How To Prepare For A PHONE INTERVIEW (Phone Interview Questions & Answers!)

hello there my name is Richard McMunn from the interview training company past my interview calm and in this tutorial I'm going to teach you how to prepare for a phone interview so it does not matter which organization or company you have a phone interview with I promise you if you watch and study this tutorial from beginning through to the end you will pass your phone interview I can guarantee that so before I do that a very warm welcome to this phone interview training tutorial my name is Richard McMunn that's me there in the center and I've been helping people for about 20 years now to pass their interviews and I do that predominantly by giving you top-scoring answers to their likely interview questions and also some brilliant tips to make sure you are the standout candidate now please do make sure you subscribe to the channel by clicking the red button below the video and then you're not going to miss out in any of the weekly interview training videos that I'm uploading and I would also very much appreciate your support if you gave the video a like that was motivates me to create more content for you thank you very much I do appreciate that so we're gonna cover three things during this in-depth phone interview tutorial the first thing is I'm gonna teach you how to prepare for a phone interview I'm also going to give you some rock-solid phone interview tips and I'm also going to give you some phone interview questions and high scoring answers that you can download and use during your phone interview so let's get on to that how to prepare for a phone interview so what I want to do first of all is a want to think about what a phone interview is used for because if we have an understanding of wire and at why an employer or a hiring manager chooses to use a telephone interview then we have a better chance of passing so a phone interview is a great way for the hiring manager or recruiting major to essentially sift through those people they do not want to invite along to a face-to-face interview so as you and I know a face to face interview takes up a lot of time takes up a lot of energy and resources however if I was to speak to you on the phone I could very quickly get a feel or not to ever I want to invite you along to the interview so it's a great way for them to sit through those people they don't want to invite to the face-to-face interview but what is important is you have to treat the phone interview as seriously there's a normal interview and look at it this way do all of your preparation for the phone interview and you will have done a lot of preparation already for a face-to-face interview when you get invited along for that particular thing so I want you to divide your phone interview preparation up into the following three key areas we're going to do that during this tutorial phone interview preparation area number one is job role research now this literally takes a couple of minutes but what we need to do is have a look at the job advert and have a look at the person specification for the job and these documents basically outline what the employer is looking for from the ideal candidate so the thinking here is if we know what they're looking for we can give it to them during our answers to the phone interview questions we also need to look at the essential criteria for the role now we'll give you a live example in a second of what I mean by that and then we need to think of the skills and qualities needed to carry out the job competently and as I say all of this literally takes a few minutes and I'm gonna walk you through what I recommend you do then there's phone interview preparation number two which is company research again this literally takes a couple of minutes because they're going to ask you why do you want to work for our company and you have to good reason you have to have a good reason for it and also they might say to you or what you know about our company and there's a quick win with this I'll tell you exactly what to do and where to go to find out the right and correct information about their particular company so you can answer those questions and then finally phone interview preparation number three is getting ready your answers to the interview questions so I'm actually going to give you the phone interview questions and sample answers to help you prepare fully now we work through each of those three phone interview preparation areas let me give you five important phone interview tips and please take a note of these so phone interview tip number one make sure you know the exact time and date of the call and be fully ready for the phone interview at least five minutes prior to the time it's going to start so what you don't want to do is be rushing around and thinking oh no I haven't got a reception on my phone and you know these people in the office or people in the room and it's too noisy so make sure you think in advance make sure you know the exact time and date because you only get one shot if you miss that phone call then that's it it's all over phone interview tip number two if you are using a mobile for the phone interview make sure you are in a strong reception area so you need to think ahead this is the location where I'm gonna take the call and have a look on your phone to make sure you are in a strong reception area because again if you say oh I'm sorry I missed the call there was no reception well that shows a lack of pre-planning phone interview tip number three be prepared for the phone interview call to come from an unknown number so I'm not sure if you're the same as me but if I get a call from an unknown number I never answer it however I can pretty much guarantee that the call will come from an unknown hour because they don't want people to ring them back so make sure you answer it if it's at the same time or round about the same time that your phone interview is scheduled to take place phone interview tip number four make sure you won't be disturbed for the duration of the phone interview and that there is ZERO background noise so how long does a phone interview last well of course it depends on your answers to the phone interview questions however I believe it will last for between fifteen and thirty minutes duration so you need to allocate that amount of time and make sure you are not going to be disturbed by anybody else phone interview tip number five don't have the phone on loudspeaker for the phone interview call a lot of people do this they have their phones on loudspeaker when talking to people but if you are on the end of that sounds like you were in a tunnel so make sure you have it off and you have the