What I Wish I Knew About Job Searching — Phone Interviews
The struggle is real. Jobs searching is one of the most important yet rarely discussed skills that I wish I learned in college. My immigrant parents didn’t even know what FAFSA was - let alone how to prepare for a job interview.
The recent grad me had no idea how to write a compelling resume, talk to recruiters or even what interviews looked like. On top of that, I was not even sure what I wanted to do! I started working in events as a sophomore and eventually stumbled to jobs in tech marketing. The journey was windy and confusing and filled with mistakes and failures. My saving grace was my mom, who patiently encouraged me to do what I loved and push for it. And also, failing — a lot.
Fast forward 8 years, I’ve had a chance to work for some amazing companies like Google, collaborate with super talented teams in start-ups and define a lot of my current responsibilities. But even today, I still find the job search process confusing, stressful, a mixture of art and science — area rarely discussed. And yet this skill has a huge impact on our financial and emotional happiness.
After numerous job hunts, failed and successful jobs, months of research, I learned some hard lessons what to do and specifically what not to do as a newbie. These are purely based on my journey, so if you have any additional comments, please share (thestruggleisreal.jobs@gmail.com)!
So you landed a phone screen by the company you really want to work for. If you are still struggling on this portion, this a great article to get you started.
Yay, congrats! What’s next? Most companies will schedule a phone screen with the recruiter or even potentially your future manager. What do you do?
Things to do
Do your homework!
Look at their LinkedIn, see where they worked before. Read the company’s blog, About Us section. Watch any video about the product, the team. Read case studies if they have them on their website. Read the role description (many times), summarize key responsibilities they will likely tailor their questions. Google Company name and read any relevant news (did they recently raise funding? IPO rumors? Bought out by a larger company?).
Soak your brain with infinite knowledge about the company. This will help immensely with the flow of the conversation. You can casually drop your knowledge during the interview and impress the interviewer that you did your homework and you really want the job! Also, come up with potential questions the might ask and prepare some key points how to answer those!
Typical questions to prepare for:
- Why do you want the job?
- What would be make you great in the role?
- Why do you want to work at XYZ?
- Provide example of when you successfully did “XYZ” (examples of role responsibilities)
- What are your strengths/ weaknesses?
Ask the hiring managers the hard questions
It’s easy to ask the typical questions “How you like your job?”, “What’s it like working at XYZ?”. Usually the answers are pretty standard “I love the people, the culture”. But you don’t always get a deeper understanding of the company or what’s it like to work there. Dig deeper. I recently started asking the question “Why did you leave XYZ to come to this company?” or “What makes you different from your competitors?”. If you find them on LinkedIn, look at their previous jobs and see if what would be relevant to ask.
Finish phone interviews strong
Throughly go over what needs to happen in the next steps, what you need to do, what will they do, what are the deadlines. Ask in some way or form, what they think about you as candidate. A good way to transition to this would be “I am really impressed with everything I’ve heard about the role and your team, would love your honest feedback about me as a candidate?” This is crucial step to help you understand where you stand. Also, if they have reservations — convince them otherwise! Don’t let all your hard work go to waste by not asking these questions.
Things to avoid
Talking bad about previous employers
Don’t talk bad about your previous employer, period. Absolute no, no. Even if they were negative or was a bad experience. If you had short employment, or even a gap, make sure you answer why. Don’t spend too much on the negative sides and try to flip every question to a positive. The question will come up “Why did you leave your last job?”. Think how to answer this question. Write the answer down and practice it (with a friend, by yourself, roommates). This can be an easy disqualifying question and an easy trap to fall into.
Sounding over confident /cocky
Most companies are looking for humble, smart yet confident candidates. It’s a fine line but very important to keep in mind when answering questions. Let numbers and accomplishments tell your success and avoid phrases like “ I am the best at xyz.” or “ I didn’t rely on anyone”. Sometimes these are trick questions to test how well you work in a team or if you would be hard personality to train.
Answering salary questions without doing the homework
If you don’t know what salary range you are working with, avoid giving numbers during the interview. If you have a good knowledge from Glassdoor/previous jobs, then state a range. Don’t focus on salary in the early process but don’t lock your self in a low range from the beginning!
Found this helpful?
If you live around the Bay area and are looking for career advice/ becoming a career mentor — feel free to join our The Struggles is Real FB group and attend our next happy hour! Contact — thestruggleisreal.jobs@gmail.com
— Tamilla
