More and more employers are conducting first and even second round phone interviews for executive candidates rather than in-person interviews. These meetings should be taken just as seriously as in-person interviews. Will you be prepared? Here are five tips.
- Practice for phone interviews. Don’t just practice answering questions — also practice how you will sound on the phone. Conduct a mock interview with a friend and record it. (You can use a free service like Freeconferencing.com.) You may be surprised at how you come across on the phone. Identify opportunities for improvement.
- Be aware that not all phone interviews are scheduled in advance. If you get a call from a hiring manager or human resources staffer and it’s not a good time to talk (i.e., you’re in a noisy place), either don’t answer the call and let it go to voicemail, or ask if you can get to a quiet place and call them back in a few minutes.
- When scheduling a phone interview, make sure you know the exact time of the call (including any time zone clarification), who the call is with, who is calling whom (and on what phone number), and how long to expect the call to last.
- If you are preparing for a scheduled phone interview, create a cheat sheet of notes you can reference — for example, specific metrics related to your accomplishments, questions you want to ask, etc.
- Prepare for a phone interview like you would prepare for an in-person interview: Research the company and practice answering the questions you expect to be asked.