitchy, made with our camera, in our office:

#2 Job battle interview

The idea of this type of company 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 feedback on a number of questions: 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?

#3 Informal interview of managers

Depending on the image you wish to project of your company and its management, it is important to humanise the leaders (or entrepreneurial co-founders: in short, the decision-makers), to make them appear more human to their teams, but also externally. Decentralise the image of the leader, the boss, and the action of leading.

This is the objective of this type of interview: to immerse oneself, to know what music they listen to in the morning, what are their favourite activities? Their qualities? Their faults? Paintings that hang in their office and to which they are particularly attached.

#4 Informal employee video interview

Why not do the same with your internal teams? In this way, candidates who wish to apply to your company (executives, future employees, or for an internship or work-study program) will have the opportunity to discover the future people with whom they will be working in a more human, less professional way, and to evaluate possible chemistry. Here again, for the questions, be creative. Unlike the Fast and Curious, these are no dilemmas, but more open-ended questions.

Referring back to childhood always has an effect: as children, the employees may have wanted to do something else. The audience is also curious about: 

• The identity of the company?
• 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?

#5 The Express Employee Interview

The Express Interview can combine elements of the Fast and Curious 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 create video by interviewing your employees or managers with a simple web solution? Ask for a demo of the smart software Pitchy and discover our platform, templates and service online.