Think of your virtual background as an opportunity to further emphasize your professional appearance, avoid showcasing excessive clutter and to reinforce that you are in an office setting while working remotely.

The virtual background feature allows you to keep your private space private by displaying an image or video as your background during a meeting. But if you don’t want people peering into your home and asking you about the artwork you have displayed or the books on your shelves, a virtual background is a great tool to employ in your next Zoom meeting. The value of a virtual backgroundīy now, your colleagues are probably extremely familiar with your remote workspace. Stuart, Lavernia, Eran Arbel, assistant director for Talent Acquisition and Management in the Division of Human Resources and Garth Headley, director of marketing and communications for FIU Online all collaborated to share their top seven tips to help us present our best selves in our next Zoom meeting. “If your home workspace isn’t looking professional, try using digital backgrounds to reflect your work and personality,” says Caryn Lavernia, assistant vice president for the Office of Engagement.

And while we may not be able to control whether our cat jumps on our laptops or our dogs scratch at the door waiting to be let in, there are a few things we can control to present ourselves in the best possible light – one being our backgrounds. “In our virtual worlds, we have to be just as aware of how the spaces around us influence the messages we send as we do our work.”ĭozens of FIU faculty and staff have been able to transition remotely with the help of our trusty sidekick, Zoom. “We all live and work in space-it forms part of who we are and how others perceive us,” says John Stuart, associate dean for cultural and community engagement of the College of Communication, Architecture, + The Arts and executive director of the Miami Beach Urban Studios. For most of us, like it or not, our Zoom appearance is our new identity and our virtual workspace is our new office suite.

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