Zoom backgrounds were cute the first few times they were being used on calls a month or two into video conference land. But, especially unless the lighting and actual physical background are right--and the person keeps relatively still--they're very obviously fake and are very distracting.

The custom backgrounds are only good for hiding the actual background of your room. I normally use the blur filter for that, it works more naturally.

> My day is full of other responsibilities. If you don’t like that I don’t think we’ll be a match regardless.

Why are you looking for another job then? Are you the type that is just all motion and can't ever stop and focus on something properly?

Why do you want to join our company? If you want to join us why is this interview that you have with us less important than the two meetings you have around the time?

Yes, you are right, we would probably not be a right match. We are looking for candidates that want to get the job.

Imagine you ask a girl for a date. You are 2 minutes late telling her you had to clean up your flat. Then at the end of the meeting you say you can't stay longer because you need to do some shopping.

Two perfectly valid reasons and 2 minutes late is not that much late in itself.

But if I was the girl I would think "this guy is probably not a good match, he just doesn't care about me".

What are you talking about?

People are probably taking time off out of their workday for the interview. They might very well have other meetings, especially is they are in a senior position.

Taking their current job responsibilities seriously is a good sign for when they'll later work for your company.

That isn't how I see it. I don't want you to work for me if you don't want to work for me.

If you do not want to work for me, that is fine. I don't mind.

But if you come to interview I want to see that you really want to work for me.

You, yourself, probably would want to see the company wants to hire you rather than being completely lukewarm about it.

People want to see they are taken seriously and they are wanted.

Would you come to a company that organized your interview in some dinky place in the basement with unkempt junior dev who got late to the meeting and at the prescribed time tells you he doesn't have more time for you and you are maybe going to hear from them?

Why do you think companies like Google pamper their candidates and later developers at every possible occasion?

Why the hell are you comparing having back to back meetings around an interview with "organizing your interview in some dinky place in the basement with unkempt junior dev who got late to the meeting"

If you asked for an hour of my time, you'll get an hour of my time. If you want an extra 15 minutes to chit chat after, that's fine, just ask for it ahead of time so I can plan for it.

Whatever expectations you hold a candidate to should be reciprocal. So if you're going to hold candidates responsible for blocking off extra time before and after their interview to sit and chat, then you should be doing the same. Which means you should decline any meetings that are scheduled to start within 15 minutes of your interview ending. If you do that, then great, that's wonderful for the candidates who have more time to spend. You should also then tell the candidate up front to allow for 15 minutes on either end of the interview.

This whole idea that a candidate must have a buffer around their interview with you or they don't want to work for you is nonsense. It makes no more sense than saying if I have a 10am, 10:30am, and 11am meeting then that means I don't want to meet with the person at 10:30am. People have other things going on in their life. Employers who realize this, and respect candidates during the interview process, are going to have an easier time hiring good candidates that will also treat them well in return.

Except I am not asking you for an hour of your time. This is not an audience.

I am asking if you want to work for me for next couple of years.

> Whatever expectations you hold a candidate to should be reciprocal. So if you're going to hold candidates responsible for blocking off extra time before and after their interview to sit and chat, then you should be doing the same

Of course, I do the same. I spend time researching what I can find about the person, looking through their CV, getting acquainted with the report from screening. I am looking through your CV to figure out what kind of questions might be good to ask and what are waste of time and generally how to best make use of the time that is available.

Then after the meeting I meet with the manager who would most likely be present on the interview and we discuss our observations and try to figure out if they are or are not a problem and whether we think you can fit our team. We also discuss what did go or did not go well during the interview so that we can improve our interviews in the future.

All of this happens immediately before and after the interview so 1,5h interview can easily take 2,5h of my time. I am never late to the meeting and I always set aside time after the meeting in case our discussion overruns.

And you know why? Because hiring is extremely important, important enough that it is worth to put everything else aside just so that I can do it right.

And if you are a candidate it should matter to you where you are going to spend couple of years.

When I interview as a candidate I put everything else aside for that day so that I can be rested, fresh, calm and focused.

You want to be treated specially and shown that I want nothing in life except the job you are offering. I want to be certain my children have food on the table when my savings run out next week. Do you see the difference?

I understand your point that someone acting like they need to bounce from the call can be irritating to deal with, but it is a reality that several candidates might have a whole lot of interviews lined up as closely as possible to maximize their chances of actually landing a job. Add to that the increased commitments of a household, and I don't think it is unrealistic to expect a little empathy from the person on the other side of the call.

It is fair advice to say the candidate should try to remain calm and "not create the perception that you have something better to do" as you initially suggested. It is not fair advice to ask them to free up their entire day and not have any commitments other than a single interview.

> When I interview as a candidate I put everything else aside for that day so that I can be rested, fresh, calm and focused.

And you must realize that you are in a ridiculously privileged position to be able to do so, right?

What about people who go for full day of interviews for Google, Amazon and so on? Do you want to tell them they must be "ridiculously privileged" to be able to do so?

Stop treating people like robots, and start treating them like individuals.

> If you want to join us why is this interview that you have with us less important than the two meetings you have around the time?

The other meetings mean I get paid? They provide me with a roof over my head?

If you were guaranteed to hire me by virtue of me attending the meeting, I’d probably peg it a little higher in the order of importance, but as it is it’s very likely a waste of my time.

So yes, I guess you could say I’m not committed enough, but that’s because 99% of the dates that I showed up on time for were secretly courting another guy and just ghosted me.