Image via Gary Larson
When you are looking for jobs with large corporate firms you will often be asked to take part in a phone screening interview with a member of the HR or recruitment team. This is part of an internal process that allows someone who does not work in the actual function to screen a long list of candidates on some basics to make sure they have a competent short list of candidates who will at the very least perform well in a face to face interview with the wider business.
Phone screen interviews will never get you a job, but they can lose you a job. They are a sequence of communication tests, rather than a skills test and once you pass them then the real interviewing can begin. I have refined some behaviours that will help you succeed in this slightly artificial interview. Have a read and if you disagree or have others to add please pop them in the comments section or tweet me @topdigitaljobs.
How to not screw up a phone screen interview
- + Go to a quiet room on your own five minutes before the call is scheduled
- + Have earphones with a microphone plugged into your phone. You need your hands to be free and you don’t need to worry about your ear turning on air-plane mode on your smart phone mid sentence
- + Have your CV out in front of you
- + Have the job specification out in front of you
- + Have a pen
- + Jot down examples in your career that address the job requirements on the job spec or on a notepad – you will now be able to refer to something specific and relevant when the requirement is brought up
- + Always speak through examples in the STAR format, basically the background, the plan of action, the results of that action.
That is it. The goal of a phone screen is to be brief, clear, focused and polite. Once you are qualified on paper and qualified on the phone, then you are almost 50% of the way there. You just need to ace the face to face interactions. More on that later.
