Succeeding at Telephone Interviews

Telephone interviews have been around for many years, and they are still proving to be popular, especially with homeworkers. Telephone interviews are quite informal, in that you can be sat at home in your PJs, however, they should not be treated as informal and casual.

With a telephone interview, all you have is your voice to sell you, and to be honest, that can be more difficult than a face to face or online interview. Selling yourself with your words is what a telephone interview is all about. So to ensure you get it right, you have to have a positive tone and manner to your voice. Sounding dull, disinterested and bored will not land you that job. You have to be proactive on telephone interviews, you have to listen carefully the interviewer, and pick up on their tone of voice.

Like with any other interview you have to be organised and prepared, just because you are calling in, or being called, it does not mean that you shouldn’t be early/on time, and that you shouldn’t have memorised your CV/Resume beforehand. Being unorganised comes across really well in your tone of voice and telephone manner, so ensure you are organised and prepared before you take that call.

As with offline and online interviews, you don’t get long to impress the interviewer (literally a few seconds) so make them count. Be charismatic, energetic and positive on the phone, ask questions when appropriate and listen/take notes as you feel necessary. Having information of the company and on the role never goes a miss, and is something that is essential, especially when they ask you questions such as what attracted you to our company, and to this position?

Something I think is important is what you wear. Even though you will not be seeing the interviewer/employer on a telephone interview, I strongly feel that how you dress alters how you speak and talk during an interview. With this in mind then, you should really where your offline interview clothes. Getting dressed and prepared for a telephone interview just the same as you would for an offline interview is a key step in the process that will help ensure your interview goes as well as it can do.

Finally, here are a couple of things to remember when taking part in a telephone interview.

1. Distractions. Make sure you have no distractions around you when you are in the middle of the interview. There is nothing worse than being on the phone and the door bell ringing in the background. 2. Noise free environment. Ensure you undertake the interview in a noise free environment. If you will be working from home, the interviewer will be assessing your home setup and ensuring you have a quiet place to work from.


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