CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, August 29, 2017

12 Things To Avoid If You Want To Nail Your Phone Interview

www.fastcompany.com: 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.

2 comments:

Annie Scheuermann said...

Phone interviews make me a lot more nervous than in person interviews. I think that being able to read a persons body language and seeing their face is very telling, so only being able to hear their voice is a lot more intimidating. I agree with all these tips for phone interviews and many apply to general interviews as well. As it seems any article giving helpful advice, some is very obvious, but I guess it does not hurt to put the things you take for granted and spell them out point blank. One phone interview I had the interviewer requested to FaceTime, which surprised me at first. However, I can see wanting to at least see the persons face being beneficial, which is another thing to plan ahead for. I think that the filler words is something that is very much in most peoples everyday language so as hard as it is to be clear it is important to try as it is much more prominent during phone calls.

Unknown said...

As Annie mentions in her comment, a phone interview can actually be much more difficult because of the lack of body language and visual cues. Some of the suggestions offered by this article are obvious, practical things such as talking in a quiet location with good reception. However, the less practical suggestions actually point out communication skills that talking on the phone can help you hone. For anyone who struggles with communication or any level of social anxiety, talking over the phone can compound those problems. However, several of the suggestions in this article made me realize that phone interviews can help you identify issues in your personal communication and fix them. Phone interviews can help you hone your speech into clear, deliberate, and concise statements because issues such as using filler words and talking in vague, long-winded sentences that trail off to nowhere get highlighted in phone conversations in a way that they do not when talking to someone in person.