Ace Phone Interviews With 10 Tips

It's no secret — if you don't ace phone interviews or if you blow the phone screening, your chances of going further as a job candidate are slim.

Phone interviews are a really practical, low cost way for recruiters to narrow the field of candidates pretty quickly. It is a great way to quickly screen the initial field of candidates and make some preliminary decisions about setting up face-to-face meetings. If you learn how to ace phone interviews, you improve your chances of getting your resume moved from the "possible" pile to the "yes" pile.

During a phone interview, the employer is mostly verifying the information you have on your resume. 

10 Ways to Ace Phone Interviews

1. Find a quiet spot to do your phone interview. The last thing you want is to have distracting noises in the background, be they children, pets, or music.

2. Do not accept phone interview calls at your current work place or office, during working hours. Lunch breaks are fine, but not during work.

3. Speak clearly and watch your energy level during the telephone interview. One seasoned recruiter from a Big 4 accounting firm shared with me that job seekers who sounded drowsy or low energy usually were not called again.

4. Be professional and polite in your phone interview. If you are on a speaker phone, acknowledge everyone in the room.

5. Be prepared to explain everything you have on your resume including dates of employment, career transitions and employment breaks.

6. You can't ace phone interviews without listening carefully! Since you are not in front of the recruiter, you can't read their body language so it is very important that you listen intently and answer clearly.

7. Ask questions in the phone interview. The most important question you should ask is when you will be able to schedule the face-to-face or video chat interview. Your goal is to move one step closer to getting the job offer.

8. Smile. Your pleasant persona will actually come across over the phone. A fellow call center manager with whom I worked several years ago actually kept a mirror in her desk drawer. You knew she was on the phone with an irate customer when she took it out.

9. Be very clear about the next steps when you get off the phone. Wrap up by clarifying details about the next steps for you as a job applicant. Do not get off the phone before restating your interest in the position.

10. Whether you like it or not, the recruiter is evaluating your communication skills via the phone call. So, if a professional resume writer wrote your resume, make sure the language used on your resume is still representative of your own "voice". You have to sound like your resume.