Am I ruining my opportunity of a potential job offer if I do a video interview from my car? This is a 30 min interview with the boss of the person I had a 1 HR interview with last week. I am not WFH and I have left early/come in late too often recently ar my current position due to interviews so I figured I’d try scheduling during lunch not realizing it’d be another video interview. Please help!

likehelpful
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I would let the recruiter or hiring manager know you are back in the office and will take the video call via your phone in your car for privacy reasons.
BTW it’s the new normal and it’s about the interview and not that you have to take it in your car. You may wish to bring a towel or sheet to hang in the rear window and take the interview from the back seat. Remember to find a space as far away from your office for confidentiality reasons. Best of luck!

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I agree - I’ve hired a bunch of HRBPs this year and if someone said they were in office and needed to take it from the car so they could be open and energized for the interview I would absolutely respect that.

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Go to a hotel near by

likehelpful

You can just sit in the lobby or they might have a work area

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Noise cancelling headphones with a background and you might be able to get away with it. I would recommend going to a quiet coffee shop and using a background

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It would be strange.

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Interviewing from a car should not be an issue the way it once was. You can even address it at the beginning of the interview acknowledging that your in the car but that you didn't want to pass up the opportunity to meet with them. To me what should be more of a concern is how good your connection is. I'd suggest asking a friend to do a zoom call with you a day or two before your interview where you are parked where you are planning to be for the interview and ask your friend to let you know how the video and sound quality is so that if you need to make any changes (headphones, location, etc.) to improve the quality you can.

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I think it depends on how you handle it. It also depends on what the industry is. If it’s an environment where you’re expected to dress very professionally, it would not come across well to interview in the car, especially without an explanation as to why. I’ve interviewed 2 people who were both in their cars.

One was not dressed like she was ready for an interview and had her dog running around in the back seat. Additionally it looked like she was driving while interviewing for the position.

The other had told us right from the start why she was in the car (due to car issues that occurred earlier in the day and she couldn’t make it back to her house in time for the interview) and was dressed as if she were ready to have an interview. This employee is one of the best I’ve ever worked with.

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I would be honest and say you are on your lunch break. Use headphones. I think that would be a very silly reason not to hire someone. You would be better off without that company imo. Good luck!

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Will the wifi be good enough there?

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Well. You could try having "video issues". Just tape the camera really well and you could even look like you're trying to mess with the settings. Be very apologetic and say it was working during the last one. Just blame your camera in case they try to switch medium and ask to continue as a verbal interview.

I honestly think that would go over better than learning you're in your car, but make sure they can't hear anything that would suggest it anyway .

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Can you use your phone hotspot as wifi while in your car? Use your actual laptop so it doesn’t look like an iPhone screen, then add a background. But will anyone notice if you just went home and took an extended lunch by 15 minutes?

OR, tell HR an urgent meeting came up and ask to reschedule for a more convenient time.

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I also like the coffee shop ideas or maybe even a private room at a nearby library with noise cancelling headphones?

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I hired someone who did the interview in her car bc I knew she was having to do it on her lunch break. It personally didn’t bother me, but maybe I’m just laid back??

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I interview from the back seat of my truck and got my current job 😂

funny

Does your office have a quiet room or place for people who aren’t feeling well? If not book an empty office for 30 minutes with headphones

We don’t have anything like that unfortunately.

I don’t think it’s a red flag, just mention it’s your lunch hour and there are no conference rooms available at that time.

I have had candidates interview from all manner of spaces. Don't work for a place that has an issue with your car of all things. Times have changed.

If it’s a company with a culture worth working for, they won’t care. Let them know you are working from the office, and therefore, must do the interview from your car. Make sure you still dress professional and do a good job on the interview. I’ve interviewed several people from their car on video since the pandemic.

I would reach out to your recruiter a few days before your interview to discuss with them directly. They may have specific advice for you. As a recruiter I would probably tell my candidate to wear headphones like AirPods and use a virtual background. With that it would probably be alright.

As long as your car is in a quiet space or you don't have any background noise, taking a video call in your car should not be a problem at all. Find a nice virtual background and apply that to your zoom/gmeet settings.

One time I had an interview scheduled and I told them I would be in the car at that time but not driving in case they wanted to reschedule and they said it was fine. They then rejected me because of me being in the car, they said the background noise was distracting

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