Camera On, Camera Off?
Plenty of schools and candidates are asking about camera expectations and how this differs from the common questions around putting a photo on a CV.
The question of whether to turn your camera on during a video interview is not as common as the debate around photos on CVs, but it is coming up more and more in international school recruitment.
As virtual interviews have become the norm for first stage screening and even final appointments, expectations around professional presence, safeguarding, and identity verification have shifted. For candidates, this creates uncertainty. For schools, it introduces new layers of responsibility. While there will always be exceptions, keeping your camera on during an interview is now best practice across most international school contexts.
Why Camera On Matters in Recruitment
Recruitment is a two way process. Schools are assessing candidates, but candidates are also assessing schools and leadership. Body language, eye contact, professional presence, and communication style all form part of how people build trust and rapport. With the camera off, that connection weakens immediately.
From a practical perspective, schools are hiring people into highly relational roles. Teaching, leadership, admissions, and pastoral work all rely on human connection. Seeing how a candidate presents themselves on screen gives schools useful insight into how they might show up with students, families, and colleagues.
Camera on is also about professionalism. Turning up visibly to an interview signals preparation, respect for the process, and confidence in your professional identity. A blank screen, even when audio is strong, can unintentionally communicate disengagement or caution, even when that is not the intent.
Safeguarding Considerations
Safeguarding should be embedded into every stage of international school recruitment, including interviews. While a video interview is not a formal identity verification process on its own, it is often the first meaningful safeguarding checkpoint.
Many schools now ask candidates to show formal photo ID on camera at the start of a remote interview, often a passport. This is not used for selection decisions, but as an initial identity check. It mirrors what happens later in safer recruitment processes and supports early due diligence.
Camera on is increasingly viewed as part of safe recruitment practice. It aligns with later safeguarding steps such as full ID verification, police clearances, and verified references. No single measure guarantees safety, but layered checks significantly strengthen the overall process.
Schools are increasingly cautious about recorded interviews. When cameras are off, identity is harder to confirm if recordings are later reviewed by others in the school. Keeping the camera on supports transparency, accountability, and consistency across the recruitment process.
It is appropriate for the school to tell you if an interview is being recorded. If this is not mentioned, it is reasonable for you to ask. If you are not successful, you can also ask whether recruitment materials, including any recordings, will be deleted and the timeframe for that to happen.
When Candidates Feel Uncertain About Being on Camera
Some candidates worry about privacy, their living environment, or technical limitations. These concerns are understandable. Not everyone has access to a perfect interview setup. Schools are hopefully more about seeing you than judging the space behind you, but it is still important to choose the best setting you reasonably can. Read more here on how to get your set up right
What tends to create difficulty is turning the camera off without explanation. This sometimes happens because of unstable internet, where switching the camera off helps the call run more smoothly. If that happens, explain it clearly. Keep your camera on whenever possible and communicate openly if you need to turn it off.
Camera On and Equity
There is sometimes concern that camera expectations reintroduce bias, similar to the issues raised around photos on CVs. The difference is context and timing. A CV is about shortlisting based on professional evidence alone. An interview is about human interaction, communication, values, and presence.
Once candidates reach the interview stage, interaction becomes central to the assessment. At that point, the aim is not to avoid visibility but to apply consistent, structured, and fair questioning to reduce bias in how that visibility is interpreted. Strong schools combine camera on with clear interview rubrics, trained panel members, and diverse interview teams.
The Candidate Experience
For candidates, camera on is also an opportunity. It allows you to show enthusiasm, warmth, professionalism, and cultural awareness in ways that cannot be conveyed through voice alone. International schools are deeply relationship driven environments. Presence matters.
It also allows you to read the room. You can gauge reactions, adjust your communication, and engage more naturally with the panel. This supports stronger two way dialogue and a more authentic picture of fit on both sides.
The Bottom Line
Keeping your camera on during a video interview is now part of modern professional practice in international schools. It supports trust, communication, and safeguarding from the very first interaction. It allows schools to take early, responsible steps in identity verification and safe recruitment, and it gives candidates the chance to connect as people, not just as voices. Camera off by default, without explanation, is no longer viewed as neutral in international recruitment.
As with photos on CVs, small decisions at the early stages of recruitment carry real impact. Camera on helps protect both the school and the candidate while strengthening the quality and integrity of the hiring process.
If you’re considering a move and want help with recruitment, CV writing/advice or interview preparation, feel free to get in touch.