Preparing for a Telephone Interview with a Recruitment Specialist
The below is a snippet from our newly updated Interview Guide. Pro Resume Write is also proud to offer 1 on 1 interview coaching with our Principal Consultants — Katherine Eriksen and Regan Bickell.
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Applying for a position with a company
Before applying for any position ensure you are happy with your resume. This needs to be a professional document which truly reflects your skills, experience, who you are and what you do. For each position you apply for tailor a cover letter which addresses the job criteria and how your skills, experience and attributes meet these requirements.
Once you have submitted your application, be sure to save a copy of the advert. Online advertisements will be removed once the application time frame has closed.
Standard questions the Recruitment Specialist will ask
When the Recruitment Specialist calls you in regards to a position you need to ensure you feel confident that you remember; the role, company, why you applied for the position and are able to articulate your relevant skills and experience. However, if the call catches you off guard, do not worry. Simply thank them for their call and request that you call them back shortly, confirm a time and take their details.
Be prepared for the telephone interview by having a copy of the advertisement and your resume in front of you and be sure to familiarise yourself with them.
Now is the time to prepare yourself for the telephone interview with the recruiter. This will be a short call, so it is important that you get across your relevant skills and experience in line with the position criteria. The first thing is; understanding what sort of questions they are going to ask you and what sort of information they are hoping to gather. Some of the questions they may ask will be -
- What are you working rights; are you on a VISA which enables you to work in that country, do you have Permanent Residency or are you a citizen?
- How did your hear about the position and have you previously interviewed with the company?
- What experience do you have relevant to the role?
- What qualifications do you have?
- What are your motivations for applying for the position and why are you interested in working for the company?
- What are your future career objectives?
- Do you have any upcoming holidays?
- What is your notice period?
- What is your availability to start if successful?
- Are there any conflicts of interest with your application i.e. do you own a consultancy company on the side?
- Have you applied for any other roles?
- What is your current salary?
It is imperative that you call the Recruiter back when you say you will! If they miss your call it could be because they were tied up. Only call them once and leave a message, they will call you back as soon as they can. Most people have caller ID and needless to say when they see they have 15 missed calls from the same number it doesn’t look the best.
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Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on April 10, 2015.
