Phone interviews allow the recruiters to talk to a large number of people and shorten their candidate list, and also make it easy to touch base early with people to make sure they are a fairly good fit for the role before bringing them out for a site visit or face-to-face interview.

As the person being interviewed, you have a couple of big advantages in a phone interview compared to a normal interview – you can have as much information in front of you as you like, and not being face-to-face should make you a little less nervous.

But there are some traps you can face in a phone interview due to having to rely on the phone connection and quality, and not having non-verbal communication cues to help with the communications.

Here are Mining Man’s Five Tips for your next phone interview:
 

1. Have Written Information in front of you

This is your biggest advantage you gain by having a phone interview – you get to have everything in front of you – the job ad, your notes, your resume, information about the company, the position description, and a list of questions you want to ask. Plus if you’ve prepared answers for some common STAR questions (see Tip 5 below, or our post on STAR questions here), then you can have these in front of you too. Have a pen and paper handy – write down the interviewers names so you can use them throughout the interview. Jot down the questions they ask you too – it makes a great cheat sheet when preparing for your next interview!
 

2. Find a Quiet Place

You need to have the phone interview in a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed. And definitely turn off any radios, televisions, or computers – these can easily lead to you being distracted, or at least appearing so. It might be tempting to keep Google open in case you want to look something up, but don’t – they will be able to hear your concentration wandering off (and possibly your typing too!).
 

3. Speak Slowly and Clearly

Be conscious that the interviewers may be on a speaker phone and the quality they are hearing may not be the best. Don’t rush, it’s already much harder to follow what a person is saying when you can’t see their mouth. Remember to concentrate on how your voice is sounding (tone, volume, monotony etc) – it’s all they’ve got to judge you on.
 

4. Make your Voice Sound Strong

Sounds strange, but you can do things to make yourself sound better, stronger or more enthusiastic. Obviously don’t chew gum, eat or drink while talking. Try standing up and smiling – both these things change your subtle voice characteristics and make you sound stronger and more personable. I’d also suggest getting dressed up appropriately – you don’t need to wear a suit or tie, but you’ll be in a better frame of mind if you’re dressed for work, rather than in track pants and a t-shirt!
 

5. Prepare Before the Interview

Just as with a normal face-to-face interview, you need to prepare yourself to answer the common types of questions you will be asked, and also to ask some questions yourself at the end. Review our previous article on how to best answer behavioural or STAR questions. Write down some examples of notable situations you’ve been in where you were particularly successful, where you had to manage a situation creatively, or where you had conflict with someone else. Interview questions are frequently looking for examples of times that you’ve been in these types of situations. Other situations to think about are times when you had conflicting priorities, or times when you were asked to do something you didn’t think was right.

Look through the position description or job advertisement and think about what key attributes or experience they might be looking for. Then list your attributes or experience which address each of these areas. Tick them off as you mention them in the interview, and make sure you cover any really important ones at the end if you haven’t had a chance already.

 

Phone interviews are a very important part of the recruitment process. Your main goal from the phone interview is to secure a face-to-face interview, and you may only have limited time to do that. By being well prepared for the interview and the questions you might face, you’ll give yourself the best possible chance of moving to the next stage.


Good luck!!

Thanks to NewGradLife for the inspiration: http://newgradlife.blogspot.com/2009/12/7-phone-interview-tips-to-get-job-2.html

- Jamie Ross

Mining Man - Great Safety, Leadership and Productivity Ideas for the Mining Industry


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