Interview Insights
05.12.2020
Tips for making remote technical interviews enjoyable
The Karat Team
Interviewing is stressful enough without having to contend with WFH distractions, bad lighting, spotty WiFi, and a bunch of job candidates who are in the exact same boat heading into your remote interviews.
“You’re not hiring a file or a folder, you’re hiring a person. Code comes from people.” – Brian Holland, Karat Interview Engineer
Over the past few months, we’ve been sharing resources to help organizations ease the transition into fully remote hiring (resource links below), but we also wanted to share some quick tips directly from the Interview Engineering community, including:
- Have a well lit, uncluttered space
- Introduce yourself, share your background and ask about the candidates’ background to ease them into the interview and build confidence
- Encourage the candidate by using phrases such as, “Nice Catch” and “Good Find”
- Share expectations of the interview at the beginning of the interview
As always, we’re happy to answer any remote interviewing questions in the comments. Thank you to all the Interview Engineers who shared their tips, and good luck with your interviews from everyone at Karat!
More Remote Interview Engineering resources
- 10 best cities for software engineers
- Engineering the technical interview (whitepaper)
- Guide to taking interviews virtual (whitepaper)
- How to establish and measure relevant competencies
- How to create a structured rubric
- Tips for remote onboarding
Interview Engineering in the press
- How to hire 100 engineers (CTO Connections podcast, featuring Cat Miller, VP of Engineering, Flatiron Health)
- How to reduce bias when hiring software engineers virtually (BuiltIn, by Shannon Hogue, Karat Head of Solutions Engineering)
Remote interview tips for candidates
- Preparing for a remote technical interview
Related Content
AI Hiring
12.17.2025
Download the full 2025–2026 AI Workforce Transformation Report → https://karat.com/resource/ai-workforce-transformation-report/ AI is transforming software development faster than most organizations can adapt. Engineering productivity is accelerating, the ROI of strong engineers is increasing, and AI-native workflows are reshaping how teams build software. But, while engineering has moved into the human + AI era, most hiring practices […]
Interview Insights
06.25.2025
Same-day technical interviews are transforming how software teams compete for top engineering talent. By enabling candidates to schedule and complete interviews within hours of receiving an invite, companies dramatically improve time-to-hire, offer acceptance rates, and candidate experience. Learn how Karat's global network of trained Interview Engineers delivers scalable, 24/7 interview coverage—and why this operational edge is critical in the race for AI and software engineering talent.
Interview Insights
10.21.2024
When companies are rapidly growing, they prioritize hiring speed and volume, but it’s often at the expense of candidate quality and the candidate experience. Atlassian found itself in this situation when it needed to quickly grow its engineering teams. As a global company that cares about providing a positive, fair experience to every candidate and […]