These are typically used before a face to face interview often as a way of undertaking initial screening of candidates

What are telephone interviews used for?

Although telephone interviews are still not that common, they are used by some major employers as a very useful and cost effective way of undertaking initial screening of candidates.

The major companies operating telephone interviews are usually keen to make the process as transparent as possible and will normally give you full briefings on the methods to be employed.

What will happen in the telephone interview?

There are three main types of telephone interview:

1. Unannounced telephone interview

Following submission of your application form or CV someone from the company will ring and often ask you very similar questions to a normal face to face interview.

2. Prearranged telephone interview

Again following submission of your CV or application form you will be contacted and normally fully briefed on what will happen next.

3. Sales telephone interview

Following submission of your application you will receive a telephone call asking you to sell something to the interviewer. These are used in particular for jobs involving selling and frequently for call centre staff or telesales staff.

The prearranged telephone interview

Generally this will take one of two formats:

Format 1:

You will be sent a Personal Identification Number (PIN number) and asked to telephone the company within a specified period of days, typically about seven.

You then ring from a touch tone telephone and will be required to respond to various statements and the time it takes you to respond will be recorded. These are agree/disagree types of questions. There may be up to 80 questions.

The reason that the exercise is timed is to ensure that your response is genuine and that you have not tried to give the answer you think they might like.

Examples:

"Overall, I enjoy working more than playing"

"I have a gift for seeing the strengths in others"

If you strongly agreed with the statement you would press key 1; key 2 if you agreed; key 3 if you were unsure; key 4 if you disagreed; and key 5 if you strongly disagreed.

Format two:

The second type is similar to the unannounced telephone interview and usually involves typical interview questions. You are often advised that your interview will be recorded. Questions are based on competencies for the job and your responses are normally analysed by a trained interviewer.

How should I prepare for a telephone interview?

Prepare your environment:

Always keep a clear record of your applications preferably in a file next to the telephone. Inform your flatmates that you have applied for jobs and that you may get a call from a company.

If you have a call out of the blue and you are unable to locate your file then try and arrange a more suitable time to take the call. You are not obliged to speak there and then.

First impressions do count and if the interviewer can hear inappropriate remarks and noise in the background, that may adversely affect their judgement of you.

Prepare for the interview:

Prepare beforehand as you would for any interview. Look through our examples of typical interview questions and make sure you know how you might respond to these questions.

Practise answering questions with a friend and ask them to give you feedback on how your voice sounds. Another idea is to record some answers on a tape and listen to how you sound.

Look at the 'Further information and resources for interviews' page on this website.

Tips for during the interview:

Telephone contact means that there are no visual clues unlike a face-to-face interview, therefore the tone and rhythm of your voice become more important. If you speak in a monotone voice this will be more apparent on the telephone as there will be no facial expressions to distract the interviewer from your voice!

Smile! Amazing as it might sound, smiling whilst you talk really helps. You will come across as more friendly and confident. Try it! Use gestures as in normal conversation and be enthusiastic where appropriate.

One advantage of a telephone interview is that you can have notes and information with you such as prompts for possible answers. However, don't over prepare. You'll get flustered if you can't find the bit of paper you're looking for, and rustling paper could be heard by the interviewer over the phone.

Be organised - have a pen and paper to hand and your diary ready in case they like the sound of you and want to invite you to a meeting.

Try not to be put off by pauses from the interviewer - they may be taking notes. Also don't worry if you don't get much feedback from the interviewer; this happens in face-to-face interviews too. Remember a telephone interview is a precursor to a face-to-face interview and very few companies, if any, will offer jobs based on a telephone interview. However, creating a good impression at this stage will certainly go a long way towards helping at the face-to-face stage.

>>Read about the types of questions you may be asked here