Google reportedly stops all in-person interviews amid coronavirus fears

Tyler Sonnemaker

Mar 5, 2020, 00:52 IST

Google reportedly stops all in-person interviews amid coronavirus fears

Google has canceled all in-person job interviews amid concerns over the coronavirus outbreak, first reported by The Verge.
Google told candidates it would be conducting interviews via video call "for the foreseeable future," The Verge reported.
The company had already restricted travel after an employee in its Switzerland office tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Google is among other major companies, including Amazon and Facebook, who have shifted away from on-site interviews in recent days.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Google has reportedly told potential job candidates that it will be conducting interviews via video conference call moving forward due to concerns over the coronavirus disease, COVID-19, according to The Verge.

The company told potential candidates that interviews for all jobs globally would be run through Google Hangouts or BlueJeans, both video conferencing tools, "for the foreseeable future," according to the report.

Earlier this week, Google barred employees from traveling internationally, a decision that came on the heels of an employee in its Zurich, Switzerland, office testing positive for COVID-19.

Google is not the first to shift away from on-site job interviews as companies grapple with how protect employees amid the outbreak. Amazon recently made a similar policy change, while Facebook limited in-person interviews and banned employees from bringing friends and family to its offices.

Tech companies have also been pulling out of conferences and canceling major events en masse, including Google, which recently called off its biggest event of the year, Google I/O.

The coronavirus has killed more than 3,200 people, mostly in China, and infected more than 94,000 around the world. It has spread to every province and region in China as well as at least 80 other countries. The outbreak has already had a major impact on the stock market as companies' global supply chains and operations face disruptions.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.