Telephone Interview

Morba

Morba

Morba

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Got a few telephone interviews coming up soon (first on thursday), how can i turn this to my advantage over a face to face interview?
 
write down all the crap you are going to say on paper (answers to the obvious questions - your biggest strength, your biggest weakness, your experience...) and read it out.
If countdown is on, you can crack one off to carol volderman and he wouldn't know.
 
the only advantage you have is not having the eye contact, self expression and dress. Otherwise, it should be treated the same. In fact, it's worse because there are periods of silence which tend to last for ages when in fact the are only a few seconds.

Good luck mate.

:)
 
You can reply more heavily on research and notes on the role and company than you can in a face2face. You can also ensure you have the details for any STAR (Situation or Task, Action, Result) type question you are asked.

If you feel you are sounding low energy (and the role needs more drive) stand up during the call, this helps those not used to extensive business call sound more enthused.

Keep your list of relevant question to hand and refer to them at appropriate times.

Don't talk over the interviewer - happens much more so than in face2face.

If you feel you may not have answered a question as well as you could - ask whether you answered satisfactorily.

Ask how they feel your strenghts/weaknesses match to what they are looking for - if they mention a weakness you believe is a strength you may be able to turn it around slightly.
 
iCraig said:
Have Google poised and ready for any awkward questions.
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But make sure you have a quiet keyboard - I've being on conf interviews where you can hear the keyboard. Needless to say he didn't get the job
 
don't forget to have a drink within reach, you can dry up in either interview type, but phone calls sound bad enough at the best of times.

also have a copy of your CV to hand, just in case you have a blankout moment.

if you're taking the calls on a mobile make sure it's fully charged or plugged in and be somewhere you know gets full bars reception if possible. if you'll be using a landline, make sure everyone else knows about it, so nobody picks up an extension during the interview.

and if you're gonna cough, don't do it into the receiver :)
 
Tell anyone who lives with you, so you dont get the oh so hilarious "Oi Dave, its for you, some company, they probably want your money".

Also as said before speak clearly it applies tenfold in phone interviews, also dont dig yourself into a hole, if you dont know say so, its possibly the worst thing you can do especially on the phone as you cant gauge responses properly. I did make a few mistakes but I owned up, told them what I thought and now Im going to Vienna for a year over one phone interview which more than surprised the hell out of me.
 
cleanbluesky said:
You'll get the job on the basis of your integrity rather than your good looks for once :confused:
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damn, i knew i was good looking but all my interviews where i have received job offers have been with men!
i guess i should stop wearing pink
 
thanks everyone.

its going to be in work time, which shall be interesting, no idea how im going ot be able to be non contactable for over an hour!
 
Morba said:
thanks everyone.

its going to be in work time, which shall be interesting, no idea how im going ot be able to be non contactable for over an hour!
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fake stomach pain all morning, then just before the interview time, rush out of the room, bent double, yelling "i may be some time".

come back in after with a look of relief and say, "i'd give it a minute" to all in earshot.

:)
 
thankfully no need to pull that sort of thing, none of my team work within 250 miles of me :D

its just i get called constantly :<
 
ballistic said:
write down all the crap you are going to say on paper (answers to the obvious questions - your biggest strength, your biggest weakness, your experience...) and read it out.
If countdown is on, you can crack one off to carol volderman and he wouldn't know.
Click to expand...

Sounds like someone is talking through experience. ;)
 
Good luck with it :)

Very quick thread hijack, I applied for a job via a companies website and yesterday they called while I was out. (Housemate took it.) The lady left her name, then emailed me as well to say she'd called for a phone interview and asked when would be best to try again. I said any time today or tomorrow morning, but today went by without her phoning again. Should I just wait for her to call back, or email again to say I'm still free? (I'm not going anywhere much during the day as I dont have a job yet! ;))
 
Morba said:
Got a few telephone interviews coming up soon (first on thursday), how can i turn this to my advantage over a face to face interview?
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Don't do it when you have just woken up. Speak clearly and precisely and avoid saying 'ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm' in between words
 
Morba said:
thankfully no need to pull that sort of thing, none of my team work within 250 miles of me :D

its just i get called constantly :<
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Good luck dude :D
I could still do with some Docs for info sometime if possible? ;)
Mail me on the work account, im not that hard to find on the internal site :eek:
 
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