 I had prepared the perfect little fortress in my house. The desk in my spare bedroom had a clean, professional background. It almost looked like a real office. The room was quiet and private. I switched my phone to silent, and I had the candidate's résumé in front of me. Perfect. I'd had a few mishaps with conducting virtual interviews lately, so I really wanted this one to go smoothly. We said our hello's and things got off to a good start. But after a minute or two, I realized that I was so focused on what he was saying, I had leaned back in my chair and I was halfway out of the frame. Kind of awkward. But I caught myself and adjusted my posture. After that, our connection seemed to be lagging a bit, so I tried moving around my house to get a better Wi-Fi signal. It must have been worse than I realized, because he interrupted me at one point to say he hadn't actually heard my last question. Good thing he said something, though. Some candidates don't. A bad connection isn't really anyone's fault. I think it's just a case of testing things out before the interview. Anyway, the professional energy I was trying to project was completely ruined when my daughter burst into the room. I muted my microphone, and then it took me an embarrassingly long time to unmute myself. But I shook it off. It happens. And then, late into the call, I lost him completely. I tried calling back, but no answer. I probably should have had a backup plan ready in case of a dropped call. Maybe sending it out before the interview would have helped. The last thing I want to do is make someone panic. Anyway, we've figured it out. It seems like everything that could go wrong did with this one. But even after all that, I gave him the job. In the end, it was clear that he was qualified. And that's really what's important.