Teams for personal use - "use your phone"?

[Nick H. Supervisor]

Hi guys,

 

With a possible interview coming up, I've been informed that they would use Teams for the video calling. Wanting to have everything set up in case I get to that stage, I tried to install the Teams application on my laptop and I was asked how I planned on using the application. I selected, "personal use" and was told to install the app on my phone.

If I install the app on my phone and sign in, do I then get the ability to sign in to the desktop application? Or are Microsoft suggesting that the only way to use Teams for personal use is to use it on my phone? If it is the latter then it doesn't make any sense to me. I thought Microsoft is trying to push Teams in an attempt to rival Zoom, but when I was asked to install the app on my phone my first thought was, "screw this, I wonder if they will let us hold a Zoom meeting instead?"

[conan_2000]

I have it installed on my desktop and laptop and you can use it fine. When you join a meeting set up by a corporate user they just have to admit you as a guest. I use it to join most of my work Teams calls.

[Nick H. Supervisor]

1 minute ago, conan_2000 said:

I have it installed on my desktop and laptop and you can use it fine. When you join a meeting set up by a corporate user they just have to admit you as a guest. I use it to join most of my work Teams calls.

Can you remember how you set it up? Did you have to install the app on the phone as well, or do you receive an email invitation that logs you into their meeting?

[REM2000]

I dont know if it helps but for stability i always sign in on Teams using the web browser version as i found the app approach a little convoluted, i did this on macOS Catalina + Google Chrome for maximum compatibility, it seemed more seamless than the app approach.

 

If you wanted a backup then if you have a tablet have the app + link ready to go on that also. I tend to do this to keep my options open, ensure your internet and WIFI is top notch too, i.e. make sure the signal is really strong on WiFi. 

 

However the main thing is to remain calm, ive done plenty of interviews and have been interviewed over Zoom & Teams and work in IT, we all understand there are problems sometimes with joining, the worst is panicking, just calmly work through the problem and youll get there. Ive never marked anyone down for having a problem with Zoom/Teams (if they do i dont know if i would want to work for them). 

 

Sorry if this is off at a tangent please feel free to ignore, 

 

Make sure the background is as clear as possible / professional as possible, blank wall is perfect, however clean with not too many things in the background is always good. The virtual backgrounds are good if you have a problem with this. 

 

Make sure your face gets plenty of light (not blinding sharp light), make sure the light source is not behind you, dark rooms, lighting from behind will make the video more blocky/noisy hard to see as the DSP tries to keep up. 

 

Having a blank background with nothing moving is also useful if you have low bandwidth (especially upload speed).

 

A good cheap microphone from amazon is really worth the purchase unless your laptop has a really really good microphone, ive found that many of these come across as rather tinny. Of course a nice set of headphones with microphone is also a big win here. 

 

Keep pets/family distractions out of the room to help you concentrate. 

 

Try and get the camera up to face/eye level, having the camera low shooting up your nose is not the end of the world, but camera's up high lends itself to a professional look. Also try to keep eye contact on the camera and not on the screen so much, of course you will need to read the screen to read as much body language, however trying to keep your eyes on the camera looks great from the other side as youre looking straight at us instead of looking off at the side, again this is not the end of the world, just a little extra pro touch. 

 

Keep a glass of water with you, its easy to forget this as with interviews you always get that offer as you walk through the door, however remote it's up to you to remember. 

 

Hope you get it, good luck!

[Nick H. Supervisor]

20 minutes ago, REM2000 said:

Hope you get it, good luck!

Many thanks for the advice and luck! I'm getting a bit ahead of myself since it isn't confirmed that I will get an interview, but I saw that it would be conducted through Teams if it happens and I wanted to be sure.

 

Yeah, I've had meetings through Zoom and Teams before so it was more about the sign-in on my personal machine, but I'm glad your other advice covers the various factors I'd been thinking about.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

from my understanding of teams you don't even need an account if they send you an invite link. it will allow you to log into the meeting as a guest and then you can go either through the web browser or it will give you a link to launch the app and continue as a guest.

[Circaflex]

54 minutes ago, Brandon H said:

from my understanding of teams you don't even need an account if they send you an invite link. it will allow you to log into the meeting as a guest and then you can go either through the web browser or it will give you a link to launch the app and continue as a guest.

Yup, that is how it works at my org. The email usually contains a link that works in the browser or a toll free number to dial in.

[spikey_richie]

We've interviewed people over Teams where the candidate doesn't have Teams. As said above, they just use the web-based version. I think there are a few limitations, but it'll suffice. if you want the pre-requisites installed or want to test it out, DM me and I can send you a link to join me on a call.

[PGHammer]

And you don't need to install Teams ON the phone itself to use it there (though you can).  You can use it through Outlook Mobile as well.

 

[+mram Subscriber²]

Teams is a multi-headed application.  You can use it at the same time in multiple locations.  It will detect and ask accordingly.

 

The issue will largely be in which device / app "owns" audio and video, and again, it should ask you appropriately -- as in "we see you're already in the meeting over there, do you want to use audio here?"  And if that doesn't make sense, sometimes I call into meetings using audio on my phone while using web or desktop client for viewing shared data.  No big deal.