Ace that phone interview!

Posted Dec 17 2008 9:47 AM by Gretchen Ledgard

Today, a friend e-mailed me to say that her husband was preparing for a phone interview (not with Microsoft) and asked if I had any tips to share with him.  I directed her to my entry on phone screens and then added a few extra suggestions.  After writing the points out for her, I figured I should share them with all of you, too.  You may have heard these before, but I’ve found (even from my own experiences as the interviewee) these tips really work:

Get outta that chair!  Try standing up and even walking around a bit during a phone interview.  People tend to speak more clearly and confidently when standing.  (Seriously, this works!)

Lose the distractions!  If at all possible, find a nice, comfortable, and quiet place for your phone interview … maybe your house, office (if it’s private), or even a local park.  Avoid busy locations like coffee houses and restaurants.  Try not to talk while driving in your car.  You’ll only get flustered.  If the suggested time is not convenient for you to ensure you talk from a good place for you, ask the interviewer to reschedule for a better time.

Don’t forget your resume!  Print out a copy of your resume to reference while answering questions.   While I wouldn’t advise speaking directly from your resume during the interview, your resume provides a concise cheat sheet for you to ensure you don’t forget any highlights in your experience.

Define your talking points!  Just as PR departments draft official talking points around popular or controversial issues, you should also prepare a few sentences around prominent events in your own experience.  Think of creative stories that highlight your competencies and innovative ideas you have for the job that you want to make sure the interviewer hears.  You should still let the interviewer drive the discussion and direction of topics, but these talking points will help you sneak in some of your own flavor, when it’s applicable.

FAQs rule!   No matter the company or job, some questions are frequently asked.  Anticipate these questions and answer them in advance.  Print out the list and have it handy for reference.  Topics you might be asked to cover include:  your passions, your strengths, your areas for improvement, a difficult challenge or situation you’ve encountered on the job and how you handled it, your most proud accomplishment, interest in this job and/or company, and your 5 year plan.  Chances are, you’ll be asked to expand upon at least one of these subjects during the interivew.

What’s the job?  Research the company, division and job for which you are interviewing.  Print out the job description for which you are being considered.  If no job description is available (which is very likely), think about what your ideal job in the company would be or how you think you could best contribute given your skills and interests.  Type up these ideas and print them out.  This description will help you frame your answers and maintain your focus throughout the conversation.

Let’s talk about the benjamins!  In all likelihood, the interviewer will broach the compensation subject.  Whether or not you are willing to discuss this topic or not, at least anticipate its introduction and be prepared to respond (even if the answer is, “I’m not prepared to discuss that at this stage.”).  Personally, I’d suggest giving the interviewer a broad range of your expectations.  Most likely, the interviewer just wants to ensure you are not completely out the company’s league and it makes sense to pursue further discussions.  At a preliminary stage such as a phone interview, you shouldn’t feel compelled to discuss specifics, and likewise, you shouldn’t expect the interviewer to give you specifics.  This topic is sort of a courting dance to make sure a second date is possible.

Do you have any questions?  A reader has asked me to write a full post on this subject – so I will.  But in the meantime, I’ll briefly mention it here.  Almost every interview ends with the interviewer asking, “Do you have any questions for me?”  Since you know the question is coming, write down two to three questions you’d like to ask ahead of time.  Again, I’ll talk about this point in additional detail in a later post.

Self-motivation works!  Ok, this is really silly, but I find this helps me.  Type up something that says, “<Your name here> - you are the coolest.  You are so smart.  This company would be lucky to hire you.  You have ALL the power, and YOU ROCK!”  Print out this mantra and read it just before the interview begins.  Glance back at the words during the interview.  I guarantee this will help you maintain your poise and confidence. 

I hope these tips help!  Now go out and get that job!

gretchen

28 Comments

  • Heather said:

    I'm surprised at how often I am intervewing someone that is interrupted by a dog barking or baby crying. Although it's not a huge deal, it really seems to distract/shake the person I am interviewing. I'd recommend that your "quiet place" be one free of other beings if possible just so you are not thrown off. It's hard to get back on track when your dog just completely freaked out at the paper boy. Just some things to think about.

  • Michael Giagnocavo said:

    Hey, I'll vouch for walking around! I had a long phone interview today (1.5 hours?) and first started off a bit slow. Started walking around my apartment (which is actually quite small) and wow -- I really got rolling! I also had some balloons lying around that I could kick around to keep the energy flowing. We'll see if I get the job :).

  • Mike Griggs said:

    I can't stand phone interviews, either for hiring or being hired. For hiring, all they do is prove whether somebody is good at talking on the phone or not. Fine if you're recruiting telesales people, useless if you're recruiting programmers. When's the last time an ace coder was also a phone wizz?

  • gretchen said:

    Michael and Marty - good luck!





    Mike - There's much more to being a good developer than good programming skills.

  • Michael Giagnocavo said:

    Mike: Usually they are to screen you. You can find out quite a bit about someone via phone. Ask them to think out an algorith or other technical questions... It says quite a bit when a guy with a masters in CS can't tell you what a binary tree is over the phone -- so why waste any further time with that person in physical interviews?

