Phone interview for my Placement year

robjf

robjf

robjf

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Afternoon guys, i just got a phone call from one of my applications for my placement year to arrange a phone interview for next wednesday.

Now i really dont like phone interviews (or normal interviews for that matter) and i can tell i will be stumbling over my words no end! I'm just really after any advice you can give me as to what sort of preperation i should do etc.

Its for Enterprise Rent A Car so i will read up a bit about the company to start with, anything else i should be prepared for? She said that it would take around half an hour :eek:

Cheers guys, I will be hugely greatful for any advice which you can give me, would love to get this placement in particular :)

Rob
 
What sort of stuff did you prepare steve? Im going to make a page of key points for me to refer to and have my CV to hand just in case i have a mental block.

Just want to make sure i stand in as good position as i possibly can (obviously)!

Rob

PS. What you up to these days steve?
 
As said its likely to be competancy based (for at least a part of it), so prepare say 2 scenarios or situations for each of the competancies. I think the standard 8 are like; Teamwork, Leadership, Resolving Problems, Meeting a deadline, Changing/improving a process etc etc. A couple of examples for each, plus info on the company/recent developments, knowing your CV inside out and so on, and you should be set.
 
>:|sh4d0w|:< said:
As said its likely to be competancy based (for at least a part of it), so prepare say 2 scenarios or situations for each of the competancies. I think the standard 8 are like; Teamwork, Leadership, Resolving Problems, Meeting a deadline, Changing/improving a process etc etc. A couple of examples for each, plus info on the company/recent developments, knowing your CV inside out and so on, and you should be set.
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Thats great, cheers! Made a note of all of that and i will make some points on that :)

I think my main problem will be nerves and stumbling over every other word!
 
I went right through to the final stage of the selection proceedure for ERAC for my placement year. The telephone interview lasted about 10 minutes in my case - after that was a formal interview at a hotel, then an assessment day at another hotel.

You do realise it's a 50 hour working week with 'overtime'?

I then encountered the succesful placement student a number of months later when I went to pickup a rental car at 10.30pm on a wet Sunday in November. I was glad I didnt take it :D

Ended up working 9-5 in finance for the same annual salary as a 50 hour week at ERAC.
 
Sounds good! Ive spoken to someone whos been on the placement and his experiences were far better than that.
 
The placement year is basically the first year of their graduate programme so you will be competing for places with graduates as well - at my assessment day there were 4 of us, two were grads. They are a very American company and basically run on the concept of promotion, promotion, promotion and are heavily target driven.

Find out about the company, the history is very important to them as they love reffering to it. You need to basically tell them how exciting they are becuase of their huge growth rate, back this up with figures. They love the fact they are fast growing.

8-6 5 days a week and Saturdays + call out was the one I went for. The guy who came out to the office when I picked up a car from BMW Assist was the placement guy.
 
Don't worry too much odds are your interview will probably be done by Claire and she's ok. Make sure you have read up on the graduate recruitment side of their website. http://www.enterprisealive.com/en/vacancies/intern.html and also read up the graduate vacancy page. If you look at the graduate job spec it gives a really good idea of the kind of person they look for. Enterprise are American and really believe in both teamwork and earning things by your own merits. They do a lot of really cool teambuilding events - paintball etc, so if you are sporty that will stand you in good stead. They will be looking for good customer service or sales ability if you are going to be in one of the depots. Obviously if you are going into accountancy or something that woun't be the case as much. If you think you are going to be nervous then practice with someone before hand talking through your experience CV aims and goals etc. Write yourself some notes! They can't see them so think of what you are most proud of and write it down. Don't just read out what you have written if you do this though. Make it bullet points to prompt you rather than a speach that is already prepared. When you are asked a question take a moment to ensure that the answer you are going to give will actually answer the question! It might sound obvious but it is easy to answer a question with an example that's completely wrong. Ummm that's about all I can think of off the top of my head - good luck! they are a good company to work for. They seem to hang on to their staff pretty well. Newmarket aint that bad either if you have to wander over here for the job!
 
Rob, basically what shadow has said with regards to the competencies. Try and think of when you've screwed up/ had problems and how you've learnt from that. I've had a question like that in every interview I had this year and it nearly caught me out in the first one. Basically show off your skills and make sure you get across what you have learned from each example of a competency. Was the interview purely on the company or did they want competency stuff as well, fox?
 
robjf said:
Thats great, cheers! Made a note of all of that and i will make some points on that :)

I think my main problem will be nerves and stumbling over every other word!
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No problemo :) As for the nerves and stumbling it affects a lot of people and can mean that you start to talk on and on, and forget the structure of your answer.

A little technique that can often help is just to make a conscious effort to slow down what you are saying, so that your brain has time to process and understand everything your are saying, as its being said. Often in an interview when you are giving an answer you know the brain is rushing along at hundreds of words a minute when the mouth is working much slower, and cant get it all out leading to muddled answers. By slowing down your speech it can help to relax you, and help you to consider everything you are saying giving your answers more structure.
 
Just remember that everybody is nervous before interviews and the interviewers will know that. Do your research and think about what you're doing and you'll be fine :)
 
Thanks for the advice guys, just had the interview and ive been put forward for the next stage of the process which is a branch visit, in about 2 weeks.

Thanks for all the suggestions, i wrote notes as suggested and refered to them more than once which helped me not stumble over my words :)
 
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