Telephone Interview Tips

Some companies often prefer to conduct telephone interviews (often referred to as initial screening) before inviting candidates to their offices for a face-to-face interview. This applies particularly:

• When candidates will have to travel a long way - saving you the time and expense of travelling.
• When there are large numbers of candidates - may often be quite short in duration.
• When screening by CV is difficult when for example, personality is more important than experience or qualification.
• When a large part of the job will involve talking to people on the telephone - what do YOU really sound like?

If this telephone interview has been arranged through an agency and/or recruitment consultant, you should know exactly when to call the hiring manager/contact, or when they will call you (AND on what number). In other circumstances, you may have to be prepared to receive a call 'out of the blue' - ensure you have a pen and paper to hand. If you're asked to play your part in a telephone interview, your objectives should be:

• To obtain enough information to decide if you would like to proceed with the interview process - you do have the right to say, ah, it's not for me - you're not gonna be wasting your time OR theirs.
• To give just enough information to answer the hiring manager's questions & persuade them that you are indeed worth interviewing face-to-face - 'you need to meet me' kinda thing.
• To 'close' the interview effectively and agree a time, date and place for your face-to-face interview - sometimes a difficult task 'closing' the call successfully.

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