How To Pass Telephone Interviews

hi there and welcome to how to pass telephone interviews my name's Richard McMunn and for the duration of this training module I'm going to teach you how to pass a telephone interview now it's important that before I begin that you get yourself a pen and a piece of paper and taken out of the important hints and tips that I'm going to provide you throughout the duration of this module you'll find that there's a number of really really crucial tips that will help you to pass your telephone interview obviously listed them down during this module whilst you're watching it but I would also encourage you to take notes because that's how we learn if you write things down then they're more likely to stick with you throughout the duration of the program and once it's finished you can take away the tips that I provide you with and put them into practice okay a little bit about me there's me on the right-hand side of the screen so you get an idea who's talking to you my name's Richard McMunn I am the UK's most successful career expert of helped hundreds and hundreds of people to gain employment in many different careers and you'll find my advice is invaluable in helping you to successfully pass your telephone interview just a little bit about my background I served four years in the Royal Navy many years ago I then spent 17 years in the fire service and during that time I was heavily involved in recruitment and training so I basically trained people how to get into the fire service and also served as a training center instructor for many years helping people to pass the fire service recruitment course but also teaching people in various different areas on how to become qualified in different areas so I've got lots of experience in recruitment and training after 17 years I left the fire service and I started the company called how to become limited which is where I'm operating from right now but basically the company how to become cold at UK helps people to get into specific careers and that's what I'm trying to help you to do today I recently completed a diploma in management studies on the published careers guidance offer and I've created over a hundred 50 different books and products and you'll find many of those on Amazon in Waterstones and also on the website how to become code at UK there's a set of UK's leading careers expert I don't say that lightly the reason why I I state that is because if you go on my website you'll see that I've got hundreds of testimonials of people who have used my products and found a career afterwards which is fantastic so they just use my information on my guidance I run weekend training courses so you might want to come on one of my training courses meet me personally and you know I'll teach you how to get a career I've passed myself over 95% of interviews that I've attended and um I've done that not because I'm special in any way but because I follow a sort of like set area of preparation and I always use it time and time again for example before I go to an interview I always make sure that I carry out a number of mock interviews so I basically predict the questions that I'm going to get asked and then I sit down I get somebody to fire those questions at me and I respond to them and that basically increases my confidence now in relation to a telephone interviews a little bit different because you haven't got you shouldn't have as much nerves as what you would do if he was going to a face-to-face interview but having said that they can be still sometimes quite stressful and therefore you need to prepare effectively ok so module content what am I going to teach you and talk to you about well first of all were going to look at what a telephone interview is so you can get an understanding of what the person assessing you is looking for and that brings me on to the next thing is what are they looking for if we know what an interview is we can sort of write basically dissect and explain what the interviewer is looking for on the telephone now it might be a member of the organisation that you're applying for who is interviewing you or sometimes larger companies will outsource a telephone interview to sort of a recruitment agency it doesn't matter who's carrying out the telephone interview what is important is how you come across and obviously how you respond to the questions so we'll also take a look at how you can prepare for the telephone interview and I'll also provide you with a number of sample questions and tips on how to answer them ok let's get straight into it now why do you think companies have a telephone interview it can be for a number of reasons I would say from really honest one of the main reasons an organization will have a telephone interview is because they don't want to meet hundreds or scores of applicants face to face if they do that then it can be extremely time-consuming and expensive a telephone interview can last for say five minutes sometimes they will go on to maybe twenty or thirty minutes but they don't have to meet someone they can put so many room so right I want you to ring up these people put them through an interview ask a number of questions and if you think they are suitable then they can come along to the next stage so in harsh terms it's basically a sifting process okay and because it's a sifting process sometimes some candidates don't really take it that seriously obviously you are going to take it seriously and you need to prepare for a telephone interview I would say as seriously as you would do for a face-to-face interview you know especially nowadays there are many hundreds of applicants for for many different jobs and the competition is fierce therefore you need to be on the ball you need to prepare fully for it which I'm sure you're going to do so they basically have a telephone interview as a sifting process but it can be when a candidate has to travel such a long way and I don't want to put the candidates for all that hassle of traveling that distance when there are a large number of candidates and that's basically another word or another phrase for a sifting process to whittle down the candidates to those who are suitable to go through the process I mean I've personally interviewed hundreds of people for different jobs in the past and sometimes I have thought to myself what are you doing here it would have been better for that person to have a telephone interview because they clearly didn't have the skills or the attributes or the qualifications to carry out the role now an application form is a great way of assessing people but you don't actually have any interaction and therefore as an Isetta it's very difficult to ascertain whether that person is suitable so that's why another reason people have telephone interviews so an example is when screening by CV is difficult when for example personality is more important than experience or qualification and that can be in different types of roles such as service roles or customer service assistance obviously a good personality is important especially in sales as well if you're required to you know to be a sales representative then you need to be a confident person a positive person and something is good with dealing with people I'm very good at dealing with people but I've never been in a sales role and to be honest I don't think I'd like to be because I think you know you need to be quite a full-on person you need to be extremely extremely confident so I think that kind of role for me wouldn't be suited I'm more suited to like a managerial role or a training role so sometimes screening by CV can be difficult when a large part of the job will involve talking to people on the telephone and many jobs are like that nowadays like those in customer service centres those kind of roles will definitely have a telephone interview so it's not just about you responding to the questions but it's about how you come across hopefully you will you'll feel that I'm talking to you in a concise and succinct manner I'm not waffling and you can hear me I'm clear to speak to and I'm generally quite positive and obviously if I was talking to you in a monotone way and not very exciting then you wouldn't feel that you were getting value from me in terms of a teacher try and put yourself in the shoes of the person who's interviewing you you obviously want them to be positive and the interviewer wants you to be positive so therefore you need to be as positive as possible on the telephone and I'll come on to that a little while later so that's the reasons why organisations will have a telephone interview so what is a telephone interview and you may think well everybody knows what a telephone interview is yes that could be the case but let's explore it because it will help you to prepare more effectively well it's basically the first stage of a selection process sometimes it comes directly after an application form but it's basically the first stage for them to get a feel of what you are like as a person it obviously assesses whether you have basic skills qualities and attributes so we'll think about those for a second basic skills qualities and attributes so how do you know whether you have those well basically it's in relation to the job description of the person specification now those two I would these down the job description and the person specification are very very important and they are basically the blueprint to your success you need to get a copy of them before you actually go through your telephone interview because they give us a number of key clues let's just take a quick look now at a sample job description so job specification and person specification for a role so this is for an office and facilities manager if you look at the primary responsibilities here it says in relation to like answering incoming calls taking pass on accurate messages using the most efficient messaging service appropriate so you could get asked a question during the telephone interview give us an example of where you've answered incoming calls how did you take on and pass accurate messages what did you do to make sure that the information was accurate so you could say well when I was working in a previous role I was actually answering incoming calls and in order to make sure that I passed on accurate messages I would write down the information that I was receiving and I would then verify with the person I was speaking to to make sure it was accurate source basically cross-checking the information that I had so here's another part of primary responsibilities to greet and welcome visitors if that was in a job description I would be preparing the response for that question that would go can you give an example of wave at to greet and welcome people how did you make them feel comfortable what did you say to them and they might even say to give us an example of what you would say to me if I was coming into your shop or coming into your Center and I would say something like nice to meet you my name is Richard just let you know you're going to be more than welcome to stay here please make yourself at home can I take your coat would you like a drink while you wait to be seated something like that again it will see their assist the team with tight deadlines for example photocopy and preparation collation and binding of documents again another question that you could get asked can you give an example of where you've assisted or worked in a team environment so the message which I'm trying to get across to you here is that if you get a copy of the job descript sorry job description or the person specification then you are certainly going to have more of a chance of passing because you can basically predict the interview questions that you are going to get asked so I would get a copy of that JD and that person specification and I will get a highlighter pen this is what I would do and I would highlight the key areas and the key requirements and I would think up of sample questions that I could get asked and prepare for responses to them okay so basically a