This post was originally published by Karla Dorsch, Founder and Managing Partner Evrima / AltoPartners Abu Dhabi, on LinkedIn. To view the original post, click here.

These days, it feels like half our lives happen on Zoom. Job interviews are no exception. For senior roles especially, the question often comes up: is it better to meet a candidate on screen, or in the flesh?

Virtual interviews definitely have their perks. They save time, money, and jet lag. You can include board members dialling in from three different time zones, and candidates don’t have to rearrange their lives to fly in for a first conversation. As a way to cast the net wide and quickly get a feel for someone’s background, virtual interviews are great.

But here’s the catch: senior hires aren’t just about résumés and technical know-how. They’re about presence, leadership, and that hard-to-define “do I trust this person to steer the ship?” factor. And that’s where video calls can let us down.

On screen, you only see a cropped version of someone, usually head and shoulders. You miss the posture, the way they walk into a room, how they shake hands, or even how they react to small talk. A shaky internet connection or bad lighting can make a brilliant leader look flat. And those in-between moments, the coffee chats, the hallway introductions, often say more about a person’s style than the formal Q&A. None of that happens when the call ends with a click.

That said, there’s a flip side: today’s executives do need to connect virtually. If a leader can’t engage their team over video, that’s a red flag. So seeing how a candidate comes across on screen is still valuable, it just shouldn’t be the only test.

The sweet spot is a hybrid approach. Start with virtual interviews to save time and filter down the list. But when it gets serious, when you’re about to pick the person who’ll set the tone for the whole organization, bring them in. Meet them face-to-face, see how they interact with people, and feel the energy in the room.

In the end, video is efficient, but people are three-dimensional. For senior hires, you want to see the whole picture before making an important hiring decision for your organization.