Telephone Interviews

Try to get short-listed to the next stage of the face-to-face interview. What is your objective in a telephone interview? As the telephone interview is usually the initial screening interview that works as elimination round, your objective is to get short-listed! Getting short-listed implies that you move on to the next round of the face-to-face interview. You need to, therefore, prepare for this telephone interview and not treat it as lightly as a casual call. However, do not let the significance unnerve you. It is important that you remain cool and confident throughout the duration of the telephone interview, as this will do wonders to your performance!

The interviewer wants to evaluate your communication skills. The primary concern of the interviewer, during a telephone interview, is to judge you by your communication skills. How well do you communicate on the telephone, where you cannot see your interviewer? Do you seem uncomfortable since you cannot see the interviewer’s reactions? Do you sound confident, qualified, interested and enthusiastic despite the absence of non-verbal cues from the person at the other end? Or are you left stuttering and groping for words, distraught by occasional awkward silences during the telephone call? These are issues that you need to keep in mind during the telephone interview.

How can you improve the way you communicate on the telephone? Can you change the way you speak overnight just for an interview?

Think through your answers to improve the way you communicate on the telephone. Improving the way you communicate on the telephone is not just how you speak and your accent. What is crucial is what you say i.e. the content of your answers. You can definitely make a difference to your answers by a certain degree of smart preparation. Your preparation should involve thinking through certain questions that you could be asked with regard to your resume, and how you could possibly answer them. This does not mean that you should memorize canned and standard answers, but just that you draw up a list of anticipated questions, and think through how you would answer them. You could jot down points for each answer or just write a few key words to clarify your thought flow. This will eventually help you in the actual telephone interview by reducing the time taken to answer questions, will ensure that the answers are brief and to the point, will reduce unnecessary gaps and long silences at your end. In addition, it will also indicate to the interviewer that you are a thinking person with clear career plans and are seriously interested in the position at the employer organisation.

Some of the questions that you can anticipate are:
1. Summary of your career/previous work experience
2. Short and long term career goals
3. Where do you see yourself 5/10/15 years from now?
4. Why do you want to quit your current job?
5. Why have you applied to this organisation?
6. Why do you want to work for this organisation?
7. How are your skills, qualifications, and experience suitable for this job?
8. What do you know about the job that you have applied for?
9. Tell us something about yourself
10. Find a solution to a problem situation at work

For any questions relating to how you would handle a problem or crisis situation at work, remember to use an analytical and structured format for your answer i.e. problem definition-solution-implications. Keep your answers short and to the point.  Avoid verbosity and lengthy detailed explanations in your answers. Stick to what you have been asked.