telephone interview is a brief assessment of your skills motivations and knowledge and as I already mentioned they are looking to hopefully invite you along to the next day but they don't want to waste your time and they certainly don't want to waste their time because it costs their money to put you through a selection process you need to be motivated and you have to right have the right skill set and the knowledge of motivation so what do you need to know well you need to research in relation to the role and that can be done by reading the job description and the person specification you may want to ring up the company before you have your telephone interview and you say to them is it possible or I can come along and speak to a member of staff there who's carrying out a similar role to find out what it's like so you can take along a notepad and then find out exactly what the role is about and the skills that are required but you should be able to find that actually on the person specification and job description you also need to know a little bit about the company that you are applying to join what are the company like have they won anything any awards where do they operate from what is their USP a USP is their unique selling point so you could say during the telephone interview when they say to you tell us about our company say well you carry out these services and these functions and you supply to different companies across the world you operate out of these different areas so given the areas they operate out of the company has so many employees or if it has 900 employees you could say that the unique selling point of the company is to provide excellent communication and customer service skills to the general community that kind of thing so know about the company you can do that generally by going on their website I would also strongly recommend that you have a look for a company's mission and vision okay you should be able to find those on their website so find out what their mission and vision is and learn it so again if they say to you tell us about your comm XL where your mission is X Y & Z you know they may have goals and objectives they may have a charter if you're applying for a customer services role I would find out what the customer service Charter is and I would learn it off by heart and be able to recite it during the telephone interview because anything like that that you can come up with will certainly give you good points and they'll think hey this person has found out lots about our company let's get them along to a face to face interview or an assessment center you need to know the requirements of the role is pointless applying for a job if you don't know what the requirements are because they may say to you tell us what the requirements are tell us what experiences you have that are relevant to the role so I've already mentioned there about the person specification think about your experiences and again that goes back to using your highlighter pen and highlighting the different areas on the person specification that are relevant to the role so if you need to be good on the telephone think of an example when you have to do that when you've done that in the past you know if you have to deal with customers then it's likely you might have to deal with a complaint how did you deal with the complaint you deal with complaints by listening carefully to the customer involve the customer as much as possible sympathize with them apologize if the company is actually in the wrong and then set about your resolution tell them what you are going to do how you going to resolve the situation for them check with them that they are happy with your resolution and then follow up say a day or two later to see that the person is happy with what you've done so always keep them updated so that's how you would deal with complaints okay they are bound to say to you tell us what you're applying for this role and I'll come on to that in a little while longer when we look at some sample questions but that is a very simple question but one that many people fall down on because they may come out with well it's something that I've always wanted to do well that's fine but you know you have a bit more creativity think up have a better reason why you know you can say that you've been studying different roles and this job caught my attention because I have these skills and I am I believe I'm perfectly matched to this role because I've got the experiences in the past I'm enthusiastic in this role I love dealing with people and I believe that I can bring along a lot to your company and I can achieve my targets you know be a bit more passionate about it than just say you know it's something that I've always wanted to do okay what can you offer them so they might say what can you offer us why should we give you the job as opposed to the next person and in relation to that I'd be thinking about positive keywords and phrases so what I'm talking I will be saying I'm an enthusiastic person I'm very confident I am quick to pick up different skills I always make sure that I keep you know on top of my training I'll make sure that I read company policies I'm always aback that you know abide by the rules so make sure that you are positive when responding and explain the different things that you can offer your strengths well when responding to that that's quite easy obviously the more difficult one is what all your weaknesses and I'll give you tips on how to respond to that later but I would say in relation to your strengths you need to think about the strengths that actually match the person specification and job description so again with your highlighter pen look at the qualities and skills if that if one of them is dealing people dealing with people on the telephone you could say one of my strengths is actually dealing with people on the telephone in my last company I was constantly praised during my appraisal for dealing well with customers and also why you think you are good for the role and you will only