[Jobs] Telephone Interviews: The First Line Of Contact

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Hello Job Hunters,

I thought you might be interested in an article I found in the Cleveland 
Plain Dealer about the essentials of telephone interviews.
Good luck to everybody!

Milena


Telephone Contacts Count Too
By Sheryl Silver (July, 1998)

      When people decide to change jobs, one of the first things many do is 
write a resume. In fact, people often spend endless hours drafting and 
perfecting
their resumes, agonizing over what they hope will be the perfect document to 
market their skills and experience.

      Unfortunately, say many employers, what many job hunters don't spend 
much time doing is preparing for the telephone interviews they're likely to 
have
with prospective employers and recruiters prior to meeting with them. And 
yet, those conversations --- brief as many of them may be --- typically 
determine
who gets to interview in person with a company, and who doesn't.

      "The telephone interview is vital," says Sean Lord, director of the 
high tech recruiting firm Interactive Development, in Santa Monica, 
California.
"If you don't get beyond that, by definition you've failed," in your effort 
to motivate an employer to meet with you.

      The telephone interview is almost always the first contact between an 
employer and prospective employee today, say recruiters and employers. Busy
recruiters tend to use brief telephone pre-screens with job hunters in their 
local area to gather additional details about someone's background and 
salary
expectations in a time efficient manner. For out- of-town candidates, 
in-depth telephone conversations save both the time and money involved in 
flying
people in for interviews until it's determined they're a strong fit.

      "We hire 7,000 to 10,000 people per year and don't have recruiters in 
all the states where we need people, so a lot of telephone interviewing goes
on," explains Brian McQuaid, executive director of human resources for MCI 
Communications Corporation.

      What issues are likely to be discussed during these telephone 
contacts? They tend to be the same ones addressed during face-to-face 
meetings. "We
want to know if someone has the basic skill sets we need for a position," 
says McQuaid. "We want to know if they're relocatable. What are the 
strengths
that aren't necessarily reflected on their resumes? We also try to get a 
range of salary expectations to see if our package is in the ballpark."

      McQuaid says employers also use telephone interviews to assess how 
clearly and effectively someone communicates. That makes it all the more 
important,
"to think through how you want to answer certain questions," he says. "You 
don't want to ramble. On the telephone, it's important to be crisp and 
concise."
Having your resume in front of you to refer to can also help in this regard, 
says McQuaid. "You're not going to have time to meander through your life
history," he notes.

      Lord agrees, and advises, "Before you do the phone work, do the 
homework. Be prepared to answer the question: What do they need and what 
have I got?"
Like McQuaid, Lord urges people to have their resumes nearby when fielding 
phone calls so they have all the pertinent names and dates handy. He also 
suggests
reviewing your resume and designing three bullet points that identify what 
you're particularly good at since you're likely to be asked about your 
strengths.

      In preparing for such calls, Lord also recommends people review the 
Websites of the employers they are approaching. Get familiar with their 
product
lines, any notable successes they've had, he advises.

      And since communicating clearly and effectively is such a critical 
aspect of these conversations, McQuaid and Lord both recommend people 
schedule
telephone contacts at a time and place when they can talk comfortably. If 
you get a call at the office and can't talk there, "Just say 'I'm unable to 
talk
to you at this moment. Would you like to call me at home? or I can call you 
back during my lunch hour,' then arrange a specific time to call back," 
advises
Lord.

      McQuaid agrees, urging, "Try to commit to a specific time, and if a 
situation arises that delays the call back, treat it like any other 
appointment.
Have the courtesy to call and ask to reschedule. If you don't call, it will 
be interpreted as a lack of interest."       By the way, if the only time 
you
can talk is after work, don't fret. Interested companies will try to 
accommodate you. Companies are flexible today because good candidates are 
scarce.
"Evenings and even weekends are potentially available for phone interviews," 
says McQuaid. "We're flexible about time because we've got a lot of people
to hire."

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