The Alumni Network Blog

In March earlier this year, I got a new job. I was over the moon excited, as I now was able to work full-time as a Communications Officer at the University. And this being my first ever full-time job since graduating in January, you can probably imagine how excited I was when I stepped into the office on my first day.

I was able to work for five days at the office, before my new boss informed us all that from now on, we would all work from home. In the beginning it was a peculiar situation, not only for me as a new employee, but for everyone. Luckily, I had a great onboarding and got comfortable in my new role very quickly.

As working from home is somewhat of the new “normal” right now, I can imagine that many of you who are currently looking for jobs will have a somewhat similar experience to me when starting a new job during these special times. Therefore, I had a chat with Anna Alpenhoff, who has experience with hosting digital introductions for new employees as well as digital recruiting, and she shared some of her best tips:  

• Make sure you are given a contact person that will have time set aside in their daily work to be available for you when you need them. As a new employee, you will have a lot of questions and it’s comforting to know that this person will have time to answer your calls or emails.
• During meetings, ask if it’s okay to record the video call. Then you don’t have to worry about taking notes during the meeting, instead you can go back to the material later if you need to refresh your memory. But make it clear that the recording is simply for your personal use only!
• Have an honest conversation with your co-workers about how you’re feeling about your situation. Everyone can agree that the situation we’re in is unusual and there’s a mutual understanding that it can be a struggle, especially if you’re new.
• If your office has a digital “fika” or other regular informal video meetings, make sure you attend them. These are great for being included in the informal conversations at the office.

Anna has also conducted Skype interviews when recruiting new employees, so she had two additional tips for those of you who are going to have a digital interview:

• Do your digital interview in a calm, quiet setting where you feel comfortable.
• Make sure the technical bit works beforehand. Having a microphone or camera that doesn’t work in the middle of a digital interview, will just be stressful and interruptive.

She also highlighted that even though digital interviews have some obvious differences from “regular” interviews, they aren’t that different. What’s most important is that you are prepared for the interview regardless of whether it’s digital or in person.