Anyone used Microsoft Teams?

[GlitterSquid]

Please help! I've been invited to a job interview on Microsoft Teams later this week. I've never used it in my life!

The lady at HR said she would email me an invite to the interview and I just 'join'. Is that right?

Don't I have to download it and register first? I really don't want to mess this up.

I would be using an iPad, by the way.

You can join Teams using a browser from a link. I think you can also phone into Teams but I've not done it myself.

Good luck.

Download it and have a play about with it. Do you have a friend that you could do a test call with? You can join through a browser as well so downloading it isn't essential.

It is pretty easy - I don't mean to alarm you! - but you'll feel better if you've tried it!

There will be youtube tutorials as well - don't worry!

In the meeting invites that will be sent to your inbox, there will be a link, at the time of the interview, click on the link and you will be able to join the interview.
Note that you may be kept waiting in a virtual 'lobby' so don't worry if you are effectively put on hold, this happens when the rest of the meeting panel are joining or having a quick pre-interview chat.

If you are really concerned, you could ask hr to arrange a quick test call, where they send you another meeting invite and link.

You’ll get a link in the email and you just click on it and open it in your browser. If you’re worried it might be worth having a trial run - we usually offer our candidates a run through if anyone is new to Teams, so you could ask HR or the person interviewing to set up a 5 minute test, or if you know someone who uses it already then you send you a link and you could try it out before the interview?

Good luck - you’ll be amazing!

Have a look at this - it explains step-by-step how to join a Teams call from a mobile device as a guest, ie without registering. Seems pretty straightforward. Good luck with the interview

support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/join-a-meeting-without-a-teams-account-c6efc38f-4e03-4e79-b28f-e65a4c039508#ID0EDD=Mobile

You do not have to download Teams or sign up to anything.

Be aware of anything in background that you don't want on screen and try and relax. Good luck,

teamsdemo.office.com/index.html#/

Try the demo out.
Shows you how it works in desktop or mobile so you can get familiar before the interview.

Things like setting/blurring your background could be useful depending on your environment.

Ah OP I interview people all the time over teams so here are my best tips:

• Make sure your audio is working beforehand and the camera isn’t pointed at your chin/the ceiling

-Teams will keep you in the lobby.
Don’t get bored and start scrolling on your phone/wandering around

• Dress your screen! We can’t see anything in front of you, put up lots of tips and points you want to get across around you on post it’s

Agree with PP, get a friend / colleague to send you an invite beforehand and have a try at joining. But also to make sure you know how to turn you mic and camera on and off.

They won’t down mark you but it is off putting when someone joins an interview and is faffing about saying I can’t hear you, can you see me etc… a trial run will put your mind at rest and allow you to focus on the interview Q’s beforehand rather than worrying about MS Teams.

Good luck OP

I’m no techie, but I use Teams most days for work calls. If I can use it, anyone can. When a purple box flashes up on your screen informing you that Susan Bloggs has started the meeting, you just click ‘join’ and you’re in.

There is a Teams app for iPad in the App Store, I would start by downloading that onto your iPad then get someone to e-Mail you a Teams meeting invite to use as a test run. Hopefully someone who is actually knowledgeable will be along to give you proper advice.

God luck with the interview!

I feel like I live my life via teams these days!
Definitely try and have a play around if you can, but I promise it is easy to use and I am not particularly computer literate.

You can download the Teams app for free.

Do you know anyone who uses Teams who could send you some Teams invitations and you can practice joining and get comfortable?

It's really easy honestly. But I wouldn't want an interview to be my first try.

Dress your screen! We can’t see anything in front of you, put up lots of tips and points you want to get across around you on post it’s

Definitely do this

@SirChenjins

Dress your screen! We can’t see anything in front of you, put up lots of tips and points you want to get across around you on post it’s

Definitely do this

Yes do this, but be careful you don't read answers. I've interviews on teams before and it's been really obvious that people have written some answers down and are just reading it straight off. Use cues, reminders, but not great long sentences that it's too tempting to read them out loud.

No, don’t read long sentences - it’s for tips and points as @Thefallow says

I much prefer it Zoom. It's easy peasy, I had to use it a lot last year and just followed the instructions once I clicked on the link.

download the app and play around with it for background & lighting.

I wish you success!

I'd download the app, Teams can dick about with the safari browser and you have to play with the preferences. Not something that will help interview nerves or easy to sort at the time of the interview.

Headphones are good for clarity of call and for your answers. Set up at a good angle near the router.

It is a matter of pressing a button to join. You can practice with nearly everyone who works from home. Good luck on the day!

Get a friend to email you a teams meeting invite so you can practice. You need to know how to turn your camera and microphone on and off when you want to speak and that needs a little practice. It's kind of etiquette to mute yourself if there is any background noise or if your cough etc or if other people are talking for a long time. You will be fine

It’s pretty much point and go.

I had a business meeting on another platform and arrived early so decided to have a look at the face options (glasses, change hair colour…). Sadly the bushy moustache, bright red lips, and Groucho Marx eyebrows I added to my face hit ‘stuck’ as I couldn’t figure out how to delete them and the guests arrived. I put by hand over my mouth to hide the moustache and lips as my MD started briefing the agency. The agency team realised what has happened and started giggling until my MD stopped talking a looked a bit puzzled.

I said ‘so you’ve realised…’ and took my hand away. It could have gone either way with the boss but they found it amusing. This wasn’t long after the lawyer attended a meeting as a cat.

Just don’t do that and you will be fine.

If you’re using an iPad make sure it’s stood up on a stand or something so it’s stable. I interviewed someone recently who was just sat on their sofa holding their phone in their hand and it was really off putting and difficult to have a serious conversation.

Yes and don’t google the answers to the interview questions - I had someone doing this.

Worst of all, she silently mouthed the words as she typed them……we could see her……and then she was reading the answers off the screen……we could see her eyes moving, we could see her looking at the keyboard as she typed, we could see her lips mouthing out the words she wanted to search on…..it was hilarious!

Not hilarious enough to employ her though!

Thank you so much everyone. Informative and reassuring!
I will definitely download and have a play around with it beforehand. I'm not tech-averse, I've just never had occasion to use Teams in my role.

When she said that I heard myself say "oh yes, that's absolutely fine" whist internally I was thinking 'Don't panic, don't panic......PANIC RIGHT NOW!!!!!!' 🙈