Congratulations on getting your phone interview scheduled! This is often the first step to getting your new job, and as a result you want to nail it. But phone interviews can seem difficult to prepare for. Employers have a different agenda and ask different questions in phone interviews than they do in person.
So, why is the employer doing a phone interview at all rather than just interviewing you in person directly?
- The people you need to talk to are not local, and they don’t want to pony up the money to fly you out until they know if you sound at least somewhat competent over the phone
- They are screening out candidates who have impressive looking resumes but are missing one or two things that are essential to the role
- There is a bureaucratic hurdle, with the recruiter handing your freshly sourced CV to an HR Generalist, who wants to phone screen you before taking your resume to his or her boss. There is nothing worse for someone in HR than advocating for a candidate that is not qualified for the role because of an aspect easily identified in a phone call.
Common Strategies
No matter what the reason, our approach is going to be the same. Phone interviews are great because you can have your notes spread out in front of you on the kitchen table. As long as you know what sorts of questions you can expect, it’s simple to be prepared!
Below are a list of questions I have found very commonly come up on a phone interview:
- What do you know about us so far?
- Tell me about yourself! (also known as the 30 Second Elevator Pitch)
- Why are you thinking of making a move? (you can find my advice on this one here).
- What are your current job responsibilities? Let’s talk through your resume.
- What are you looking for in terms of compensation? (Find my advice on this question here). This question rarely comes up in a phone screen, but it does happen. Best to be prepared for it!
You will find that in a phone interview, the interviewer will fairly quickly shift into pitching their company and their opportunity to you. As long as you have answers prepared for the questions above, all you need to do during this section is take notes and listen attentively.
How is a phone interview different than a face-to-face?
I have found that many employers will conduct a phone interview simply because they want to make sure the resume they have actually matches a real person. They are looking to confirm things they already suspect about the person. That’s why getting a phone interview is so exciting – you already have some sort of match to the job!
Face-to-face interviews are much more complicated because:
- They last longer, so you have to be on your game for a longer period of time
- Body language is a factor, but it isn’t as big of a deal for the phone interview
- You are out of your element, generally in clothing you don’t regularly wear, and are visiting a new place you aren’t comfortable with yet
So don’t stress too much about your phone interview. Spread out your notes, do your research on the company, and be prepared for your motivation question and your comp questions and you will do fine.