phone close to your ear when you are talking and that will be better for you because you don't want to be saying to the interviewer oh sorry can you repeat that I couldn't hear the question so I have the phone close to you to your ear now those are very basic tips but they are really really important phone interview tip number six have a cheat sheet with bullet points of what you want to talk about during the phone interview so a cheat sheet is essentially you working through this phone interview training tutorial and taking notes as you go along and writing down the answers that I give you to the interview questions and you can have that sheet of paper in front of you now of course you don't want to be reading from a sheet of paper because you don't wanna sound rigid because the interviewer will hear that but you cannot prompt so when they say to you why do you want to work for our company you can have bullet point prompts of what you want to say that's a really good tip so let's now start working through our three phone interview preparation areas so I've got more tips to give you and I've also got to work through those phone interview questions and answers so make sure you follow all of this so phone interview preparation area number one this is really really important this is job role research and don't forget I mentioned about looking at the job advert the person specification taking a look at the essential criteria for the job and also the skills and qualities needed so this will help you to pass let's take a look at an example person specification so this is a job for an admin role and I just want to use this to explain what I want you to do quickly to help you pass your phone interview so if you look there we have the essential skills required and it says that we need to have excellent communication and interpersonal skills now if it says that when they say to you what skills and qualities do you possess well you can say I have strong communication skills and have the ability to get on with everyone both customers and clients because that is essentially what good interpersonal skills is but you can also then be for an interview question around that essential criteria which will probably be described a time when you communicated an important message to a group of people so once you follow this process you are fully prepared for your phone interview and not just the phone interview but any face-to-face interview as well because the essential criteria will stay the same for both phone interview and face-to-face interview let me give you an opening example it says there that one of the essential criteria is to have strong organizational skills so again when they say to you what skills and qualities do you have you can say I'm a solid organiser who can plan and prioritize all work in a timely manner and the interview question for that essential criteria element will be described a time when you demonstrated solid organizational work skills so I would then work through the entire document and look for those so when they say to me what skills and experience do you have suitable for this role I will have done my research based on all of these essential criteria and this is what I would say in response to that phone interview question I am a solid communicator who has exceptional organizational skills the ability to be left alone to plan and prioritize all tasks whilst also working under pressure I particularly enjoy supporting the senior management team to complete tough projects and tasks and I can be left alone to work on my own initiative I prefer to work as a part of a team or my personal life means I have the flexibility to be available as when needed to carry out all duties as required and you will see there I have underlined all of the essential criteria and I have simply put it in my response and that is the best way to pass your phone interview that type took me about five minutes it's a very quick process but once you learn that you can pass any interview with ease so that response is derived solely from the essential criteria of the job description and person specification so let's have a look at now phone interview preparation area number two which is company research so they're going to want to know why you want to work for their company and also what you know about their company so when they ask you the question why do you want to work for our company this is the answer that I use every single time for any job I'd like to work for your company for three reasons firstly you have a strong reputation in the industry so I know I'll be able to grow and develop as a person professionally secondly the skills and qualities I have are a match for both this role and the standards you expect from your employees finally I noticed during my research you have ambitious and exciting plans for the future and I'd very much like to be a part of those that's a great response to use but the phone interview question why do you want to work for our company you know you could write that down and read that off on your cheat sheet during your phone interview so then they're gonna want to know about what you know about their company so my advice is to simply go on their website and have a look at their latest news section and write down on your cheat sheet two or three points of interest about their company what products and services do they have how long have they been operating what's their mission statement what is their USP their unique selling point and also on the latest news section there should be something of significance that has happened within the company they may have won awards or there may have featured and a news article or something like that so write down some things when they say what you know about our company that you can tell them so before we go through preparation number three area which is those all-important phone interview questions and high scoring answers let me give you a couple of more tips to pass your phone interview so the next tip is and this is a big one smile whilst talking throughout the phone interview and your tone will then be positive so I'm smiling right now whilst I'm talking and you can probably hear a change in the tone of my voice so remember write down on your cheat sheet don't forget to smile because you will then exude a positive communication aspect when you're talking to them and they will pick up on that so smile whilst talking throughout the phone interview and put that on the top of your sheet for an interview tip number eight send a thank-you email at the end of the phone interview so once the phone into is finished simply send this email to the person who conducted the phone interview dear sir man