I have a job interview tomorrow morning (and we'll get to how weird a job interview on a Sunday morning is later), and they have asked me to be connected to Google hangouts at the same time that they ring me. Over the past few days, I have asked many people, many of them younger and more internet-savvy than me what this is and how to work it. Only a few are even aware of it, and no one has used it. I'm desperately trying to get it on my computer for tomorrow, Does anyone know ANYTHING about it?
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Never used it. I know it's supposed to be an alternative to Skype, but that is where my knowledge ends. The most helpful thing I can come up with is that apparently there is an extension to the Chrome browser that connects to the Google Hangouts platform.
Best of luck tomorrow!Comment
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So are they going to be able to see me, or am I just going to be typing stuff?
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Depends if you turn on your camera
I've always used it just for chat, but they may want to see you.Comment
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Just to make thing worse (sorry, but I'm getting a bit stressy) I have now got it on my phone, but I think they want to be talking to me on the phone while Hangouting me on the computer. But the Google won't let me have this app on my computer without me being on Google Play, and I can't sign up for Google Play without entering card details, which I am reluctant to do as they won't say why or how much they want to charge me?
(thank you n=both for your help so far)Comment
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It's exactly like a videoconference. If you're just talking to one person he/she will appear on your screen (with you in a small square at the bottom corner) and vice versa. We used it quite extensively in HMRC for a while, but before I retired last year they were beginning to move away from it, with Skype For Business via Office 365 lined up as the replacement.Comment
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Google Play often uses card details as ID. It won't charge you anything without telling you how much it will be, and only if you expressly agree to pay it.Originally posted by pebblethefish View Post
That said, I can understand your reticence.Comment
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Have never had a videoconference in my life. Please remember that I sell flowers at the moment, which is why I'm trying to get a proper job. (sorry, sounded snarky there, but didn't mean it, just a bit scared). Have now got the thing on my computer, but can't remember how, so I'll have to wake up a couple of hours early tomorrow to try and do it again. And, if gjw's right, an extra half hour early so I can have a shave, because no one's going to employ me looking like thisComment
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Yes, they have had my card details for years, but never charged me (as I've never downloaded an Android pay app).
That said, I don't fully understand why they would want you to be on your phone and computer simultaneously. Doesn't your phone have a speaker and/or your computer a microphone?Comment
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It's for an internet bank, and I think they're going to want me to Livechat as well as talk. I have to livechat and talk on the phone all the time where I work now, but doing it on a new system for an interview is mildly unnnerving. And I have no idea whether my computer has a microphone because up till now I've never wanted it to, and I thought that the phone WAS a speaker, as in the whole point of it.
I'm probably not cut out for this job, but it's more money, and it's also working nights, which will hopefully stop me drinking so muchComment
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Ah, best of luck with it.
I'm sure you would do it well.Comment
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Best of luck Pebble.Comment
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Yes, good luck, matey.Comment
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I think I'm too late to the thread, but Hangouts is usually a Google Chrome extension that offers similar functions to Skype (although in the browser). There are Android and iOS versions too.Comment
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Late to the thread too (hope all went well pebbles).
Isn't 'Hangouts' being deleted or something? Upgraded? Never used it, but vaguely remember hearing something about it.Comment
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I use it for work, and we have a video conference twice a week. It's easy on my MacBook, but as that was in for repair on Thursday I had to dial in on my phone so I could speak, and on my PC for the visual (if I set up a mike on the PC, that would work and I wouldn't need both).
Hope it went well, I've been interviewed a couple of times by video.Comment
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Good old HMRC and their old Technology.Originally posted by gjw100 View Post
Someone should tell them Skype for Business is now being deprecated and they should be using Teams.Comment
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Everyone around our place has been using Slack for about 18 months, and it's great. Then the New York office wanted in, but they'll only authorize them for Teams, so now we're all learning that nonsense. People default to Slack just out of habit / preference, though.Comment
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Yes Slack is excellent.Comment
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It does try to be friendly, though, which I can't stand.Comment
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Teams is surprisingly good for an MS product. Shows how scared they are of Slack eating Skype's lunch.Comment
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Well, that didn't go as planned...
The reason that the interview was for the weird time of Sunday morning was that it wasn't then at all. I had been invited to book a time on the interviewer's calendar, and that was the time it suggested. As the time came and went, I eventually tried again, and it gave me the option of Thursday morning, and this time it let me confirm, and sent me a confirmation.
So this morning, an hour in advance, I was all smart and in front of the screen, beer cans and ashtray hidden under the table. 11am came and went. I didn't want to sound pushy, but at 11.10 I sent an "aren't we meant to be having an interview?" message. Had nearly given up when, at 11.23, everything on the screen moved round. Then it flashed up, incoming call! Quickly positioned myself in front of the screen, clicked "answer" and... my computer decided to close Hangouts. Feverishly reloaded it, to see two missed calls - tried to call her, which then just brought up a video of me with my fridge in the background, with the heading "You are the only person here", which sounds like social media having a go at a teenager.
Gave up. Went upstairs.
Then got a text message, via hangouts, sorry she missed me, try again at 5.30? Happy days - I have a second chance!
Turned on the computer at 5. "Windows updating... do not turn off your computer" AAAAGH! Had to download the app onto my phone (which for a technophobe like me is not as easy as it sounds). But at 5.25 I'd figured it, and at the exact same moment, my computer decided to turn on, and automatically load up Hangouts, possibly out of contrition for it's behaviour earlier. So now I had my phone on, and my laptop, and didn't know which would take priority, or whether both would ring and she'd get a video of me trying to answer my phone, or it wouldn't work at all.
And then waited.
At 5.45 my phone made a noise it had never made before (my computer ignored everything), so I put on my best cheesy smile and answered... what was basically just a phone call, via Hangouts. So, she could have just called me, unless she wanted to realise how basically unsuitable I am for a technical help position. I'm glad I applied for the night shift now, because the only way I'm going to get the job is if no one else has applied.Comment
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As another slightly alcoholic, middle -aged, well meaning, not totally out of date but still massively confused man, I have total sympathy, Pebble.
Helpful and proven,ergonomic technology is great. Unnecessary competitive label crap between Apple, Microsoft, Google, Android or whoever is just hugely confusing to an Average Joe.
To expect knowledge of a relatively obscure (out of date?) Interface as a prerequisite for an interview seems pretty arrogant. Especially when a video call seemed to have been sufficient anyway.
I suspect the woman interviewing you probably felt the same and probably had this crap imposed on her from on high or sideways.Comment
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