Mindy Gikas was interviewing a senior-level manager on the phone in October
when suddenly the job candidate paused. He said he was reading an email, recalls
Ms. Gikas, a managing director in New York at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide,
a unit of WPP Group PLC of London. "It showed me that his conversation with me
wasn't very important," she explains. He wasn't invited to interview in person.
Job hunters often mistakenly believe that phone interviews are less formal
than face-to-face meetings, recruiters say. Yet they're a critical first hurdle
in landing a job.
For applicants, the goal of a phone interview is to secure an in-person
meeting. For recruiters, it's to narrow their list of prospects. You can
increase the odds of passing this initial screening if you follow the advice in
these four tips:
1. Minimize distractions.
Flushing toilets, clamoring dishes and barking dogs sometimes interrupt phone
interviews, recruiters report. If you have scheduled a conversation, plan to be
in a quiet place, says Chris Wilkins, manager, strategic staffing, at the
Montvale, N.J., office of Ingersoll Rand Co., a manufacturer based in Hamilton,
Bermuda. If the call was unexpected, it is OK to ask to reschedule, he says.
Avoid using a cellphone, if possible, says Kathleen Downs, division director,
finance and accounting, at the Orlando, Fla., office of executive-search firm
Robert Half International Inc. "You never know when a signal is going to be
problematic," she says. "I've had that happen several times with candidates. It
was hard to hear them, and calls ended prematurely."
2. Sharpen your verbal skills.
Given a phone interview's lack of eye contact and body language, candidates
are evaluated largely by what they say and how they say it, according to
recruiters. Interviewers listen for clues indicating such qualities as passion
for the job, professionalism and whether the person might be a good cultural
fit.
In May 2005, Ruth Bielobocky, principal of Ion Design LLC, a
marketing-communications firm in Frederick, Md., rejected a candidate for a
senior copywriting job because she wasn't able to "get a sense of who he was,"
she says. "I couldn't imagine putting him in front of a client to communicate a
concept, because you need to have enthusiasm and intonation in your voice to
sell."
"Teen speak" and other unpolished speech habits are a common knockout factor,
says Mr. Wilkins. "I've had people call me 'dude' and 'brother,' and use words
like 'freakin,' " he says. Other turn-offs are gum chewing, smoking and eating.
3. Prepare in advance.
If you've scheduled or are anticipating a phone interview, keep notes and
your resume at hand, says Amy Segal, director of talent management for Verizon
Communications Inc., a New York-based telecommunications company. "The
interviewer is none the wiser," she notes.
A bit of homework can go a long way. In January 2005, a candidate for a job
as vice president of human resources at Ingersoll Rand impressed Mr. Wilkins by
mentioning its acquisition of Italian manufacturer CISA SpA. "The press release
came out literally the day we spoke," he says. Mr. Wilkins invited the candidate
to interview in person, though the person withdrew because of the job's
location.
Susie Klinck, manager of the site-management team at the Palo Alto, Calif.,
office of Xerox Corp., says a candidate for a content-manager position at the
technology and services company emailed her some work samples, and they reviewed
them together on the phone.
The candidate secured an in-person interview. While she didn't win the job,
says Ms. Klinck, "being able to review her work together went a long way in her
getting as far as she did."
4. Follow up.
After a phone interview, send a thank-you that recaps your best selling
points.
Yvonne Gagnon, a part-time communications-management student at
Manhattanville College's School of Graduate & Professional Studies in Purchase,
N.Y., did just that after a phone interview in July. She had emailed her resume
to a recruiter at an executive-search firm and called a few days later to follow
up. She was interviewed on the spot for a communications job at a credit-card
company. "I didn't know anything about the position or where her questioning was
going," she says. Afterward, Ms. Gagnon crafted an email summarizing what they
had discussed and information that she hadn't thought to mention.
"I'm really glad I did it, because I ended up getting five [in-person]
interviews" for that job through the recruiter, she says. While she didn't get
the job, she still makes follow-up emails a practice. "The face-to-face
interview won't happen if you don't treat a phone interview with the same
gravity," she says.
