I never used to be a fan of the telephone interview but they
are becoming increasingly common so I am regularly preparing candidates for the
experience. Time poor Managers are
trying to reduce the interview lead time by conducting first interviews by phone
– although I have noticed that the clients who like to do first interviews by
phone tend to interview twice as many candidates – so perhaps they don’t
actually save that much time at all!
The majority of telephone interviews tend to be 20 to 30
minutes long. The best advice I can give
you is to never under-estimate a telephone interview. Clients genuinely want to be able to create a
second interview shortlist as a result of the call and they themselves are
usually armed with several questions/filters that they want to resolve during
the chat.
So I would prepare much as you would for a face to face
interview. That would include website and social media research, review of
client case studies, having a copy of your CV and the Job description in front
of you having done some cross referencing on where you can add value – use big
pointers to highlight things that you really want to get across to the
interviewer. Always have examples of
your key skills and have a list of projects/campaigns that you’ve worked on
that demonstrate these skills – it’s great to have these to hand when the brain
isn’t working quickly enough to think on the spot. Keep your notes brief so
that you can refer to them easily without shuffling lots of paper around.
One client said to me recently that the reason he chooses to
do first interviews by phone is to avoid judging people based on looks and
presentation. This is a good thing. I often think that in a face to face interview, an interviewer can
decide in the first 5 minutes that someone isn’t right – and that’s got to be
built on quick personal judgements as you’ve barely had a chance to say
anything at that point!
Another client makes the point that the majority of client
relationships are managed by phone so he wants to see if future recruits have a
good telephone manner, if they can have a proper conversation, if they can
engage and have empathy over the phone.
As per face to face interviews, do your homework then focus on your surroundings. Make sure you are somewhere quiet for the
call with no interruptions. A candidate
recently thought they’d manage to do a phone interview whilst their 3 year old
was in the same room. Whilst the
interviewer was from a family friendly agency, they just felt that the
individual hadn’t valued a phone interview with the same importance as a face
to face interview – you’d never attend an interview with your child would you?
(And remember that recent BBC news reporter who was skyping when his toddler
burst into the room. Not good – although very funny.)
I’d recommend that you stand up and try to smile during the chat. You might feel like a bit of a plonker but I
assure you it will make a difference.
Use the name of the interviewer when responding to questions – but don’t
overdo it. Make sure you have enough
battery on your phone – you don’t want the technology to let you down. For some
candidates, a quick caffeine fix is required 45 minutes pre-call, just to
ensure you are firing on all cylinders.
Best not to go to the other extreme with a couple of glasses of wine
though.. .(things you’d think I wouldn’t need to advise....#354). Save that for
when you’ve got the job.