by John J. Walters
I started thinking about phone interviews today because I saw one of my Facebook buddies posted that he had accidentally scheduled two of them for this afternoon. Then I started thinking about how phone interviews are pretty much no different from conference calls, except there often won’t be too many other people listening. So if phone interviews are similar to conference calls then it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump to liken them to meetings in general. And you know what that means, right? It means I get to write about them — as if I know what I’m talking about!
As a matter of fact, I do know what I’m talking about. I’m no stranger to the phone interview. I’ve been conducting them semi-regularly for the past year for various projects for Wasabi Ventures and have also had to do quite a few for my other employer, The Maryland Public Policy Institute. In fact, nearly a quarter of my job consists of calling folks and talking to them about this or that. So I figured I’d share a little bit of what I’ve learned over the past year about phone interviews.
First of all, in answer to my own question: no, I don’t wear a tie to a phone interview. But I do make a point to try and be as professional as possible when I conduct one. In fact, I try to make sure that I’m at least presentable whenever I sit at my desk and work, even though I work from home. This helps create a clearer divide between my work and home life. If a tie helped me do that, I’d wear one. It’s about feeling comfortable, but also like you’re “at work.â€Â Ties kinda lost that feeling for me when I had to wear one every single day in high school.
Phone interviews have become pretty normal to me, but I can remember how I felt about them before they became my bread and butter. Until I became comfortable, I had to make it a point to make sure that I was in a familiar location and that I knew I was well-prepared. This meant reviewing notes or articles about the subject beforehand while listening to relaxing music. I would make a point of being in my office with the door closed at least ten minutes before the interview was scheduled just to focus.
Knowing your material is also very important. I would review for my interviews starting a day ahead of time and then again a little bit beforehand just to make sure I remembered what I was looking at earlier (just like a test at school). If you’re asking the questions your job is a little easier, but you still need to prepare or else it’s easy to get lost and ask a whole lot of useless questions that don’t pertain to the topic at hand. Having been on both sides several times I would say both can be a challenge, and it certainly helps to do some rehearsing on your own.
Of course, none of these are hard and fast rules. I’ve also conducted interviews in my car in a Wal-Mart parking lot with my laptop on my knees (although that was more out of necessity than choice). But the keys to successfully getting your point across are preparation and relaxation. You would do the same if you were walking into an office and speaking with someone in person, so don’t forget to take the phone interview just as seriously. Take advantage of whatever helps you do that, be it a tie or a security blanket.
Also, keep in mind that what works for conversations between two people can also work in larger groups. These same recommendations go equally for conference calls.