[aresant]

Get a great web camera or at LEAST some great lighting for your interviews!

A poorly lit fuzzy image is a great way to start off at a disadvantage.

Study after study shows that people that identify themselves as broadly accepting and non-bias hold deep unconscious bias tied to personal appearance, etc. (1) (2)

Logitech has a number of web cameras with strong light sensors and software you can use to generate a professional quality image without back lighting.

There are multiple backlighting solutions on Amazon and elsewhere for <$20.

(1) https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20180806-how-hidden-bia...

(2) https://www.forbes.com/sites/pragyaagarwaleurope/2019/02/20/...

[genericone]

Great advice, just a few weeks too late for me. Looking at the available mid to high end usb webcams in stock now shows everything out of stock and backordered. Looks like I'll have to make do with a built-in laptop camera and a headset microphone if/when I get that YC interview.

Thesr work at home directives really depleted all existing stock of good webcams...

Over 50% markup for nice webcams on eBay, yeesh.

[ipsum2]

If you're willing to, you can get a DSLR or mirrorless camera and use UVC as a webcam.

[tree3]

Unfortunately, online ordering is backed up on most sites. My amazon orders are delayed until at least April 19th.

[badfrog]

I've also been surprised at how much of an improvement headsets with microphones are over built-in laptop mics.

[ivanfon]

I’ve experienced the same thing - I always right the microphones attached to earbuds were worthless, but compared to a laptop microphone, which picks up every last bit of background noise, my cheap ($15) earbuds’ microphone does a good job at only picking up my voice, with clear enough quality.

If you’re using Linux and Pulseaudio, look into echo cancellation, it’s easy to enable and can help improve your voice quality a little bit.