Interview Flavor - The Phone Screen...
When It Happens - Between resume screening and live interviews...
What It Means - A Company has enough interest to call, but is afraid to commit to a Face to Face Interview. Remember how Jerry McGuire had issues with commitment? The company calling you has the same issues...
What to Be Prepared For - Rapid-fire questions - "Why are you looking?", "What are you looking for?", "Walk me through your background..", "What type of compensation are you looking for?" What are your strengths/weaknesses?, etc... Mostly softball stuff....
Who is doing the Interview? - Either a Recruiter, a HR pro, or the Hiring Manager. Either way, you have to connect and make it through the screen...
How Long It Lasts - 15-30 minutes, longer if things are going very well, shorter if they are going very poorly....
How You Can Eliminate Yourself - Don't show any energy or communication skills, be negative about life in general, fail to achieve synergy with the person doing the phone screen, fail to clearly and quickly describe your background, quote targeted compensation more than 20% above the ceiling for the position....
The Bottom Line - The Phone Screen is designed to interact with you verbally before the company brings you in. All you need to do is be positive, have energy, be able to cleanly describe your background without droning on, and don't stub your toe on the compensation question or by being negative towards past employers. Do that, and you'll get to meet someone face-to-face....
Little Known Fact - Recruiters will treat a poor voice mail greeting the same way they do a poor phone screen - by destroying your resume and never calling again. So... spruce up the voice mail greeting and make sure it has good energy and is professional in nature....
Other Resources - Technical Careers @Microsoft, TechieGold
That's the smart thinking we could all benieft from.
Posted by: William | December 26, 2012 at 11:35 PM