12 Things To Avoid If You Want To Nail Your Phone
Interview
As tempting as it may be, don’t multitask.
These days, phone interviews are an unavoidable part of the job
interview process, and for good reason: They save everyone involved time and
effort. But that doesn’t mean that phoners require zero energy on the part of
the candidate. Yes, you should spend more time preparing for an in-person interview, but many companies treat phone screens as the official first round of the hiring process. That means
candidates are expected to go into them prepared with as much
information about the company, position, and their own skills and strengths as
possible.
We asked HR pros about their top phone interview pet peeves, and they had no
shortage of advice to offer. Apparently, it’s quite easy to mess up your phone
interview. But here’s the thing: It’s also not hard to come across well if you
keep some key things in mind.
1. NEVER TAKE THE INTERVIEW SOMEWHERE NOISY
It might seem like common sense, but you’d be surprised what
interviewers say they can hear in the background of their phone
interviews–everything from barking dogs to screaming children. “Prepare for the
interview by securing a quiet space in advance, even if it means escaping to
your car parked in the garage,” advises Chere Taylor, founder of Fulcrum HR Consulting. “If you can
lock your home office door, by all means do it. We’ve all been there and
sometimes things just happen, but the more time spent anticipating what could
go wrong, the better prepared and organized you will appear to the interviewer
and the greater likelihood of success.” That doesn’t mean that if your washing machine
beeps once in the background all hope is lost, but the more effort you put into
being in a quiet place, the more focused you’ll be.
2. DON’T TALK ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL LIFE
…Unless you’re directly asked a question about what you like to do
in your off-hours. “The point of a phone interview is to focus on getting to
know a candidate’s professional experience and goals,” says Mckenzie Roark,
campus talent specialist at Lithko Contrcting. “A recruiter is
trying to qualify them to see if they are the best fit for a role, and learning
about their personal life doesn’t help. For example, when asked where you see
yourself in five years, we don’t want to know that you hope to be married or
that you want to buy a new house. That is nice but that isn’t relative to
anything professional.”
3. RESIST THE URGE TO MULTITASK
It might be tempting to cross something off your to-do list while
on a phone interview, but recruiters and hiring managers can easily tell if
your attention is elsewhere. “My number-one pet peeve is people who decide to
multitask while on the phone interview,” says Dan Krupansky, talent acquisition
manager at PrimePay. “I have heard candidates washing dishes, making lunch in
the microwave, going for walks, letting their dog out, and grocery shopping
during the interview. I even had one person use the bathroom and flush the
toilet while speaking with me.” Needless to say, this doesn’t reflect well on
your level of interest in the position you’re interviewing for.
4. SKIP THE MONEY CONVERSATION
To put it bluntly, it’s simply too early in the process for you to
be the one who brings up salary expectations. “Chances are if a candidate is
participating in a phone interview, this is the first time they have talked
with the company, and the first call isn’t the appropriate time to talk about ‘what’s in it for you,'” says Justina Strnad, the talent
acquisition manager for Shiftgig. “Trust me, if you are a great candidate and make it to the next steps,
the hiring team is going to be very transparent about what’s in it for you
later on!”
5. NEVER PUT YOUR INTERVIEWER ON HOLD
Phone interviews don’t take that long, and there probably isn’t
anything else going on that is really truly so urgent that you need to pause your interview. “Do not put me on hold to take an
important call that just beeped in,” advises Jeremy Payne, head of people
operations at Remote Year. “I am your important call. If you are expecting extremely urgent news (like
information about a family illness), be sure to preface that in the early
minutes of the interview, so the recruiter is aware of the situation and so you
can work with them to reschedule if that interruption does occur,” he says.
6. NEVER SKIP THE Q&A
“After wrapping up a phone interview, it is
typical that the interviewer will ask the candidate if they have any questions. I can’t stress this enough: always ask questions,”
says Roark. “If we have had a great phone interview and then we wrap up and
they don’t have any questions for me, it pretty much ruins the whole interview.
It tells me that the candidate is uninterested in the role, which in reality,
might not be the case at all,” she notes. But surely, if you’re interested in a
job, you can think of something to ask your interviewer.
7. DON’T BE LATE
It seems basic, but surprisingly, a lot of
people are late to phone interviews. “About a quarter of the people with whom I
schedule phone interviews aren’t on time,” says Sophie Cikovsky, who handles
U.S. recruiting for Infinite Global. “While this bothers me personally, it’s also indicative of someone who
isn’t very detail-oriented,” she explains. “In order to identify this early in
the hiring process, I started asking all candidates a few years ago to call me
as opposed to calling them at an agreed-upon time. That way if I hear from them
at 1:13 p.m. or 12:49 p.m. instead of our planned 1:00 p.m. interview time, I
have an early indicator that they might not be a great fit.”
8. DON’T ASSUME RECEPTION IS
GOOD
“Make sure you test your headset and
connection before dialing in,” recommends Payne. “There is nothing more
frustrating for a recruiter who has a structured interview guide in place
having to repeatedly ask the same question over and over because they could not
understand your answer due to static or dropped signals.” Test call a friend
beforehand or even call yourself from a landline if necessary; it will take
less than a minute.
9. NEVER TALK OVER THE
INTERVIEWER
You might be eager to get your point across
or talk about your experience, but interrupting the interviewer is awkward and
rude when you’re speaking on the phone, even more so than in face-to-face interviews. “Interviewing can be stressful and sometimes that stress manifests
itself in speaking too fast, speaking too loud, talking over the interviewer,
or attempting to answer the interviewer’s question before they have actually
finished asking the question,” says Taylor. “Don’t do this.” There’s a big
difference between being assertive and being aggressive, and interviewers can
always recognize it.
10. SKIP FILLER WORDS
It’s tough not to say things like “um,” “uh,”
and “like” in everyday speech, but these verbal habits become much more
pronounced when speaking on the phone, says Chris Dardis, a recruiting expert
and HR professional with Versique Executive Search. “In face-to-face interviews,
they’re not as noticeable because there are other things like your hair, suit,
or body language to distract people,” he explains. But in a phone interview, the only thing you have to go on is what you say and how you say it.
“That’s why it’s so important to eliminate these words from your speech when
doing a phone interview.”
11. DON’T GO IN BLIND
Not knowing anything about the
company or job you’re interviewing for is way
more obvious than you’d think. “Many people think that a phone interview means
they’re getting away with something, that they don’t have to put as much effort
into researching the role or company,” says Steve Pritchard, HR consultant for giffgaff. And if you have
your laptop in front of you during the interview to do a few quick searches,
they won’t know the difference, right? Not exactly. “Seasoned interviewers will
know whether an interviewee is researching while on the phone; they will take
too long to answer the question and punctuate their answers with a lot of ‘ums’
and ‘errs’ as they type. The interviewer can often even hear the typing as they
ask the question,” he adds.
12. NIX LONG-WINDED ANSWERS
“The key to success during a phone interview
is clear and concise answers,” says Dardis. “People’s attention spans tend to be shorter over the
phone. You don’t want your future employer to lose interest in the
conversation.” He recommends practicing answers to questions you know will be
asked ahead of time in order to be clear on what you’re going to say. That way,
you can prevent rambling before it starts.
BY JULIA
MALACOFF—GLASSDOOR
https://www.fastcompany.com/40458927/12-things-to-avoid-if-you-want-to-nail-your-phone-interview?utm_source=postup&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Fast%20Company%20Daily&position=9&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=08292017
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