I'd like to think that interviews in many ways support Walter Fisher's Narrative Paradigm that believes that all meaningful communication is a form of storytelling. This is almost more true when having an online interview. For in an online interview, it is you who are setting the stage, choosing your background, and working to tell the most compelling story you can.
Interviews aren't the great joy of my life. I tend to go mind blank at the strangest time. And the amount of tension in my body is phenomenal. Unless I can distract myself I also tend to go into hyperventilation. But my recent experience with an online interviewing teaching aid makes me wonder if online interviewing might not be an answer to many of my problems.
While using this online technology on a mock interview for a class I was taking I found that I found talking to a camera to be much easier that talking to real people. But I do wonder how much of what I learned from the experience would actually apply in a situation where I am doing a live video conference, such as with using Skype where there is an actual person on the other side of your screen.
Using the online interview technology allowed me to easily work on my flow and positive demeanor. I loved how I could reshoot when I flubbed my lines, or when I heard how a pause was affecting my delivery I could instantly reassess what I was saying. This was one of the best, and most helpful parts of the experience. However, I never was happy with the lighting I achieved, and this is something I will definitely have to work on in the future. I also was unfortunately unable to get my android tablet to access the program used on the site, so I had to borrow another computer with video capability, but that worked out okay for this instance. I was surprised that I enjoyed the format of the interview as much as I did.
Overall this online interview training was fairly positive and I feel that I was able to use it fairly easily to tell the story that needed to be told. I was able to set the stage, and tell the lines with more control online that typically possible in face-to-face. So if you have thought of the possibility of having an online interview in your future, I would suggest setting the stage, and learning the technology variables so you too might tell the best story that you can, in this small portion of your life story.
Can the internet allow us to see what people think? In general I would say yes, people are posting their thoughts, their beliefs, and sometimes their rage. But it really depends, both on the person who is posting (some are good at hiding their thoughts) and on the readers perception (some people can't see their way out of a paper bag).