Phone Interviews: Prepare to Ace Them!

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

Almost all companies are saving time and effort by doing initial telephone interviews before committing themselves to hours of time assessing and evaluating applicants. They are doing this because, frankly, it’s a good way to save a team’s time from interviewing obviously unqualified people. From your standpoint, this means that you need to develop an additional interview skill.

One of the disadvantages of doing a phone interview is that they can’t see how well you look or what a great suit you’re wearing to the interview or that you own terrific ties. It also means that you can sit in the comfort of your home, rather than trudging to their site. With this opportunity, comes a problem. The major problem is that they can’t see how well you look or what great clothes you own. All they can do is listen to your voice and the energy that you convey and listen to the answers to your questions; you, on the other hand, can’t see when you’ve lost their attention or when you’ve bored them. There are no visual cues for either of you.

But with preparation, you can do a fabulous job and get in the door. Here’s a few pointers.

1. For any interview, go to the company’s website and learn about the firm. Also, if you can read a job specification on their site (or elsewhere) do so…