Mastering the Phone Interview
Page 1 of 2
by Peter Vogt
You just got word that you landed a job interview with a company that really interests you -- only there’s a slight catch.
You won’t be meeting with your interviewer(s) face to face. Instead, you’ll be taking part in a phone interview, the results of which will determine whether you’re invited to meet with company representatives in person.
Many companies use phone interviews as an initial employment screening technique for a variety of reasons. Because they’re generally brief, phone interviews save companies time. They also serve as a more realistic screening alternative for cases in which companies are considering out-of-town (or out-of-province and foreign) candidates.
So the chances are pretty good that, at some point in your job hunt, you’ll be asked to participate in a 20- to 30-minute phone interview with either one person or several people on the other end of the line. In many ways, the way you prepare for a phone interview isn’t all that different from the way you’d get ready for a face-to-face interview -- save for a few slight additions to and modifications of your list of preparation tasks.
Here’s what to do:
