phone interview post-mortems

donfers

An employer might get 50 applications for a job, s/he might filter that down to 20 for phone interview which might then be filtered down to 5 or 6 for face to face interview

I want to ask about the phone interview, are there any signs during the call that the jobseeker might be likely/less likely to be invited to face to face interview?

After phone interviews I find it very hard to tell if I did well or not, face to face interviews I usually have a much better idea of how I fared.

So, for example, is it common for the phone interviewer to directly refer to the face to face interview and say something like, "are you available to attend interview next week?" or even the more direct "ok we'll see you next week for a face to face", and if these are not forthcoming does it mean you are unlikely to be invited to further interview?

any other signs/tips


for example if the interviewer asks about your availability or wage demands, could that be merely a formality that s/he asks everyone or is it a positive sign?


what do you think?

krissovo

I have never been asked my availability, salary requirements or anything else that may indicate a positive phone interview.

My only gauge is that I could confidently answer the questions and that the interviewer did not have to drill down very far to for me to answer the question.

Tieko

The best advice is really not to over analyse. If you feel you did your best and there weren't big awkward silences, then you just have to wait and see.

I have interviewed people in the past and you just tend to ask the same questions to each person. It can be hard for an interviewer to think on the spot too so they stick to the old reliables.

Best of luck

Eoin

I don't think you can read too much into it. Salary might not come up, because in some places that's directly managed by HR and the line manager might have no dealing in it at all. Availability may or may not come up.

So, for example, is it common for the phone interviewer to directly refer to the face to face interview and say something like, "are you available to attend interview next week?" or even the more direct "ok we'll see you next week for a face to face", and if these are not forthcoming does it mean you are unlikely to be invited to further interview?

It's not uncommon, but if they don't, it might not be bad news. Though if they're very non-committal about the next steps - e.g. "I'll give my feedback to HR who'll take it from there" - it might not be a good sign. But it varies hugely from person to person, and company to company that I wouldn't stress too much about it.

mikemac

Think about who you were talking to OP
Was it the lady from HR? A team leader? The real boss?
The manager of a department doesn't have time to do twenty phone interviews so hands these off his lackeys team leaders

I've had to do these

So for your questions I would never ever say "ok we'll see you next week for a face to face", because all me the interviewer was doing was jotting down your replies and making notes and handing it over to the boss.
So maybe the person you spoke too is the same, they do not have the authority or power to hire you or schedule a second interview

for example if the interviewer asks about your availability or wage demands, could that be merely a formality that s/he asks everyone or is it a positive sign?

Again it depends, I have asked these questions as it's on the checklist. But it doesn't mean anything if you were not asked them


So OP, who were you speaking to? HR and team leaders often don't make decisions, they just ask the questions they were told to ask. If you're speaking to the head of department and they are asking you about salary, well that would be a good sign