know why you're good for that role so make sure you carry out plenty of preparation so let's have a look what are they looking for well they want to see whether you have the right knowledge you had the right skills the right attributes the desire and motivation for the role if you do have all of these then you will be invited to attend the next stage now one important word there I think is very important during telephone interviews and that is the word of desire I have a passion for teaching people I want you to pass your telephone interview and I mean that I really do genuinely I have a desire for helping people when you are talking to the interviewer on the telephone have desire for the role okay be passionate about it I know you know it's very difficult to get a job nowadays but be passionate because the reason I say that is because desire and passion are contagious people pick up on them and they feel it and they feed from it so if you try and think of a situation when you've been I don't know cashew my back to when you were at school or maybe college or university and someone's giving a lecture can you remember somebody who was really rubbish at giving lectures and the reason might be not because they weren't very good at the subject because they didn't have much desire or passion for it you need to be motivated you need to come across in a positive manner and that accounts for half of the battle to get through the first stage it's ok having all the flash answers to the questions but if you come across down or depressed or you know feeling sorry for yourself then you're probably not going to get invited back so concentrate on desire and being passionate about the role ok so how do we prepare for our telephone interview interview questions and responses as I've mentioned before I think it's important to use a job description and person specification to try and find out or try and match the kind of questions that you could get asked I have always done this in the past when going to interviews and I've been generally I would say successful with 80% of the questions that I predict yes of course sometimes there are questions that come out and I think I wasn't expecting that but you know for 80% of them I can predict them and it's easy for you to do the same another thing is to actually have a look online and try and find some online chat forums you may find some there are hundreds of chat forums out there you know that you will be able to find let's say you're going for job as a bank cashier you know if you type in bank cashier interview chat forum something might come up on a major search engine and they will be able to give you the types of questions that they've got asked that that's a way of sort of predicting the questions that you might get asked during your telephone interview ok your CV have your CV to hand because they might say to you talk me through your CV now you don't have to go in-depth but the beauty of a telephone interviews you can have documents with you okay when you go to a face-to-face interview they don't generally allow you to have those documents that you can read from and a tip there is to be ready for the interview questions because you can have sample responses already laid out in front of you you know I would just have bullet points you don't be reading parrot fashion because they'll be able to tell if you are and you don't want that and so you need to come across as natural but have your CV to hand preparing in terms of the time and location if they say we're going to call you at 10 o'clock on Thursday morning make sure you are in a suitable location you don't want to be in the supermarket shopping at Tescos or Asda walking down aisle number nine with your shopping trolley waiting for someone to ring you up because you're just gonna have lots of distractions and they'll be able to pick up on that so make sure you are in a quiet location and that might mean you know if you've got children at home or something you might want to get someone to look after them whilst you have your telephone interview so think carefully about the time and the location have a notepad and a pen at the ready because they may give you certain information that you need to take a note of I would also take a note of the questions that you are asked because you might get asked them during the face-to-face interview now I would have bullet points to remind you of how to respond to the questions as I mentioned earlier don't have it sort of bullet sorry a parrot fashion written out in front of you just have bullet points that you can look at because what you will be doing if you've got it all written down in front of you you'll be searching for your question and they'll be able to hear you shuffling the papers around you don't want that so just a bullet points of how you're going to respond have notes of the questions you may wish to ask yourself because they're going to say to you at the end look have you got any questions you'd like to ask us and it's generally quite good practice to ask one or two questions and I will give you a couple in a second of what you can ask but don't generally go overboard so if they say right we've got a question and you say to them yes how long would it be before I find out whether I'm successful they say okay it'd be probably you'll find out tomorrow and they'll say if you've got another question you keep going on you don't have to ask questions to impress them and that is that an important point don't ask sort of technical questions or questions that try and impress them they're not that fast they will have made up their mind by that point whether you're going back so you don't have to ask questions I've done that before if they say to me you got any questions I might say no it's okay I did have some at the beginning but you've answered everything that I need to know and you know I'm really looking forward to come along hopefully to a face-to-face interview thank you very much something like that have a copy of the person specification next to you