Phone Interviews

RacoonQueen

I've miraculously managed to secure a phone interview with one of the social networks. Never having done a phone interview before (other than a stupid questionnaire with M&S years ago that I failed :rolleyes: ) I find this a lot scarier than a face to face interview. Has anyone ever had an interview like this before that can give me a few tips ( other than get the dogs out of the house to prevent distracting barking and use the landline so I'm not distracted by texts etc coming through on the mobile ) especially if you've had one with a social network or one for a fraud investigation role.

It's probably easier because I can have my cv and some notes out in front of me, but she's asked if I have skype as well but my dodgy internet connection puts me off providing that? It takes two minutes to set up skype so it could be a test so I don't want to say nooooo I don't have it when it doesn't take a rocket scientist to set it up.

Irish_Elect_Eng

The key thing to remember with phone interviews is the lack of visual cues from your interviewer. This makes is much harder to determine if they understand or are satisfies with your responses.So you must be disciplined in your replys keeping them concise and checking for understanding at the end of each Q/A exchange.

Another tip I received many years ago is to actually dress for the interview. Now I know that this seems odd, but apparently it puts you in the right frame of mind and reminds you of the context of you phone conversation. Also sit erect and don't slouch as this changes the tone and projection of your voice.

On the Skype thing, be perfectly honest, it's not a sin to live in a slow-band area of the country. Just state that you would love to Skype with them but you are concerned that the broadband will not support a interview and would distract for the conversation rather then add to it. Ask them if this is a deal breaker for them and offer to do the interview from a cyber-cafe or friends house instead. (Shows flexibility) (Does any of your friend have good BB?)

WolfgangWeisen

Is this for Facebook?

RacoonQueen

Thanks for that IEE, had thought of the sitting erect thing. Might turn off wi-fi on my phone and skype on my phones connection which is more reliable or from college.

Wolfgang, no, it's for twitter.

barry181091

Had my first phone interview last month with a big corporation. Wasn't prepared at all for it, seeing as I mixed up the days and got the call the day before I thought it was on

Turns out it was a great thing. Not having anything prepared made me much calmer. I could be myself and talk normally. I had the interviewer laughing at parts of the interview

What I found was that, it was basically like a chat, NOT an interrogation. As a guy who did recruiting for Cisco told me a while ago, they are trying to find out what you know and would you fit their company/teams. To be honest I found it better then a face to face interview, I could be myself.

One thing I would say, it do not under any circumstance, lie or look up stuff while an interviewer is asking you things. They can tell instantly that you are bluffing, it is much better to just be honest. I just happened to be extremely honest because I was caught off guard with the call, just so happened the recruiter appreciated my honesty with the question or two that I didn't know.

Also, I got the position in the end

josieb

Hi All

I have a phone interview on thurs for a customer service administrator for a medical devices company and as I never had one before, just wondering what to expect. Is it the same questions they would ask in a face to face to interview or will it be just on cv????? would I need to know stuff bout the company. I am not sure what to expect as this is new to me.