phone interview I would just like to say thank you for the opportunity to undertake the phone interview today I very much enjoyed discussing the role and I sincerely hope I get the opportunity to attend a face-to-face interview with you kind regards Richard McMunn obviously you'd put your own name there and you would change dear sir or dear madam to their gender whoever it was that interviewed you but just send that that's very positive and they will think of you in a positive light if you send that to me I would think brilliant let's get them along to a face-to-face interview I like this person they are positive and they are caring and they are genuine so phone interview preparation area number three these answers to the phone interview questions very important so I'm gonna tell you the phone interview questions that I recommend you prepare for here we go question number one tell me about yourself that's gonna be the first phone interview question so here's what I would say I have a dependable conscientious and professional team worker who takes great pride in the work I carry out for my employer outside of work I have a stable and happy family life which means when I am at work I can concentrate 100% on my duties the experience I've gained in life so far they're a good match for the essential criteria of this job and if I'm successful I feel strongly you will be impressed with my work ethics integrity and values that's a great answer that can be used for any phone interview next question what are your strengths guaranteed to come out mountain seas quite easy to answer and remember if you would have read the job description and the person specification for your role you will be able to list those strengths so I would say something like I have seven core strengths that I feel will make me the ideal candidate for this position I am a strong team worker a great communicator excellent at customer service and also someone who can plan and prioritize tasks accordingly to ensure I help my employer move forward positively I'm also someone who embraces change positively I'm flexible in my role and available to work additional hours when needed and also someone who continually looks to improve and development and develop sorry so what I like about that is I've given seven core strengths because then they're going to say to you well what's your biggest weakness so what we don't want to do is give them during the phone interview a weakness that is damaging to our chances of success so you remember when I put up that person specification earlier on and it's said in there that you have to be a good communicator and possess strong interpersonal skills well if you said and I'm not really comfortable around lots of people I prefer to work on my own as your weakness you're not going to get the job because you are basically given a weakness which is one of the essential criteria so don't give a weakness that is one of the essential criteria here's my answer to this question my biggest weakness is that I can be an impatient person at times this is especially the case when I'm waiting for an external company or supplier to come back to me with an answer when my own task is dependent on their response however although it is a weakness one of my strengths is that I am always seeking to improve and I've been working on my patience levels recently with a view to developing personally and professionally so that's actually you could say that's a strength that if you are impatient at work and you want people to come back to you so you can get your job finished and you're a completer finisher somebody who gets things done on time and to the right standard so that's the clever answer to the phone interview question what's your biggest weakness why have you applied for this job that's another question another one I love a phone interview question is where do you see yourself in five years time and the only real answer to that is with them and I would say that well advises time I would expect to be fully competent in the role respected by my work colleagues and I would also have either taken on additional duties and help you train new people who come into the organization in a similar rubber that's what I would say to that question where do you see yourself in five years time other wants to prepare for why do you want to leave your current job never ever criticize your employer all your work colleagues don't say I want to leave my job because my boss doesn't understand me or I don't get on with my colleagues or things are really boring the best thing to say is I've been with my employer for a little time now I really enjoyed it I've achieved some amazing things they've been very supportive of me but I want a job where my skills and qualities are really put to the test and I'm able to develop as a person and I'd also like to work for a company that has exciting plans for the future like yours that's a great answer it's safe as well and you will not be negative or critical of your previous employer which you should never do what makes you to stand out candidate and what is the best example of customer service you have come across one of you worked as part of a team so you have to give them specific examples the way you've worked as part of a team when have you solved a difficult problem how would your work colleagues describe you have you ever held a position that wasn't right for you so if you'd like answers to those and others and please just wait to show you my website if you want to download my full set of phone interview questions and answers there's a link that's appeared right there in the top right hand corner of the page it will take you through to this page here I've got more phone interview questions there for you just click that link and then you can download them by clicking that button there and for a small fee you can download all of my answers I hope you've enjoyed that you've got any questions stick them in the comment section below thank you very very much for watching and I wish you all the best for passing your phone interview don't get to subscribe and hit the like button thank you for your support have a brilliant day

Channel: CareerVidz

Views: 92,504

Rating: 4.9405203 out of 5

Keywords: how to prepare for a phone interview, phone interview tips, phone interview questions and answers, telephone interview, phone interview advice, how to pass a phone interview, common interview questions, tough interview questions, questions to ask in a phone interview, how to ace a phone interview, phone interview cheat sheet, phone interview thank you email

Id: 2P_5w2g8CfM

Length: 19min 17sec (1157 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 12 2020