Topic of the Week: Phone Interviews (& How to Ace Them)

If they can’t see me, why should I worry?

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You tweaked your resume, wrote a cover letter expressing your interests and qualifications, and applied to those jobs.  One day, you’re scrolling through your emails or listening to your voicemail (or checking your StartWire application updates!) and find, you’ve received a request to a phone interview!

Pause here and think: what does the phone interview really mean?  How is the phone interview different from the in-person interview?

For many, the phone interview seems less formal because they’re not physically meeting the employer.  Instead, the phone interview can be done in the comfort of a room or a space which they’re familiar with.  You might choose to forgo that suit jacket and pants that you’d wear if you were dressed to impress the interviewer.  You don’t even really need to do any personal grooming because… no one will see how you look!

Don’t get too comfortable.  It’s important to realize, you should treat the phone interview exactly as you would an in-person interview!

Why?

Employers offer the phone interview as a means to determine which candidates are worth the resources for an in-person interview, but it also means that the employers are looking at you and are interested in your potential to be their next hire.  Know that if you’ve been offered a phone interview, you’re considered a top-candidate, worthy of conversing with to gauge your fit to the position.

You need to take this just as seriously as if you were sitting in an office, meeting the hiring manager face-to-face.  If you drop the ball now, you can be cut from the short list you worked so hard to get on, and not be given that coveted in-person interview. 

Shine on the phone, and you’ll walk into your interview as a top prospect.