Phone interviews are supposed to be more comfortable than in-person interviews. You can interview in your boxers if you want to...My tips: 1) Use a speakerphone. Have a bottle of water and your materials (resume, model answers to typical questions asked, etc.) laid out. Stand up if you need to. 2) Go through the job description throughly. Make a table of the duties vs. your experience. If they ask what you do, you can hit what is important to the job. For example, instead of saying I do X, Y, and Z, you can say this position needs someone to do A, I've done A blah blah blah. 3) Develop conversational questions when it's your turn. Get them to talk. Ask them what they like about their work etc. PS - You will bomb some interviews. Everyone does.
Listen. You are overanalyzing everything. Usually the person doing the interview doesn't want to do it to begin with, we have to do them here and we all dread it, it sucks, we have more important things to do, especially on a short thanksgiving week. So cutting the interview short doesn't mean you bombed it. You need to change your mindset and think that the person doing the interview isn't really into and tell yourself that you own that person mentally.
I guess I'm just not a great talker. I mean I need time to gather my thoughts and use a lot of visual clues and gestures to make my point. I don't know if that makes any sense, but I just can't make a good impression over the phone. Hmmm, Good point. So if she calls back or when I do a phone followup I'll make sure to have that mindset.
First, you need to stand up while doing the phone interview. sitting or laying around on the couch is not good. I don't think I would recommend a speaker phone. Don't stress youself out, go in with that relaxed mindset mentioned earlier. The worlds fate doesn't rest on this interview.
Aren't you the girl who was telling me that I reminded you of your fiance a few years ago? When I started a thread about how I was pissed at her ex, and how much baggage she had? Think that was you. Thanks, but unfortunately the cynics won... too much trauma/baggage. She cheated on me. Boo. But I'm very happy to hear that yours worked out. Anyway, back on topic... I actually tend to do just as well or better on phone interviews, probably because if there is a particular question that catches you like a deer in headlights, it's far easier to hide that fact. The key in any interview, to me, is just being relaxed. Pretend you hardly care whether you get the job or not. Worked for me. I've got three offers... still trying to decide which one, and possibly if I'm gonna do some negotiating.
I know some foreigners when applying for a company and are faced with a phone interview, they just let someone else who is also well versed in the subject matter pretend to be the candidate and do the talking on the phone. Some of these foreigners don't have command of the English language that well or have some various accent that employers might be prejudiced against. It is more common than you think amongst people from other countries who are applying for work in the USA/UK-for them to have someone else speak for them. Just a suggestion.
Stop over thinking it. You talk on the phone all the time. The guy on the other side of the phone is just as tense as you are.
Wouldnt the accent be obvious when you do the on-site interview? And I'm not sure you'd want to work in a place that cant get past your accent. Unless you want a yearly pay raise that only adjusts for inflation
I know computer and software engineers from places in Asia and South Asia who are hired strictly based on a telephone interview, since they are located so far away from the actual location of the job. So thus they already have signed a contract even before setting foot in America. But like some others mentioned, some people get more nervous on a phone interview versus an in person interview. Thus if you can be calmer, and more fluent in that situation it might be best to let someone else handle the technical details of a call.
Hmmm, interesting. It's not that I have a thick accent or have trouble speaking english over the phone. BTW I am foreign and have a bit of (not thick) accent. It's just that at times my voice starts shacking for no reason and because of it I become even more concious of it and lose track of my thoughts (sometimes). I don't know, it's hard to explain. But now that I look back and try to remember the interview yesterday morning, maybe it wasn't that bad. Just surprisingly short.
LOL. I just read this and saw your moniker and laughed really loud. So OrangeCounty, I hope you weren't interviewing for a telemarketing job. What kinda questions were they asking? I also think phone interviews are ridiculous. Plus, you could just give it to your buddy who's awesome at interviews. I just hope that interviews will never resort to texts or IM's. Good luck in getting the Job!
Phone interviews are the wave of the future, like it or not. I got my new gig (contract job) after a 45 minute phone interview and no in-person interview. I did it while stuck in traffic on the West Loop South. Did the interview during Thursday rush hour, and they called my headhunter the following monday asking if I could start on 11/26. Turned in my resignation at my old public-sector job as I was leaving on that Monday. It felt great, and I'm excited about starting my new life back in the corporate world. More money, more professional atmosphere, and smarter, sharper people to work with. It's all good.
