How to prepare for a phone interview.

The phone interview is a screening process big and small companies use to select those that are qualified for an in-person interview from a long list of candidates.

Professionalism, industry knowledge and personal marketing efforts are items that create an employer’s impression of your candidacy — developing these skills from start to finish in an interview influences whether or not you receive a job offer. How can you prepare and polish yourself to gain the next step in the competitive interview process: an on-site or face-to-face interview?

Prepare in advance by significantly improving your knowledge of the company that is about to interview you.

·        Research the company and position. Review the company’s Website, focus on their mission statement and objectives. The internet now allows any press on a company to be public domain and searchable.

o   Do a Google search. Type in the company’s name and check out the top three hits on the company. Do a Google blog search. Go to the google.com main search page, go to “more” and click on “Blogs.” Type in the name of the business, names of the founders of the company, etc. You’ll probably be surprised at all the information you can find this way.

o   On any company’s Website, the best areas to find information is the “About” section or “Press” section. This will give you a good picture of how the company was established as well as how they position themselves in the marketplace.

·        Find out who the company’s competitors are.

o   As an example, when interviewing with a particular Hospital, read everything on their competitors by researching the most popular “medical” institutions (Hospitals in the area, similar Hospitals regionally & nationally, Large Multi-Specialty Groups, etc). Then:

o   Do a comparison and contrast of each site. Do a full review by answering the following questions: “How does Hospital A differ from Hospital B? From Medical Group?”, “Are there similarities between these three sites?”, “Who is their target patient?”, “Which site is more user-friendly?”

·        By preparing yourself and understanding the organization you are about to interview for, you will not only be fully prepared for the interview, but will also gain newfound knowledge on the scope of how the facility serves the community and its patient population.

Next, the most daunting part of the phone interview is the behavioral and situational questions. These account for 80 to 90 percent of phone screens. By researching online, you can find examples of questions posted by recruiters, employers and online communities that are vocal about this very topic. Examples of behavioral and situational questions are:

·        "Tell me about yourself..."  Reply should be job related - give a short verbal resume on yourself starting with education - go from oldest job to most current. Just hit the highlights, not your life history. If the interviewer wants more details they will ask.

·        "Where do you see yourself 3-5 years from now?"  Give a open response - not too specific - "I hope to be with a stable growing company (such as yours) that will allow me the opportunity to grow with them on a professional and personal level.

·        "What other positions have you been interviewing for?"  Make sure that you are consistent or they may think that you have no direction.

·        "Tell me a negative about yourself" Do not respond you don't have any - we all do - say something that could also been seen as a positive or a strength such as "My math skills could use some polishing, but I'm a whiz with a computer." 

·         "Tell me a positive or strength about you" Make sure that it is business related.

·        "Why are you the best person for this Job?"  Sell yourself, stressing the skills and abilities that the position requires.

·        "Tell me about a supervisor you liked - why?"  "The least - why?"

 At some point they will stop asking questions and will tell you about the company, and about the position.  This is the time to really pay attention and listen to what they have to say because it will give you more insight about the Opportunity.  Listen for key words i.e. Team player, Motivated, Hit the ground running, and so on. Then you have the opportunity to express why you are the best person for this position.  Behavioral questions give an employer an idea of how you work, your attitude and behavior in the work place, why you applied for the position and your intentions on applying for the position. Attitude is a strong determining factor in almost any Candidate evaluation. Situational questions allow an employer to see how you think on your feet, problem solve and places you in the shoes of an employee of the company. It also gives an employer an idea of how you react to situations that are commonplace in the job.

The best answers to these questions are provided by real-life examples of what you’ve done academically, volunteer work or job experience. Prepare by outlining a list of questions, then rehearsing answers that are concise yet descriptive. The more you prepare yourself with answers to possible behavioral and situational question, the better an impression you make on a potential employer.

In closing, present yourself openly and speak eloquently — recruiters judge your communication style and speaking ability. Show a humbleness to learn, express your abilities to problem solve, be innovative and creative. If you can put these elements together, your candidacy will stand out from the crowd.

For more resources to help in your job search go to www.dsrecruiting.com and click on the resources tab.