What are the worst Zoom/Teams backgrounds you've seen on a work meeting or interview

[Anonymous]

I live in a small apartment and don’t have a separate office. I have to use a virtual background. I’m not comfortable blurring the background when what’s back there is my bed. My coworkers are not welcome in my bedroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would never accept a job that required a zoom interview. If you don’t have time to meet me why should I work for you?

Some of use work for people/companies on the other side of the country/planet. Teams/Zoom interviews are great.

[Anonymous]

The worst are the video game backgrounds. Tell me you waste every leisure minute in a make believe world without telling me.

[Anonymous]

H, OP, I've been in two of those situations and seen the third.

1. During Covid (so before blurring backgrounds was really a thing), we lived in a small townhouse and my "home office" was in my bedroom - so yes, I had meetings with my nicely made bed in the background.

2. I had to move to one of my kids' bedrooms during a job interview once because the neighborhood having yard work done and the gas leaf blowers were directly outside my bedroom window. My interviewer was very understanding (and complimented my daughter's squismallow, haha). I got the job and she's my boss now, so clearly she wasn't as much of a jerk as you are.

3. One of my managers had his makeshift home office in his unfinished basement during Covid, so yes, his backdrop was like a water heater and pipes.


All of that said, why are you doing Zoom interviews? Why aren't you invited people in to interview in person?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would never accept a job that required a zoom interview. If you don’t have time to meet me why should I work for you?

They *are* meeting you, it's just on Zoom.

Anyway you sound like you're a dinosaur. Nobody wants to work with you.

[Anonymous]

Not all backgrounds are equal. I use the one that looks like an office with a white background and a window on one side. There are a few similar ones included in Teams.

Totally different story from the beach photos and tacky logos and anything animated.

I haven't seen any that are truly terrible - flashing christmas lights were probably the worst. But there is a guy who does the cartoon emoji face that eerily copies his own eyes and expressions. That's 1000000 times worse than christmas lights.

[Anonymous]

This is with recorded interviews. I'm less distracted if the interview is live.

Why are you doing recorded interviews? Unless you have a very specific reason for doing this, these are generally very disrespectful of the candidates' time.

As for taking a job with Zoom interviews: these were pretty common during COVID, when, understandabliy, no one wanted to meet outsiders unnecessarily. They are probably less common now, aside from interviews for remote jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This is with recorded interviews. I'm less distracted if the interview is live.

Why are you doing recorded interviews? Unless you have a very specific reason for doing this, these are generally very disrespectful of the candidates' time.

As for taking a job with Zoom interviews: these were pretty common during COVID, when, understandabliy, no one wanted to meet outsiders unnecessarily. They are probably less common now, aside from interviews for remote jobs.

We started doing them during Covid. They can record on their own time and we don’t have to coordinate schedules for days of interviews which often are hard for them to get to anyway. It’s not perfect but it can be easier.

[Anonymous]

We had one guy that would not show his face on camera because of some privacy fear. Awkward, but in a way it was like a phone interview for someone from out of town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would never accept a job that required a zoom interview. If you don’t have time to meet me why should I work for you?

Because you want the job?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:H, OP, I've been in two of those situations and seen the third.

1. During Covid (so before blurring backgrounds was really a thing), we lived in a small townhouse and my "home office" was in my bedroom - so yes, I had meetings with my nicely made bed in the background.

2. I had to move to one of my kids' bedrooms during a job interview once because the neighborhood having yard work done and the gas leaf blowers were directly outside my bedroom window. My interviewer was very understanding (and complimented my daughter's squismallow, haha). I got the job and she's my boss now, so clearly she wasn't as much of a jerk as you are.

3. One of my managers had his makeshift home office in his unfinished basement during Covid, so yes, his backdrop was like a water heater and pipes.


All of that said, why are you doing Zoom interviews? Why aren't you invited people in to interview in person?

OP here. I can understand your positions.

In my experience (at large law firms and now large corporation), we do Zoom interviews as a first round interview, prior to many subsequent in-person interviews for those who advance in the process.

At least where I work, my colleagues do not like seeing a bed in a Zoom background during a job interview. For better or worse, it just is distracting, even if very neat and tidy. So it might be helpful for job candidates to be aware of that, even if the job candidates themselves believe that it is just fine.

So if a person refuses to use one of the free and simple background options on Zoom/Teams, then they can simply turn their laptop to a blank wall (even if it means moving something out of the way prior to the interview).

I hope that the take-away is that job candidates should put some small thought into the Zoom/Teams background prior to the job interview or work meeting, to make the best possible impression (rather than thinking that you're a victim for doing some very simply task like creating a non-distracting background). I also would recommend trying to look your best, sitting up straight, and putting your laptop on a box with the camera angled down. These may seem superficial, but why not try to make the best possible impression?

[Anonymous]

So if a person refuses to use one of the free and simple background options on Zoom/Teams, then they can simply turn their laptop to a blank wall (even if it means moving something out of the way prior to the interview).

Not everyone is using a laptop. And even those of us who have them might prefer our good desktop setups with high-quality microphones, etc.

[Anonymous]

We started doing them during Covid. They can record on their own time and we don’t have to coordinate schedules for days of interviews which often are hard for them to get to anyway. It’s not perfect but it can be easier.

The problem that I have here is that it fails to recognize that job interviews are a two-way thing, not a one-way thing. The candidate needs to be able to evaluate and ask questions about the company, too. Unless someone from your company is willing to do a recorded interview answering the candidate's questions, then this method is unfairly balanced against the candidate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So if a person refuses to use one of the free and simple background options on Zoom/Teams, then they can simply turn their laptop to a blank wall (even if it means moving something out of the way prior to the interview).

Not everyone is using a laptop. And even those of us who have them might prefer our good desktop setups with high-quality microphones, etc.

OK. With due respect, I am sure that there are always excuses for everything.

Feel free to completely ignore this advice, but as someone who is a hiring person and knows a lot of hiring and senior people, I would simply recommend that it would be worthwhile for people to spend 1 minute to clear out a background at least have a blank wall in the background, just in case the other people on the call (who might be decent people) would be otherwise distracted by a glimpse into your personal home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would never accept a job that required a zoom interview. If you don’t have time to meet me why should I work for you?

1. There are lots of remote jobs now. Remote interviews help organizations to see that you'll be able to communicate effectively in a remote role.
2. It's a more respectful way to interview if the person currently has a job. It can be hard to take time off the job you have to interview for a new job. Video interviews remove the commute time needed, especially for early rounds. It's nice to do a final interview in person, when that's feasible.
3. Even if the job isn't remote, you might work with people in other locations (global offices, sales people in the field, customers, etc.) over video calls so interviewing in this way helps to assess whether you'll be able to operate this way.

There are lots of reasons why video interviews are legit and a good option. If you prefer in-person you can request that, but my organization would not accommodate because we treat all candidates the same so we invite them all in, or none of them.