Telephone Interviews are as Easy as 1-2-3!

In a tight economy, smart organizations seize every opportunity to lower costs in the recruiting and hiring process. The telephone interview or phone screening is one great way employers are keep recruiting and hiring costs down.

Rapidly advancing telecommunication technology is enabling employers to add to the complexity of the telephone interview. For example, telephone interviews can now be one jobseeker with one interviewer or one job seeker with multiple interviewers on an interview panel.

With free conference call services or on-line meeting web technology, the interview panel can now be completely distributed. In other words, a jobseeker can converse with 4 or 5 interviewers who are all in different locations. Bottom line is that the telephone interview is here to stay and can be a very effective tool to screen job seekers.

What does that mean for the jobseeker? You must get comfortable with the telephone interview and know how to impress the recruiter through this medium. With the telephone interview, where neither interviewer nor jobseeker can see each other, both have to be aware of tone, clarity and energy. Mastering the interview is as easy as 1-2-3 if you understand this.

If I were to rank the three, I would probably put them in the following order:

1. Energy - Stay high energy from beginning to end of the telephone interview.
2. Tone - Try and limit sarcasm or negativity since you cannot "read" the interviewer.
3. Clarity - Listen carefully to the question. I have heard jobseekers go off on a tangent answering the wrong question. If the interview were face to face a quick gesture could abort the wrong answer.

Interviews are uncomfortable enough and the telephone interview adds another layer of complexity. Jobseekers should know that these three factors will enhance or destroy their candidacy.

For more tips on how to ace the phone interview, read 10 Ways to Ace the Phone Interview