- 1 Jul 2010
- 6 Comments »
Telephone Interviews – harder than face to face?
Telephone interviews can be quite the ‘norm’ for some businesses or recruiters. Some use them as a sounding board for whether they should meet you. Others may want to verify a particular area in your skill set that was not clear in your resume. Whatever the reason it is important that you take this interview just as seriously as a face to face meeting. Your communication skills will be tested!
Some helpful hints if you have a telephone interview:
Background noise – make sure you are not caught on the hop and that you are in an environment where you will not be distracted. If need be ask if you can walk to somewhere quiet or call them straight back. You want to be able to actively listen to the questions and respond clearly.
Speak clearly – Being able to communicate over the telephone is far harder than face to face. The listener is not able to watch you speak and observe your body language. If you have an accent you may speak really fast and the caller may not be able to catch certain important words or comments. So be mindful to slow down, speak clearly and seek confirmation that they have understood what you have said.
Be prepared – A recruiter or employer may call to find out a bit more about your skill set or may schedule a time to telephone interview you as they are short of time or have the luxury of multiple relevant candidates. Be prepared to answer interview questions in just the same structured, thought out way as if you were face to face. Be succinct and confirm that the listener has the information they were looking for.
The process – Ask what happens next. After the telephone interview find out when you might hear from them just as you would if you were meeting face to face.
You may be reading this wondering if telephone interviews really differ from face to face interviews. Well they do not really.
The only key difference by not being present is that you are not able to show off how well presented you are, your manner, your handshake, the walk to the room where you get to build rapport with the interviewer. The upside of a telephone interview is that when you do perform and are called in for a meeting you already know they are keen on your experience; the rest should be easy, right!
What are your experiences?
I had a really interesting meeting earlier this week with a senior executive in finance who was seeking my advice on changing jobs.
When you interview, your objective is to impress. So, what do you do when you are asked a particularly hard question which leaves you feeling less than intelligent and pondering why? These are the questions which seem 100miles off the mark, they seem to have little or no relevance to the job you are interviewing for. They are abstract and out of the box. 
Psychometric testing has become commonplace to the recruitment process. Companies utilize the tool to assess employee suitability. Most psychometric tests will now be completed online. You will usually be provided a venue or assessment centre in which to undertake these assessments to ensure your environment is controlled. You may find in some instances, if you are undertaking assessments in an assessment centre, that some assessments may still be paper based. 
I am always amazing by the difficulty successful individual’s encounter when I advise them to include achievements on their resume. Individuals find it hard to take ownership or isolate their role within a team/department and to quantify their success. When you attempt to put pen to paper consider 5 major areas where you will have had success. 
Every interview will be different, which is not surprising, given the human element involved and considering that every position is different. For this reason, every contract interview will also be different. You can not 100% predict what will be asked and how your will perceived. However, you can and should prepare just the same as you would for a permanent interview. 
Group interviewing is a technique usually employed when recruiting a large intake of staff. Without a doubt, it is a tough interview method. Applicants are assessed at once, so your opportunity to make an impact is reduced. Further to this, what you are assessed on is more extensive and rigid. 
