Hey there, looking for hacks
on nailing a phone interview, I work for Indeed.com
and I got an inside look from our career coaches
on what you need to know. Today I'll be explaining
what a recruiter looks for during an initial
phone screen, the best strategies for answering common
phone interview questions, and four quick tips that
are specific to passing on to the next round. Make sure to stick
around to the end for a trick on knowing
what type of interview you should anticipate. Trust me, it completely changes
the way you should prepare. All right, let's get started. What is a recruiter looking for
during an initial phone screen? Well, phone screens
are typically the first round of interviews
that are conducted for a role. So a recruiter here is
looking to narrow down a wide pool of
applicants very quickly, and then to only pass
on the very best leads to the hiring manager
saving them time. Emphasis here is on
speed and volume. They're conducting a
lot of these interviews really quickly. So with that in mind,
you want to make sure that you are emphasizing,
from the jump, the most important parts
about your qualifications and experience. Make sure that
you've asked yourself the question
beforehand, what do I want to make sure I
get in about myself so that they will pass me on to
the next round of interviews. In terms of the questions
they're going to ask and what the real content of the
interview is going to be about, it's nothing more
in-depth than probably what you've already mentioned
on your application. They're going to confirm
your basic information. They're going to validate
what's on your resume, maybe get a tiny bit
more context on it. But it's really a test of
professionalism, personality, and whether or not you have
the communication skills that are going to impress the hiring
manager in the next round of interviews. Now, how should you
handle common questions? Well, I'm going to explain
five common questions that you should anticipate
during an interview and provide strategies for
answering them successfully and concisely. The first common
question is, what are you doing now or tell
me about yourself. The trick here is to not
fall into simply describing your responsibilities,
instead give your response some structure by
explaining your role title, the company you've been
working for, how long you've been working for them,
and then two or three key responsibilities and
achievements during that time. If you have the ability
to drop a number in there, that's great. And even better if
you have impact. So instead of just saying,
Oh, I've served customers during my time with this
company, you would say, I've served 100
customers during my time with this company
in order to help it achieve its goals of
driving brand loyalty. Answering, tell
me about yourself is a pretty tricky thing to do. So if you want some
more in-depth advice, I highly recommend checking
out this video right here. Question 2 is why do you want
to leave your current job? Now the interviewer
likely does not care about the details of this
or really the reason at all. They just want to test
your professionalism and to get a gauge for
how committed you would be to this new opportunity. So in order to pass
this sort of question, it's recommendable
to speak positively about your former employer
regardless of your experience, and then to explain why you
would be committed, excited, and invested in the long term
about the new job at hand. Question 3 is when could
you start this new job? This is simply a
logistics question, so answer honestly and directly. Question 4 is what are
your salary expectations? Now, remember that
most recruiters here are trained to push
you for a number first. These days, they're often
asking for a salary range, which for some reason is a little
bit easier to talk about for most people. But it's important to know
that the company is already at the advantage here. The recruiter fully
understands what is allocated for this role. So while we always want
to be polite and amenable during an interview, don't be
afraid to deflect that question back to the employer. I highly recommend having
some kind of line ready. A good go to is
I'm still learning about the responsibilities
of this position, so I haven't determined
what compensation I believe would be appropriate for this
role, what have you budgeted for the right candidate? We do have a lot of information
about how to answer and discuss salary expectations throughout
the interview process. So if you want some
information on how to answer those kinds
of tricky questions, we've got a whole
video on it right here. Question 5 will typically
touch on details about the job and company. So a recruiter might ask you
something like, are you aware of the responsibilities
of this role or do you know what this
company offers consumers? While it's great to have a
few quick things to say here, definitely keep it
concise and then turn it back around to the
recruiter by saying, but I'd love to know more. That's because when this
question comes around, the recruiter is actually
a resource for you. They're not seeking to test
your knowledge about the company and job, they're looking
for an opportunity to pass on some key information
that could help set you up for success in
future interviews. Remember, if you get hired,
the recruiter gets paid. So take notes,
literally take notes on what they say the hiring
manager is looking for or the description of the job. It's often pretty different
than what's listed in the job description online or
that you applied to. And then when it comes
time to ask questions, don't be afraid to really
lean into that opportunity and get some critical
information from the hiring manager. You can ask them
things like, how does this team measure success? What hasn't been a fit
about former interviewees? Is there a part of
my experience that is particularly compelling? Really anything that will give
you some knowledge on the best way to mold and
present yourself so that you can impress the hiring
manager in the next round. Now that we know the overall
structure of a screener call and how to answer common
questions, let's leap into four quick tips
that can radically impact your performance
during a phone interview. But before I do, if you've
watched this far, please give us a like down below,
hit that subscription button, and make sure that you hit
the notification bell as well so that you can stay updated
on important career advice. Tip 1 is to use your home court
advantage by preparing notes. Now, unlike in person
or video interviews, phone interviews allow
you the opportunity to reference notes that
are in front of you while still being
engaged in the call. So you might want to take
some notes down about what's in the job
description, qualities that they're looking for
the ideal candidate, stuff about the company. Or you can take
it a step further and outline your
responses to questions that you know you'll be asked
to like tell me about yourself. Since it's the first time you're
interviewing for the role, you might still be internalizing
why you're the best fit, so it can be helpful to
have your personal pitch ready to go. That being said, I
strongly recommend just having these outlines or bullet
