Telephone Interviews

Your goal during a telephone interview is to get a face-to-face interview.

Before the Call

Prepare several three to five sentence stories about your most relevant successes. The format for your stories should be a short explanation of the problem, the solution you came up with, and the outcome that resulted from your efforts.
Research the company and the salary range for the position
List your questions
Prepare a quiet place and have your calendar ready.

During the Call

Stand up to allow your voice to project, answer the phone with a cheerful and confident tone, and smile so your voice will sound upbeat.
Open with sincere appreciation.
Ask questions to determine the interviewer’s needs and take brief notes that you’ll use to close the call. Then, let them do the talking.
Answer questions with short one or two sentence responses. Use the results part of your prepared stories to intrigue them. Then ask an open-ended question that will give you insight into their needs. For example:
- “What are you looking for this person to achieve?”
- “What are the biggest current challenges?”
- “Could you describe your ideal candidate?”
Near the end of the call, listen for clues that the interviewer is nearly finished. Give a brief summary of their key needs and why you are such a good match, and ask for a face-to-face interview.

Before You Hang Up

Thank the interviewer for their time.
Ask for information about the next step and confirm the date and time of the next contact. If they are vague, ask if it would be OK to call back in a week.

Don’t

After the Call

Write a thank you note and include a brief statement highlighting how well you appear to match their needs.
Contact according to the agreement made during the call.
If they don’t call as agreed, wait a day or so, then call them, asking to check on your status.