How to Nail a Phone Interview

They say if you are not preparing to succeed you are preparing to fail. The same can be said during a job search and interview process. I've witnessed it countless times over the years. Most job seekers use a shotgun approach to their search, sending many resumes out at once and then waiting for the phone to ring. When the phone does ring they wait for the first phone interview and then the process begins. This is a vital mistake, as most phone interviews are carried out with careful strategy by the interviewer. Candidates just don't realize it until it's too late.

Last year the job market was extremely unforgiving. Today, not much has changed. Companies view our current times as a buyers market. They are more focused on vetting out candidates quickly than they are about needing to sell candidates in. It's not their fault, there are ten times the amount of candidates than jobs available.

Having success in an interview process depends heavily on control and predictability. There is no point during an interview process in which you have less of these critical things than during a phone interview. Phone interviews are approached by most job seekers too leisurely. Landing a phone interview is a huge success for a job seeker and most of the time this is the most crucial period of the interview process. Getting to this point should never be taken for granted. Little is known about the following things when approaching the point of a phone interview:

1. Company plans, structure and strategy
2. Interview process and time line to hire
3. Internal members that will be involved during the process
4. Questions that will be asked by the interviewers
5. Internal and external competition you are facing

Successfully landing the job requires knowledge of the above. On a phone interview you typically know none of the above. You are in the discovery phase of the interviewing process. You have been discovered by the employer and you have experience that is of initial value. The interviewer is now tasked with narrowing the candidate pipeline. This means you are now expendable. How you answer the questions that are about to come your way will determine whether you are vetted out.

The difficulty lies in making an impression with your interviewer (most likely a complete stranger) and compiling data from the five topics above in order to raise your interviewing IQ. If you landed an interview through a recruiter, ask your recruiter for everything they know about who you are interviewing with and helpful info to the topics above. If you landed an interview through a friend or referral, ask the person who referred you to fill you in. If you landed the interview through sheer luck, then get to Googling immediately. Use Linked In to find the person you will be phone interviewing with. Look at their connections. Any mutual contacts? Colleges? Organizations? Prior employment? Facebook them too. Sound crazy? Perhaps, but not everyone connects to LinkedIn as they do Facebook. Regardless of privacy restrictions you will be able to see if you have mutual friends.

Research and preparation prior to the phone interview can drastically increase your chances at breaking into the next round and landing the gig. The easiest way to achieve this is to prepare and gather intel. There are no better friends to have in your back pocket when trying to do this as Google, Facebook and Linked In. They are job search weapons, use them to your advantage.