okay because this is a quick win if they say tell us about the role what the skills and qualities required to carry it out you've got the information there in front of you so think about how you will answer the phone now I'll be honest if somebody rings me up on my mobile phone I'll generally answer and go hi you know when they're ringing up to interview you this is a little bit different now a company might ring you from a number probably that you won't recognize it might be a withheld number if it's coming from your mobile but I would certainly answer the phone in a positive manner and if it was me I would say hello there Richard McMunn speaking how can I help you okay something like that don't just go hello you know you need to be quite positive and start off on the right foot and you might want to actually print off a sheet of paper that says be positive with a smiley face next to it in big bold capital letters and stick it on the desk in front of you when you're carrying out the interview because I'll remind you to stay positive because remember 50% in the battle is being positive and passionate about the role remember that word desire be also in a reception area what you don't want and this is I've done it before when I've been interviewing people on the phone they they're in a bad reception area and then they lose the bars on their phone or something and I am presuming here that you you know you might be using a mobile phone because most people do it'd be better to have a landline because then you haven't got the problem of going out of reception but if you do have it on a mobile make sure you're in a full reception area the last thing you want is for it to go dead and so make sure your phone is also charged you don't the battery running there would be horrendous and also no distractions I've mentioned earlier on if you've got children something make sure they are looked after well you've got pets you don't the dog barking when the postman comes and delivers the mail they're all just little things but they do go a long way to making sure that you are fully prepared okay some really important tips how to answer the phone I've already mentioned if it was me I would say hi there Richard but one speaking how can I help you you know you know it's going to be them know how it Richard my name's Brian I'm here to interview blah blah blah oh hello Brian nice to so make sure you are really positive be enthusiastic and positive throughout I think that is really really important don't waffle either I know it's difficult sometimes because you are going to be nervous and they will accept that but try and be succinct don't rush you know answer the questions yes but always be positive but don't waffle and also avoid using jargon some people feel that I need to impress the interviewer I can't understand this you know that they don't have to you can impress them with your responses but don't try and impress them with you know jargon that you you know about their company and their organization you know if you're going to say about their USP so you know your USP your unique selling point is x y&z always be polite and respectful so if it was me and I was talking to an interviewer I might say oh hello sir nice to meet you you know they are going to come around and say to me no it's okay you don't need to call me sir you can call me whatever or mr. Smith or mrs. Smith mrs. Brooks whatever but just be polite if they invite you to use their first name then use it okay it's okay but don't overuse it and don't become too familiar so at the end of the interview you don't want to be going also we got planned for this weekend anything nice you know you need to be serious you need to be formal but obviously you can use their name if they let you but I would start off by using them as mr. mrs. and using their surname so usually have a person's name regularly throughout the conversation but not all the time you know if they're asking you questions you don't be going oh whoa well mr. Brown blah blah blah you don't want to be doing that all the time okay but you can use it so that you remember their name and that's why you need to have a notepad in front of you so you can write down their name also and this is very important is use the company name a few times you know I want to work for X Y Z D limited because of so it shows that you are really focused on their organization so they said look at some questions that I would recommend you prepare for can you please tell me a little bit about yourself and that's generally a start off question so tell me about you tell me about yourself and if I was responding to that question I again would be used the qualities that I've got that are relevant to the role so let's say that I'm applying for a position as a customer services assistant I would say well you know as you know my name is Richard I'm 39 years old I'm a very positive and enthusiastic person I have a very good educational background that involves dealing with people I've got a customer services qualification and NVQ in customer service so I'm very passionate about dealing with people I like to keep myself educated and at the moment I'm currently studying for a diploma in management because I would like to develop myself I'm also a very positive person I like to keep myself physically fit physically active I'm a stable person I come from a family background I've got a daughter who's 18 or a lot very much I mean my spare time I spend time down the gym or with my family so you can see the kind of thing that I'm trying to come up with I'm trying to paint a picture that I'm an educated person I like dealing with people I'm nice to be around I keep myself fit because that means that if you are fit you're likely to be not prone to stress or going off sick which can be a problem for many companies I'm a family man which means that I'm stable so I'm more likely to stay in the role so just keep it brief but try and put yourself in a positive manner why did you apply for this position and I can almost guarantee you