I've used custom background images or videos for interviews in the past, using something related to the role or project. It's just a little something extra that usually gets a smile. Grab a simple looping video from your favourite video-viewing webpage and use that as your background. I just tried doing it again, and for your convenience (and mine next time I need to do this!) here are the steps to do that: 1. Install yt-dlp and ffmpeg 2. In a console, download your favourite video: $ yt-dlp YOUR-VIDEOS_URL Or if you want to save some disk space: $ yt-dlp --max-filesize 100M --no-part YOUR-VIDEOS_URL 3. Often this will give you a .mp4 file, but if it's a webm file and you need to convert it: $ ffmpeg.exe -i source.webm -y -vf scale="1280:720" -an foo.mp4 or for 1080p video: $ ffmpeg.exe -i source.webm -y -vf scale="1920:1080" -an foo.mp4 4. Use Zoom or Google Meet settings to use this video in the background. 5. The video is local to you, the others in the meeting don't have to do anything special. Special note for Google Meet: Normally Google Meet does not allow you to use videos in .mp4 format. But you can lightly hack it to allow this. Note also that Google Meet normally only runs at 720p max, so you can use a 720p video and save some disk space if that matters to you... because these days we all need to have one million interviews. :) 1. Start an instant Google Meeting. 2. Go to "More options (3-dot menu)" / "Apply visual effects" 3. Look for the button to upload your own image, it's under "Blur and personal backgrounds" and looks like a mountain image with a plus symbol. Don't click it yet, instead right-click it to inspect. The dev tools open up. Look for an "input" tag with the attribute "accept" and a list of filetypes it can accept, like "image/jpeg, "image/png" etc. 4. Double-click the list to edit it in-place to add ", video/mp4" 5. Now close the developer area and click that "plus" button to select your .mp4 file. Note that the acccepted file types includes "MPEG-4 video". 6. You have a custom video background! Note also that Google Meet does accept a webp format video, but all the attempts I made to convert didn't turn out to work with Google Meet.
Sorry to say it, but recruiters and hiring managers are judging you based on your virtual background in video interviews. Don't worry, this is a proper easy fix. Blur your background, or choose a virtual green screen. Heck, I don't mind if it's something funny that define's you...but just as it's not encouraged to air your dirty laundry, I don't want to see it either.
