Phone Interview Tips

Phone interviews are incredibly important and there are several things you can do to have a more successful outcome.  First, before the call ensure you have all the information needed in front of you, including your resume and cover letter, job ad, and company research.  Second, have something to take notes on (and with) so you don’t distract the interviewer with the noise of the computer keyboard.  Third, take the call in a quiet room at home or in your car with no children, dogs, television or radio sound in the background.  Fourth and last, have some water at the ready since your nerves will most likely make you thirsty.  Try these tips before your next phone interview.  To your job search and interview success!

Quick Resume Tip

Never lie on your resume.  While you may be desperate to get a specific job, or even any job, a lie can truly come back to haunt you.  First, your experience is good enough if applying for the right jobs.  Second, a lie, even discovered years down the road, can result in immediate dismissal (think of the Yahoo CEO who lied about having a degree on his resume and was ousted from his position within days).  It will never pay to lie, whether discovered immediately in an interview or checking references, or years from now, the damage is done.

Keeping Track of Your Job Search

Have you ever experienced that awkward moment of getting a call from a potential employer, and you didn't remember applying to the company?  This is actually a very commonplace issue.  Up to 60% of companies either start interviewing or finally fill their job requisition three months of more after first posting it online.  Why you say?  It's a simple matter of money and/or time.  First, if a company waits longer to fill a position, they save thousands of dollars for those months the requisition remains open.  Second, if they are inundated with work already, it often takes that long to do resume review, phone interviews, in person interviews, second interviews, make a decision, send the offer letter, and get the new employee on board.

As a jobseeker, you need a simple way of tracking your applications, and I recommend keeping a Job Search Notebook.  Any three ring binder you have around your house with sufficient room for lots of papers will do!  With this handy little tool you can keep track of the following:

--Each company/organization you applied to and a copy of their job advertisement.

--The tailored/personalized resume and cover letter you used to apply - please take this version to the interview, not a generic version (or worse yet, one with another company's information). 

--Date of application OR date of handoff/email of resume to a networking contact or recruiter for forwarding to HR or another company contact.

--Date of application confirmation.

--Company research (never apply to a company you haven't researched, this way you can give a complete answer to the question:  "tell us what you know about our organization?")

--Communications from the company (still in consideration, rejection email/letter, additional questions).

--Date of phone interview.

--Notes from the phone interview.

--Date of in-person interview.

--Notes from the in-person interview.

--Thank you note written to the interviewers.

--Follow up information.

--Contact information, including names, email addresses, and phone numbers.

Now, when you get that call two, three, or even four months after applying, there is ample documentation for you to refer to, and refresh your memory for, a good phone or in-person interview.   Try the Job Search Notebook idea, as it will keep you organized, and avoid the embarrassment that comes with not remembering where you applied.  To your job search success!