will get asked that many people now and I see it they apply for loads and loads of different jobs and I call them serial job applicants that's not in a horrible way but it's just the fact that they want a job and they don't really care what it is so this is why they're asking for this kind of this kind of response to see what you the reasons why you're applying for the position so if I was applying for a customer service role I'll be saying something like I've applied for this position position because I genuinely feel that I've got the skills and qualities that match this I've been looking around for a different challenge and this job jumped out at me because it requires you to be good with people which are like doing there is an element of stress involved which I like I don't want to be in a job where I'm sat down behind a desk just doing nothing all day I like the challenge of actually meeting different targets because that that's what I'm like I like to have different challenges and I always rise to them I also noted in this company that you're very professional and there's a chance for me to progress you know there are promotion opportunities and once after a few years hopefully I've got really good at this job I'd like to apply for different positions so you know I'm coming across in a positive manner and I'm giving genuine reasons why I want to apply how would you summarize your main skills and I would match the job description and the person specification so I'd highlight them down and then I would state what these are you know dealing with people I'm a great supportive team member okay I keep myself physically fit I'm a great communicator both verbally and in writing you know great at supporting people great at dealing with complaints that kind of thing what projects have you undertaken lately now if the role that you're applying for is project driven then have a good example of a project that you've undertaken now it could be an academic one it could be something at work but it might be something at home and there's nothing wrong with saying well actually to be honest in the last six weeks I have a project which is ongoing at home which is totally refurbishing my house or decorating so what I've been doing I've been going around the house decorating each bedroom at a time I've got an action plan that I use so this week I make sure that I you know decorate the kitchen once that's done I'm going to move on to the the to the bathroom and that's just a bit of a random type of response or scenario but the point is it demonstrates that I'm organized because I'm using like an action plan so I'm making sure that I'm using an action plan and it keeps me organized to use those key words what do you know about our company so make sure that you go on the website that you're applying for and find out as much as possible about the company that you are applying for okay so find out about key people how many people work for them whereabouts they operate out from how long have they been going for have they won any awards what is their mission what is their vision do they have any aims and objectives do they have a customer service charter okay and you can find out all of that information on the website and also fine who the chief executive officer is the managing director who is responsible of that company what are your reasons for considering leaving your current job now what you don't want to do and I've had this before we somebody once said to me well I don't really get on with my boss he doesn't want me there and I'd like to move on immediately I'm thinking okay that might be the case but why would I want to employ you if that's you know you've got a problem going on at work if that is the case and you are fed up with your job that's fine but don't say all right this isn't a big piece of advice I would say even if I didn't like my job I would say to be honest you know I've really enjoyed my current position I work for a great company at the moment but I'm looking for a fresh new challenge I've been doing this job for X amount of time I feel now I'm ready to move on and your company jumped out at me when I saw the job advert I thought hey this is a fresh new challenge something different for me you may have different reasons why you want to leave your current employment but be very careful when responding to that kind of question especially if it relates to something like a grudge that's going on or you know if you've got problems at work I'm not saying that these problems that you may have aren't genuine because I'm sure they would be but just put yourself in the shoes of the person who's interviewing you how do they feel about it about your response so be very positive and upbeat about the company that you're considering leaving that's all I will say where do you see yourself in five years I've had some strange responses to this question in the past somebody once said I want to be where you are I was a district manager at the time I was quite high up in the voice of his and they said I want to be where you are first of all you know it wasn't achievable in five years but secondly I just thought it was a little bit too overconfident I would have much preferred that person to say well to be honest with you I'd love to aspire to your position but in the meantime I'm going to make sure that I prepare for the job well I'm going to become you know to be respected amongst my peers and in the organization to be a really good worker somebody who is positive and then hopefully get progression so if I was responding to that question and someone said where do you see yourself in five years I would say well I hope I'm working for your organization I I would work towards being a respected member of the team somebody who is seen as someone who can achieve their targets somebody who has excellent any appraisals I would like to progress in the organization but I want to make sure that I'm very good and competent in the role that I mean before I move up and that's a great response to that kind of