What is your objective in a telephone interview? |
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As the telephone interview is usually the initial screening interview
that works as an elimination round, your objective is to get short-listed!
Getting short-listed implies that you move on to the next round of the
face-to-face interview.
You need to, therefore, prepare for this telephone interview and not
treat it as lightly as a casual call. However, do not let the significance
unnerve you. It is important that you remain cool and confident throughout
the duration of the telephone interview, as this will do wonders to your
performance! |
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The interviewer wants to evaluate your communication skills |
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The primary concern of the interviewer, during a telephone interview,
is to judge you by your communication skills. How well do you communicate
on the telephone, where you cannot see your interviewer? Do you seem uncomfortable
since you cannot see the interviewer's reactions? Do you sound confident,
qualified, interested and enthusiastic despite the absence of non-verbal
cues from the person at the other end? Or are you left stuttering and
groping for words, distraught by occasional awkward silences during the
telephone call?
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These are issues that you need to keep in mind during the telephone interview.
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How can you improve the way you communicate on the telephone? |
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Can you change the way you speak overnight just for an interview? |
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Think through your answers to improve the way you communicate on the
telephone Improving the way you communicate on the telephone is not just
how you speak and your accent. What is crucial is what you say i.e. the
content of your answers. You can definitely make a difference to your
answers by a certain degree of smart preparation.
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Your preparation should involve thinking through certain questions that you could be asked with regard to your resume, and how you could possibly answer them. This does not mean that you should memorise canned and standard answers, but just that you draw up a list of anticipated questions, and think through how you would answer them. You could jot down points for each answer or just write a few key words to clarify your thought flow.
This will eventually help you in the actual telephone interview by reducing the time taken to answer questions, will ensure that the answers are brief and to the point, will reduce unnecessary gaps and long silences at your end. In addition, it will also indicate |
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to the interviewer that you are a thinking person with clear career plans and are seriously interested in the position at the employer organisation.
If you get caught off guard because you had not thought through a list of anticipated questions, your answers would tend to be long, lacking focus and you would come across as a confused individual, which is definitely not what you want the interviewer to perceive.
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