Phone Interview Sudden Popularity

Phat Cat

Has anyone else noticed phone interviews becoming increasingly popular with employers all of a sudden?

I've worked in marketing & sales for well over a decade but I've interviewed for lots of jobs in that time but I've never had a phone interview before.

Over the last few months myself and my wife, who works in IT, have relocated back to Dublin and every time we get a call back about a potential job the employee wants to screen us over the phone before we meet in person.

Has anyone else noticed this?

starlit

Phat Cat wrote: »

Has anyone else noticed phone interviews becoming increasingly popular with employers all of a sudden?

I've worked in marketing & sales for well over a decade but I've interviewed for lots of jobs in that time but I've never had a phone interview before.

Over the last few months myself and my wife, who works in IT, have relocated back to Dublin and every time we get a call back about a potential job the employee wants to screen us over the phone before we meet in person.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Yes it has been quiet popular for a few years since my degree but more so since I last finished college two years ago. I have done a number of telephone interviews over the past year and a half.

Employers are trying to whittle down candidates they probably feel they can't interview everyone so they reduce the number they have to interview face to face or else its a means of cutting costs? Sometimes telephone interview might be the only option under certain circumstances. Though usually a telephone interview would lead to being short listed for face to face interviews.

Telephone interviews be often be part of graduate programme recruitment including assessments and psychometric tests. It's all part of it. Though a lot of companies do it for a lot of positions. Sometimes a telephone interview might be instead of a face to face one but depends on the employer. Usually its just a case of being invited for a face to face interview. Though time has changed that a telephone interview is one way of eliminating people from the recruitment process before they even meet them for a face to face interview. Every company has different procedures when it comes to recruitment.

I say treat a telephone interview like a face to face interview sometimes a phone interview can be easier or harder than the face to face one. They are likely to ask you similar or same questions whether its a telephone or face to face interview. Prepare for it like you would a face to face interview.

Have questions ready as well. Your experience should stand to you, marketing and sales seem to be becoming popular professions at the moment. Have you any interest in the area of social media/digital marketing? They be topical things for any one with a marketing background at the moment.

Best of luck

Eoin

I wouldn't be surprised at all if it is a lot more common than it used to be. I do a phone screen first as I don't want to waste HR's, a candidate's and my time to bring them in for an interview if it's obvious within 5 minutes that they're not suitable (or if we're not suitable for them).

Also, I imagine that there are a lot more applicants these days given the jobs market, apart from certain areas, so it makes sense to try and short list.