How To Handle Video Interview Distractions As a Recruiter

As an interviewer have you ever had a candidate participate in a  virtual interview with you and a distraction happened like their pet jumped on their computer, their kids came into the room, or their dog started barking?
How did you handle the interview during and after the distraction?

 Did you (be honest):
-Scoff at the interruption
-Make a disruptive face
-Become impatient
-Cop a negative attitude
-Think the equivalent of “You’ve got to be kidding me!” or worse
OR did you:
-Tell the person it was okay with a smile on your face and move on with the interview
-Make a little joke about it to put the person at ease
-Relate a story about your pet, kid, or something similar to put the person at ease
-Ask the person a question about their pet, kid, or whatever was the distraction
-Ignore it

If you answered any of the first five think about how the interview would have changed if you reacted with one of the next five things?

As a recruiter, HR professional, manager, owner, or anyone else assigned to do interviews we are required to not ask certain questions (like about kids) or trained to ignore others that are not relevant (like about pets), however we are all human and have all had embarrassing things happen to us or during our own events. Video interviewing is now commonplace, however not all candidates have a lot of experience doing them. A candidate can do all they can to control the situation and the environment they are interviewing from, but life happens and if they are quarantined at home some things are beyond control. 

As the interviewer we want to get to know the “real” candidate. Interviewing is an inherently stressful situation. Remembering that stress and humanity can allow both parties to “drop deflector shields” for a moment. Be professional but don’t be rigid sticking to every rule. Talk about kids and pets or whatever the distraction was for a moment. Relax and remember you are dealing with another person. Not holding a distraction against a candidate and letting them know you are not holding it against them provides a commonality. It allows both recruiter and candidate to communicate in a more relaxed way, even for a little bit, which can lead the interviewer to get to know something about the candidate besides the practiced and standard answers. Isn’t that the goal of the interview, to understand who the person really is and how they would fit in the company, the team, and the job?

Thank you for reading this.
Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy