What's the best video interview option
Plus a podcast on rejection and resilience
I think I may start this week’s podcast with a cathartic rant about Microsoft Teams. I hate Teams. It never works and gets very confused with which account I’m on. It seems very hit and miss whether it will actually send an invite through the calendar even though you’ve added people. I’ve had numerous occasions recently where an interviewee is apparently waiting for me to let them into the meeting but I can’t see them.
It’s clearly time for some kind of intense IT helpdesk session to figure out why it’s going so wrong for me but I haven’t got that kind of time/headspace. I would avoid it altogether for my favourite online video call option of Zoom but lots of people I’m interviewing in the NHS are very wedded to Teams and use it all day long.
Yet it’s got me pondering what is the best option for a freelance journalist who wants something usable without having to spend money. I should put my hands up here and admit I do have a Zoom Pro account that comes as part of my casual university teaching job. Maybe its just that this is the platform I have most experience with.
A few years ago I would have found it odd we were even having this conversation. At the start of the pandemic when we all moved over to video chat, I didn’t like it at all. But then I was getting used to a lot of new things and had the added jeopardy of having small children at home, liable to pop up into the screen at any moment.
Cut to now and I’ve almost given up on the telephone. I recently had to organise 12 interviews with professionals working in different types of business for a series of profile pieces and when I gave them the option, the majority of them ended up being over Zoom rather than a phone call. It would seem I’m not the only one getting used to this mode of communication.
So lets take a look at what’s out there:
Zoom
In our experience, Zoom works pretty well for an interview or meeting and most responses from the FFJ community suggest most of you prefer it too. We have recorded all our podcast episodes this way. The basic version, which is free, gives you up to 40 minutes per meeting for up to 100 people and there’s a chat function. You can record but only to your computer. If you want more, the Pro version will cost £119.90 per year, with meeting time extended up to 30 hours and 5GB of cloud storage. There is also a new AI assistant function that can apparently do meeting summaries although we have not used it.
Teams
In the free version of Microsoft Teams you can have meetings, instant message people and share files. One on one meetings can be up to 30 hours and group audio or video calls up to an hour. Once you're in a meeting, I find it works fine but the App and login can be a bit glitchy particularly if you have more than one account, which seems to cause lots of confusion (I am not the only one who has been thwarted by this). You can upgrade to Teams Essentials for small businesses which allows for unlimited meetings, recordings and transcripts for £3.30 a month.
Google Meet
I’ve used Google Meet at other people’s request and it’s fine. It is easy to set up an interview and get in but I have had times when the sound has not been great or it’s cutting out when people are speaking over each other. But then again I didn’t play around with the settings so perhaps could have solved that. Anyone with a Google account can use the free version to host a video meeting, invite up to 100 participants, and meet for up to 60 minutes per meeting at no cost. Again there is a range of pricing options for business that come with more features depending on what you opt for. Starts at £5 a month.
WhatsApp
I regularly use WhatsApp video calling for speaking to family and there’s also the option for group calls which during the pandemic we used quite a bit. But I’ve never really used it for work interviews, even though I do use it for contacting and messaging people. Not sure why - maybe something to do with using it from my phone rather than computer or that it’s a bit less formal. It’s free though and works fairly well as long as you’re not expecting top notch audio quality. We have spoken to journalists who make regular use of it so maybe we should bump it up the list.
Signal
While some journalists use Signal a lot, I’ve only moved to it when I’ve had particularly sensitive conversations with a contact. The video chat function is very similar to WhatsApp. The downside is most people aren’t using it so you have to explain why you want them to download a new App. Its all end-to-end encrypted and free of charge so worth considering if you want to protect a source.
There are probably plenty of others we don’t know about and Lily was very surprised the other day to find that Skype still exists when a contact sent her a link. Ultimately, it depends what you have access to, how much you’re willing to spend and what you need it for. Perhaps you find certain options more accessible - live captions for example. For me Zoom is likely to remain the go to but if anyone can tell me why I have such a meltdown every time I use Teams, I’m willing to learn! Come and share your thoughts. Do you pay for an upgrade? Or do you rarely do interviews this way? Tell us what works for you.
Podcast on rejection and resilience
In the podcast this week we talk about practical solutions to help cope with rejection as a freelance journalist. How can we become more resilient and turn rejection into positive action? Expert advice is on hand from freelance marine science writer Melissa Hobson and rural affairs and human interest reporter Kate Chapman. You can now watch the podcast on YouTube as well - click below for the link.
What’s coming up
Our four-week course on how to ‘Kickstart your freelance journalism career’ will be starting its next run on 6th November so you’ll have to be quick but you can still sign up this week. The course, which we run with Journalism.co.uk, is one of the best value out there, is fully flexible and can be done completely in your own time. You get online lessons to work through then unlimited feedback from Lily and I through our Slack group as well as live Zoom sessions to pick our brains. We cover finding work, developing ideas, pitching, as well as building your brand and getting regular gigs. Find out more or book your place at the link below.
Triumph of the week
Getting a new bit of regular work out of the blue
That feeling when
You press send on a big commission/project that’s been taking up all your time
We love to hear your feedback on everything we do, so feel free to drop us an email anytime at freelancingforjournalists@gmail.com
Bye for now!
Yes, agree totally about Teams. Only the last of last resorts. Google Meet has worked pretty well for me. You can hook up your calendar to Otter.ai for meeting summaries, too. Ralph