by Christopher Della Valle

Created on: February 18, 2009

Being one of the millions of people currently unemployed here in the good old U S of A I have plenty of experience in phone interviews. I do however want to warn you before you read any further, as good as the info sounds that I'm about to write, take it with a grain of salt cause I'M still unemployed =) If it was THAT good I'd be in bed right getting rested for work, instead of listening to Letterman and writing this article. OK now that I hurt my credibility I'm ready to begin.

The first thing you want to do when a company calls you for a telephone interview is, don't take the phone interview on the spot. "What that sounds crazy, no wonder this guy is still jobless," is probably something that's running through your mind right now. I can't blame you, but there is a method to my madness. The reason you don't want to take the phone interview is two fold. One, you don't want to look like you're one of these people that are just sitting by the phone waiting for somebody to call. When a company calls and wants to know if you're available for a phone interview, tell them that you're in the middle of something, or are just walking into a meeting. Then ask them if they could either call you back at a certain time, or ask if you can call them back. The reason you want to do this is the second fold in my two fold answer =)

After you hung up, log on to the Internet and find out anything and everything you can about the company AND the position you applied for. If you're like me, you've applied for anything and everything that has something to do with your area of expertise. So you're going to need this time to get reacquainted with the company and position. Things you should look into are, how big the company is, what they do, what they expect you to do, and any news about company. Make sure to write down your newly acquired info, so you can access it during your phone interview.

This next part isn't necessary, but I do recommend doing it. After finding out everything there is to know about the comany and the position, I type up a few questions I intend on asking about said company and said position. This shows that you're actually interested in the company.

Then get ready for Round 2. If you take the time to do your homework on the position and the company you'll sound well informed during the phone interview and there's a good chance of getting a face-to-face.

Good Luck!

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