Advice and Tips on Telephone Interviews

Top Tips on Telephone Interviews

Preliminary vetting of applications is increasingly being undertaken by telephone and various methods of telephone interview are used.

Types of Telephone Interview:

Unannounced
Following submission of an application form or CV the candidate is telephoned unannounced, and an interview is underway. The sorts of questions are often very similar to those encountered in a normal face to face interview, such as, 'Why have you applied to this company?' This method is often adopted as a preliminary screening process by some of the medium sized and smaller companies, perhaps an Advertising Agency or a Firm of Solicitors.

Prearranged
Following submission of an application form or CV a letter arrives advising the candidate that the next stage of the recruitment process is a telephone interview. These interviews tend to fall into one of two categories:

(a) You are given a freephone number and a personal identification number and at a time of your choosing you ring the number from a touch tone telephone and respond to the statements read out to you by pressing an appropriate button on your phone. These are the agree/disagree type. There may be as many as eighty statements to respond to and you are advised that your response times are recorded. This is to ensure that your answers are genuine reactions. Don't try to pick the answer you think the interviewer wants, the questions are designed to spot anomalies in your answers. Even if you do beat the system, you may end up with a job that you are temperamentally unsuited to.

(b) The second type is a structured telephone interview. Similar preliminary arrangements to those above are made but in this instance the interview is with a trained interviewer. Responses are normally recorded and questions are based on the required competencies for the job and the candidate's answers are analysed by trained interviewers/analysts. For this type of interview you can prepare in a similar manner as for face-to-face competence based interviews.

Tips for telephone interviews

Remember if you have recently submitted a CV or application form, there is an increased chance you will be telephoned, without notice. If you live with others it would be a good idea to advise them of this possibility and keep it in mind yourself. Remember if you make a bad first impression you have to do extremely well to recover.

Keep your CV and separate folders containing each job application handy. You may need to find them immediately if you are 'phoned unexpectedly.

If you have arranged a time for interview in advance, make sure you have your flat / house to yourself and won't be interrupted. Turn of the TV / radio and have a glass of water nearby. Prompt cards can be very useful if clearly written and easy to read.

Always keep a pen and paper by the 'phone, so you can make any necessary notes without having to leave the 'phone.

A big difference from face-to-face interviews is lack of visual contact. In traditional interviews it has been shown that 55% of communication is made up of non-verbal signs. A further 37% is related to tone of voice, with only 8% from the words. In telephone interviews there are no non-verbal signals and therefore considerably more emphasis is given to tone and rhythm of voice, rather than to the words themselves. An awareness of how you sound is useful therefore. Consider recording yourself practising, to listen to later or so a friend can give you feedback on how you come across.

A more positive image is projected if you stand up when talking, provided this doesn't make you sound too aggressive.

If you smile when you are talking this is communicated in your voice.

Use the same gestures as you would in normal conversation. Be enthusiastic when appropriate

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Don't be put off if you are not getting any feedback from the interviewer, this happens in some face-to-face interviews too.

Updated: Summer 2011