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In today’s competitive marketplace, employers frequently use the telephone interview as a preliminary screening method to determine face-to-face interviews. While phone screens can sometimes be challenging, there are some ways that you can ensure that it works to get you the personal interview.
As a starting point, be sure that your cover letter or email clearly states the best phone number(s) and time(s) to reach you or request a preliminary call to schedule a convenient time. If you will be in depositions, court, vacations, seminars or other absences, mention that in your letter.
Obviously your choice of phones is probably two or three – office, cell or home. Generally, the office is not the best idea so let’s look at cell or home. While most of these hints may seem like common sense, you’d be surprised how many people are ruled out at the phone screen because of these mistakes.
Cell Phone
If using your cell phone, review your voice message to make sure that it contains your name and sounds professional. If a potential employers calls and is greeted with a message that sounds like a social networking site, chances are you may be moved to the bottom of the potential list.
Identify beforehand an area that has adequate cell coverage and is quiet. If your call suddenly drops during the phone screen, you’ll find that not only do frustration levels increase but the natural flow of the interview is interrupted. And, the absolute worst scenario is trying to conduct a telephone interview with background noise (eg. street traffic, voices, building noise).
Make sure your cell battery is fully charged at all times. Suddenly having to indicate that your battery is low will leave an impression of someone who is not prepared.
Home Phone
If you are going to do a phone interview from home and use a portable phone, be sure that those batteries are also fully charged and be aware of the range your phone has within your home. Having your voice fluctuate because you are out of range is distracting.
Make sure your voice mail or answering machine message at home is professional. If your children have recorded your personal message, you should change it during your job seeking period. Avoid music, inferences to family pets or cutesy messages.
If family members or roommates answer the phone, be sure that they are prepared to answer in a way that will help instead of hinder your chances.
Don’t wander around the house or yard doing other things (eg. getting a glass of water, opening doors, picking up, etc). Stay seated and totally focused on the phone call.
Interview Techniques
• Whenever possible, schedule the interview at a time that will enable you to focus only on the call. If the interview call is unexpected and you have to be somewhere in 10 minutes, indicate that to the recruiter and ask if that is enough time or would it be possible for you to call them at a later time.
• “Call waiting” should be disengaged and, while it should go without saying that you never put a recruiter or HR person on hold, never put an interviewer on hold to take another call.
• Be sure to have a copy of your resume so you can answer questions related to it and a pen to make notes that will be helpful in the face-to-face interview.
• Speak clearly and concisely so that the interviewer hears your responses.
• Be sure to ask questions about the position and the company. This information will show that you are interested and enable you to better prepare for the next interview.
• Always follow-up with a thank-you indicating that you appreciate the time that was spent with you and your desire to continue the interview process.
While telephone screening interviews may seem more casual than the formal office interview, they are key to showing a professional, prepared and confident approach.
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