Bathrobes to yoga: Recruiter reveals how job seekers get 'casual' on Zoom interviews

The incidents highlight how remote hiring triggered a wave of casualness that employers are struggling to navigate. (AI-generated image)

A US recruiter has recently described a growing breakdown in basic interview etiquette as job seekers show up to virtual hiring calls in bathrobes, mid‑yoga, fresh out of the shower, or even outsourcing answers to AI. Speaking to Fortune, recruiter Sara Nibler of RedBalloon, highlighted how remote hiring has triggered a wave of casualness that employers are struggling to navigate.

Nibler, who conducts more than 600 interviews a year across industries, told the publication that the convenience of Zoom has made many applicants forget that interviews are still formal assessments. Once, she spoke to a candidate who had joined the interview immediately after a shower. “I spoke to one gentleman who, I think, wanted to be very prepared for the call,” Nibler said, “but he was, you know, fresh from the shower, with his hair still dripping wet, his shirt was open.”

Another colleague of hers interviewed someone wearing a bathrobe.

For a high‑level role, Nibler recounted a candidate who placed her laptop on a kitchen counter and spent the interview doing yoga stretches, an attempt at appearing casual that she said was “just not really in tune with what an employer would like to see.”

Walmart runs and awkward camera angles

The casual behaviour also extends to multitasking. One applicant walked through the aisles of Walmart, scanned items at a self‑checkout counter, and then began driving his car—all while completing the interview. Although Nibler recommended him for the role due to genuine scheduling constraints, she stressed that this level of informality is generally inappropriate.

She also noted that many candidates keep their phones on their laps, forcing recruiters to conduct interviews while staring at “the bottoms of their chins” due to poor camera positioning.

Outsourcing thinking to AI

Beyond attire and multitasking, the recruiter highlighted a more concerning trend: candidates relying on AI to generate answers in real time—further eroding the authenticity of interviews.

Nibler believes the root of the problem is confusion: “Because of the informality of a Zoom call, people don’t really know how to encounter that as an interview,” she told Fortune.