  • Leah said:

    As one of Gretchen's fellow recruiters, she has outlined some great tips. I wanted to share one more tip (that may be common sense to a lot of you) but really threw me off on my very first phone interview right out of college. I was incredibly prepared and had answered a ton of potential "questions" I may receive by the interviewer. I typed out the question and then the answer and had it all in one big interview document. Even though I had it memorized, I kept the document with me during the phone interview. Of course, I got nervous whenever a question was posed that I had not accounted for. Every time a new question was asked I started flipping through my notes, looking for a similar answer. Needless to say, I came across as scattered and my answers were too scripted. The interview was a flop. Definitely write out questions and answers but do not have the notes with you during the interview. The next time I had a phone interview; I hid my notes in another room and resisted the urge to grab it. I did great and well, I guess that is how I got in at Microsoft :)

  • Brian Korzeniowski said:

    Hi everyone,





    I think the biggest thing to remember during a phone interview is not to get too tied up in pre-written answers. After all, how prepared can you really be for most questions? For example, when interviewing for an ASP.NET Support Engineer position for Microsoft the interviewer asked, " Describe the process you would use to sell a thong to an entire nudist colony"... Talk about catching someone off guard! Or how about this one, "What do the letters NCC-1701E mean to you?" Why, those are the call letters to the Starship Enterprise! The interviewer responds, "Yeah, but which movie?" Stumped. You got me there. All I knew was it was from Star Trek. The point is, there were some silly, impromptu questions asked because the position demanded quick thinking and good research skills (i.e. the ability to use resources appropriately). Of course, I found out the reason for the questions after I got the job.





    So the next time you answer the phone interview call be polite. And if you hear, "Hi! This is Gretchen or <a title="" href="http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/articles/90036.aspx" >zoe </a> from Microsoft calling..." remember - they are just people interviewing people. Have fun with it. Relax. Oh yeah - and good luck!

  • Dan said:

    Great tips! Thanks for sharing them.





    Brian: Now I'm curious. Did you ever find out which movie showed the letters from the Enterprise?

  • Brian Korzeniowski said:

    Dan





    While not an avid StarTrek fan, I do enjoy the Next Generation Series - especially the character "Q". My other personal favorite is the espisodes "I, Borg". In answer to your question, the movie was "Star Trek: First Contact".





    Here is the link to the StarTrek website explaining the NCC-1701-E vessel. (<a target="_new" href="http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/library/ships/article/71711.html">http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/library/ships/article/71711.html</a>).





    Also, here is a link to the biography of the fellow who designed the Starship Enterprise, Matt Jefferies, and a little about how the Enterprise got its letters, name , etc..


    (<a target="_new" href="http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/features/firstperson/article/143.html">http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/features/firstperson/article/143.html</a>).





    Line long and prosper! :-)





    Brian (a.k.a. Cosmic Coding Proton)

  • Brian Korzeniowski said:

    Dan





    While not an avid StarTrek fan, I do enjoy the Next Generation Series - especially the character "Q". My other personal favorite is the espisodes "I, Borg". In answer to your question, the movie was "Star Trek: First Contact".





    Here is the link to the StarTrek website explaining the NCC-1701-E vessel. (<a target="_new" href="http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/library/ships/article/71711.html">http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/library/ships/article/71711.html</a>).





    Also, here is a link to the biography of the fellow who designed the Starship Enterprise, Matt Jefferies, and a little about how the Enterprise got its letters, name , etc..


    (<a target="_new" href="http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/features/firstperson/article/143.html">http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/features/firstperson/article/143.html</a>).





    Line long and prosper! :-)





    Brian (a.k.a. Cosmic Coding Proton)

  • Brian Korzeniowski said:

    Gretchen,





    Could you delete the duplicate posts to Dan for me? I ran into a server issue when posting.





    Thanks!


    Brian

  • Someone in the aether said:

    Quick question - if you're interviewing at Microsoft - how long after the first phone screen is it likely that you'll get a call back, or a "thanks, yeah, uhhh, we're sure that you're great 'n all, but..."?





    Also - is being asked "Are you free to come up in a couple of weeks?" a good sign, or just something standard?

  • Zoe said:

    Someone - I gave your question to the suggestion kitty to answer...

  • gretchen said:

    Someone - you may also want to check out our posts that begin with "Apres Interview." I think they are in the Interview Tips category.

  • Sunshine said:

    Hi Gretchen,





    Very useful tips, you are doing a great job.





    I am about to have my phone interview with MS in coming few days , I was wondering do I need to have access to web during the phone interview coz I have picked a place which doesn't have internet connection.





    Thanks.

  • JobsBlog said:

    Sunshine - No, you shouldn't need access. Sometimes you do (like if an interviewer wants you to log onto LiveMeeting to share code), but you'll be given advanced warning.

  • Dedra said:

    Brian-- I don't know about you, but I would have been pretty ticked off with those questions. I don't watch Star Trek, and would have said those numbers mean nothin to me. Then what? Sounds like a trick question to me.





    I don't mind and surely understand questions just to see how you think on your feet, but I don't like questions like that, where there's really no answer. I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and if I asked you a question about that show and you said, "What's Buffy the Vampire Slayer?" should that be held against you? How should you answer something like that?





    I HATE those silly, impromtu questions.

  • Imran said:

    Thanks, very helpful for my upcoming interview :)

  • Mani said:

    I hope these tips work for me on my interview which is on Wednesday. Nice article

  • jobs manila said:

    It's sometimes easier to have phone interviews rather than the real thing.

  • Ivana Tilca said:

    Hope this works for me next week!!!

  • Denise said:

    Thank you so much for this. I am 22 years old and am in the application process for a work at home call customer service position and I have a scheduled phone interview tomorrow and am super nervous as I have never had a phone interview before. I mean, I guess I should have seen it coming, since I'd be on the phone all the time for the position, though the thought never really cross my mind... I feel a little better about it now, then again I've never been a good interviewee I've blown many interviews not knowing what to say :-/

Comments have been disabled for this content.