How to Not Blow a Phone Interview

As you’re probably acutely aware, times are tough. The job market took a major hit with the financial crisis of ’08 and is just resurfacing to catch its’ breath. Hopefully, you didn’t get sucker punched with it. Like a lot of us, you’ve probably been stagnating in your cubicle, hiding out until the dust settles and hopefully brushing up on your resumé in your down time. Maybe you are starting to have hopes of re-igniting your passion and jumping back out there into the job market. Maybe this comes with a move across country, or a few states away. If so, there’s a good chance you will have to suck it up and do a phone interview.
Almost nothing, and I mean ALMOST, comes close to the pain and torture of having a phone conversation these days, much less one that could dictate the rest of your life like landing the perfect job, which obviously leads to the perfect house, which leads to the perfect mate, which…ok let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. First things first. You have to have the skills to pay the bills. Which means you need to not only SURVIVE this phone interview, you have to kill it. And I mean KILL it like a giant spider coming after you in the shower. Beat it with a shoe, MURDER. IT.
Ok, maybe you don’t have to murder it but you need to make a good impression because believe it or not, you’re not the only one they’re calling. It’s stiff competition out there and it’s not a job seekers market just yet. Which means companies have the pick of the litter so to speak and you have to stand out from the rest.
That’s why you need to:
- Be well rested. Don’t go out partying the night before and think you’re going to be clear-headed for the interview. Just because it’s over the phone people tend to think that it’s not as serious as an in-person interview. They’re wrong. The phone interview is often the first step in the process. Think of it this way: You wouldn’t assume that you’d be allowed in the club without first getting past the doorman, would you? Think of the interviewer as the bouncer and you need to provide your credentials so that you can proceed to the party. So get serious about your performance and do what it takes to be clear and on point.
- Do your research. You wouldn’t show up to a business meeting without doing your due diligence, would you? Why would you show up to the job interview unprepared? Likely the company you are interviewing for has a website. Spend all day there. Immerse yourself. You live and breathe their vision and goals (likely they have a mission statement, memorize it) and make sure that you incorporate how you will fit into the culture and the role. Imagine it like it’s already happened. Convince yourself first, the rest will follow.
- Don’t be nervous. Haha just kidding. You’re going to be nervous, silly. That is, unless you are a sociopath, in which case please proceed to #4. It’s ok to be nervous, just don’t let it consume you. The person on the other end of the phone, believe it or not, wants you to succeed. That’s right! They were not placed there to trip you up and make you fail so that they could entertain themselves for an afternoon. They WANT to find the right candidate. That’s you. SHOW THEM.
- How to answer the “tell me about yourself” question. This is a tough one for some people, especially for some more extreme introverts, myself included, who spend our entire waking lives trying to blend in with the wallpaper. It’s tough bragging about yourself to a stranger. The key is to understand the question. It’s not intended for you to give them a point by point of how your parents divorce nearly threw you over the edge and how you are still competing with your siblings, only now it’s for career and status instead of Eggos and Legos. The interviewer wants to know what brought you to this very moment where you decided that THIS job was the ONE for you. So take them briefly through your career history and how your skill set is perfect for this position. If you want to really stand out, you can go right into “and that’s why I chose this company/position” because it was likely the next question anyway.
- Seem enthusiastic. I cannot overstate this. I have had several phone interviews that I KNOW did not go well for this very reason. I was so focused on answering all the questions correctly and nervous about upcoming ones that I forgot, yes forgot, to be enthusiastic. Intervewing is a painful experience, we all know this. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in how much of an awful time you’re having that the interviewer may interpret it as disinterest or worse, a character/personality flaw. So do your best to smile while answering the questions and remain positive while adeptly stepping over land mines and avoiding the occasional grenade of a question about your strengths andweaknesses.
- Ask questions. Lot’s of them. But DON’T ask questions just to ask questions because I said to ask them. Do it because you really want to know about how the company operates, how you would fit in, what your day to day activities would be. You don’t want to get stuck in another job you don’t like because you didn’t ask the right questions, do you?
- End on a good note. Make sure you ask “have I answered all of your questions” and “do you have any concerns regarding my qualifications that I can clarify for you?” Don’t be afraid of the hard questions and don’t bring up salary unless they do first. They might ask you what you are currently making and you are under no obligation to tell them. You can defer the question but most likely they are asking because they want to make sure your expectations match what they are willing to offer. This could be a good sign. So think carefully about this one.
- Likely they will end with something like “well, we are still interviewing candidates and we will let you know something by xyz time. Always follow up with a thank you via email and a clarification that you are interested in the position, if you are. Also, if they ask if you are willing to relocate, do not hesitate to say “yes” and you may also add “that won’t be a problem at all,” because some companies get nervous about hiring people out of state. Understandably so, it can cost up to $10,000 to move across the country and it’s not always a smooth process. Been there. They don’t want to invest their time and resources into something that might not work out due to logistics and they may have been burned in the past. Better to assuage their fears up front.
In conclusion, telephone interviews are the worst. Not gonna lie to you. But they are also necessary. If you have the opportunity to land one, and in my estimation it’s about 5% of the time you will get the chance, I wish you the very best of luck.
