phone interview

[gardeniabee]

woot! the environmental consulting firm that randomly emailed me wants to set up a phone interview! except... i have no idea how to not sound like a retard in a phone interview. any tips?

Comments

[tonberrygrrl.livejournal.com]

Actually... i do have a few tips, having been an interviewer for many, many applicants on several job positions. =)

First and foremost, try to avoid interviewing on a cell phone if you can. If you gave them your cell number for your contact information and that's where they plan to call you for your interview, i'd be ready for their interview near a land line. Then when they called i'd ask if they could call me back on the land line instead, since cell phones tend to be unreliable and give poor signal.

If you have no choice and you must interview from your cell phone, do NOT do your interview while walking around outside or doing anything else: Dedicate your time solely to them. I realize that sounds so stupid and obvious, but i've actually had an applicant that interviewed from his cell phone while driving(!) and walking from Point A to Point B. For one, we could hardly understand him through all the garbled background traffic noise, and beyond that, since he was paying more attention to traffic than us, he came off like a total idiot. None of us felt that he was taking us seriously. Suffice it to say, we did not make him an offer.

When your interview time comes, have a copy of your resume and cover letter with you! You never know when they'll ask you a question where you can refer to either of those, and if you can do that, it shows that you've really got it together.

If you can avoid it, try not to give terse, three-word answers. Most of the time when i get an applicant that does that, we'll go all the way through their interview, short though it may be, answer any questions they may have, shake their hand and wish them well... and as soon as they leave, i send their application straight to the shredder. These people want to know what you can do, so don't be afraid to expand a little on all the cool stuff you did during your coursework!

If they ask you about something that you haven't done before, don't be afraid to reply that you haven't done it before. Just tell them, "I don't have any experience with that, but hey, there's only one way for me to get it, right? =)" And yes, genuinely smile when you say it - they can most certainly hear it!

Last, and certainly not least, relax! It's just a job interview, and you'll probably have tons of them in your lifetime!

[tonberrygrrl.livejournal.com]

Also, good luck! *hugs* ♥

[gardeniabee]

Thanks a bunch for all the tips! Having concrete advice and strategies really helps me feel like I'm being proactive. I actually got another company call to schedule a phone interview today, so I'm pretty excited about all this "job hunt" stuff.