question okay what can you bring to this company and again think of positive keywords I can bring your freshness and alertness a level of enthusiasm somebody new into the team I believe that I can motivate people I'm a great communicator I'm a quick learner somebody who can adapt and reliable and flexible you know I won't go off sick I feel like I can really put my heart and soul into the organization if you've got examples in the past that we've actually achieved things whilst in that role then tell them what they are if you've won any awards or you've got any great appraisals tell them about these appraisals that you had please tell me about your salary expectations now this can be a tricky one some people go in too low and some people go in too high I would say be honest okay if you genuinely think okay that at the moment your salary expectations you know they're they're not too high you know you've maybe not had that many jobs you could say well you know I've not had that many jobs or this is my first job therefore I'm prepared to work at a lower end of the salary whereas if you've got a lot of experience then ask for a higher salary but just the key to this is to make sure you're honest not just honest with them but honest with yourself okay because if you say it's a job for 20,000 pounds and the salary range is say sixteen to twenty thousand if you go any sell 120 thousand you know they're going to come back and say why you worth twenty thousand if you can back it up and you've got proven targets that you've done in the past or you know you're fantastic in your role then great but just again the key is to put yourself in the shoes of the person who's employing you okay don't go too low and don't go too high unless you are really really worth it okay questions to prepare for carrying on what do you know about the role again you can find that out from the person specification what are your strengths and again I would play on my strengths that are relevant to the job description and the person specification so I'm a great communicator and great at dealing with people and if you can give examples then make sure you do so you can say I'm great at working with people for example and my last job I was always put in his temporary supervisor whilst the manager was off and leave or when he or she was was away for whatever reason you know so that's what my strengths are I'm good at dealing with people and the company recognized that what are your weaknesses you could either answer this in one or two ways you can be honest and give a weakness all right and you might you might not be good at turning up to work on time if that is your weakness don't say it okay also in terms of sickness that's not very good you know I run my own company and in the past I've had people going off sick and you know you can't afford it it's one of my pet hates yes genuine sickness no problem whatsoever but you know when you're off sick all the time and companies are really clamping down on this nowaday so you know hopefully you will have a good sickness and it won't be a weakness so what are your weaknesses well don't say I don't have any because anybody who just say that I would suggest is lying but you need to think of something which is going to put you across in a positive light I've used in the past when someone said to me what is your weakness and this is a genuine one I would say that sometimes I can get a little bit irate with people when they are late for meetings or they don't match my expectations in terms of deadlines and you know and sometimes I need to curb that I might say something to them not inappropriately but I might you know express my dissatisfaction that they are late or the goods that I've ordered have turned up late and I'm always trying to improve myself in that manner and not to sometimes say something so but and then I'll turn around and say but in some ways that's a positive aspect because I am you know a genuinely caring person that I want you know if I saw something to that to be done I needed to turn up on time you know that kind of thing so I'm turning my weakness around into a strength so try and think carefully about that weakness that you have do you have any questions you wish to ask us now at the end they may say have you got any questions you wish to ask if that's the case you could say something like is there the opportunity for progression because that shows that you are enthusiastic and you're motivated also how long would it be before I start if I'm best food that shows to me that you're raring to go okay as I said earlier don't ask questions that try and paint you in a positive manner in terms of you know more than them because that doesn't work no interviewer wants to hear that and if you haven't got any questions just say no thank you very much for you know for answering all my questions it's fine I don't have any and thanks for interviewing me okay final statement I think this is very important at the end of the interview what are you going to say I would say something like thanks very much for interviewing me today you know it certainly sounds like the job that I would very much enjoy I'm sure I can contribute a lot to your company and I'd love the opportunity to visit you and show you what I can do and I would love the opportunity to attend the next stage so that's the kind of thing that you could say something like that so make sure you are very very positive during the interview telephone interviews are generally quite quite short in length but if you prepare for those questions and follow the tips that I provided you won't go too far wrong now finally if you visit my website www.house.gov/paul under the heading and listening and I wish you all the best in your pursuit to passing your telephone interview you

Channel: CareerVidz

Views: 1,052,468

Keywords: telephone interviews, telephone interview questions, telephone interview help, Telephone Interview

Id: TNhJA69-uHI

Length: 39min 22sec (2362 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 18 2011