points if you do go that route because it's really easy
to tell when someone's reading something
word for word, and it can sound a little scripted. So just make sure that you
keep it to those bullet points or something
that's a little more general than a fully
scripted paragraph. Tip number 2 is to
convey enthusiasm. While phone interviews come
with their set of advantages, they also come
with disadvantages. Normally body language is a very
important part of an interview. We can show attention
even when we're quiet. However, the only way
that you can really communicate with
someone over the phone is through your
voice, so what we say and how we say it becomes
even more important. Plus a lot of times when you're
taking a phone interview, you might be in a more familiar
environment like your home, which typically brings
our energy level to a more calm, relaxed state. To combat this, in order to
help yourself bring enthusiasm, I highly recommend designating
a certain area of your home that is going to be your
interview space, even if it's just your kitchen table. It's ideal to have this
sort of psychologically be a space that
you can enter into and that isn't a spot
where you associate it with sleep or downtime. And then once you've
set that aside and you can step
into that, just know that this is the space
that you have to be "on." This is where you would be fully
emulating the body language that you would have if you
were interviewing in person. By sitting up straight,
keeping an open posture, you can help bring
enthusiasm to the call. And then show active
listening skills by confirming, repeating,
and asking questions on what the recruiter has
to say, plus obviously just showing interest
whenever possible. Tip number 3 is to
keep it concise. A lot of career coaches advise
to make an interview feel more like a conversation by
elaborating, providing more color when asked
something, and then asking a question in return. While that is advisable
for later interviewers, it does not apply to phone
screener calls or first round interviews. Instead, it's highly
recommended to keep in mind that the recruiter probably
only has 20 minutes, and that they're almost
always booked back to back. Their only goals here are to
confirm your basic information, maybe dig in a little
bit further when needed, and then to pass on some
key tips about success in the next rounds
of interviewing. So golden rule, keep your
answers short and sweet. If the recruiter wants
more information, they'll ask for it. Tip number 4 is to tailor
the information you share based on the job description. Of course, it's always
important to think about how am I going to frame
my experience so that it's most applicable to this role. But it's especially important
to do this with phone interviews because you have such a
short time to sell yourself. Well, in a lot of other
interviewing context, it's great to think
about how you're going to tell your
professional story and really give a full picture. But in this case, just go
straight to the preferred and required qualification
section and even the skill section of the job posting, and
prioritize sharing information only that is most relevant
to that description of an ideal candidate. The recruiter here already knows
basically what you've done. So your goal isn't to just tell
them, hey, here's what I do, your goal is to
show them that you have the interviewing
skills to actually make the connection by saying, here's
what I've done in the past and here's how it's going
to set me up for success and makes me the ideal
candidate for this future role. For an explanation of the
best pre-interview strategy, I highly recommend checking
out this video right here. Now for a bonus
tip, the exception to the standard format
of a phone screen often occurs when a
recruiter has an emphasis on behavioral interviewing. What's behavioral interviewing? You've probably been asked a
behavioral interview question before, they often start with,
tell me about a time when or can you give me an
example of dot, dot, dot. And the goal of
asking those questions is to get information about
your past behavior, not your past experience,
in order to predict how you might behave
in future situations with this new company. This tends to be most
relevant for recruiters that are interviewing people
who have very customer service have backgrounds or
for communication heavy roles. You don't see this so much
for technical positions. However, if you're
wondering, well, how do I know if I
should be preparing for that type of
phone screen, I highly recommend that you go to
your recruiter's social media profile, the professional
social media profile, and see if they have behavioral
interviewing anywhere on there. It might be in there blurb. It might be a skills section. But often when they
have that focus, they do tend to disclose that
and list it on their profile. If that is the case
and it's on there, you can anticipate
that they're going to breeze through some of
those initial phone screen questions about your
experience and get more into these behavioral
interviewing questions about stories and past behavior. The key to succeeding and
answering those questions is to tell a really impactful
and concise description of events. And the general structure
that's recommended is to describe the situation,
the action you took, and the impact that you
drove as a result of that. But there's a ton to
say on this topic. There's a lot of
strategies for success. So if you know you
might be running into a behavioral
interview sometime soon, I highly recommend checking
out this video right here, where we detail all the possible
ways that you can respond. Let's quickly
review the guidance I've shared on nailing
a phone interview. Tip one is to understand
what recruiters are looking for during a phone screen and
to prepare for common phone interview questions. Remember to take
notes on anything the recruiter says that the
hiring manager is looking for, so you can reference
it in future rounds. Second, is to use your
home court advantage by preparing and referencing
notes throughout your call. However, avoid reading
anything word for word. Third is to show enthusiasm. Since you're on the phone,
what you say, and how you say it carries a lot of weight. Fourth, is to keep it concise. Remember the recruiter
doesn't need to know your professional story. They just need to
know your quick hits. Fifth is to make sure that
you tailor the information you share based on the job posting. Prioritize what you say based on
how relevant it is to the role. And then our sixth
and final tip is if the recruiter says anything
about behavioral interviewing on their professional
profile, you should prepare for some
behavioral interview questions coming your way. If you found this
helpful, please give us a like down below and you can
subscribe to our channel right here. You can also check out
more important information about interviewing
and career advice by clicking this
playlist right there. And if you want some more
tips on possible behavioral interviewing questions, I
highly recommend checking out this video right here. All right, thank you
so much for watching. I hope this was useful to you. And I'll see you next time.
