Job Hunting: Telephone Interviews (1/2)

Have you made it through online tests? Congratulations! Usually just about 40 - 50% applicants pass online tests. Now you have to schedule and prepare for your telephone interview. Following posts might help you with your preparation...

In general, telephone interviews are very similar - I have been through 14 of them - and have to say I was really stressed out before the first one, but after I did four or five of them it felt much more natural. It is the same with the online tests - practise makes perfect. So how does telephone interview look like? It usually takes about 45 - 60 minutes. In the beginning the interviewer introduces and gives you some information about the interview itself. Than you have about 5 minutes to introduce yourself. After that the interviewer starts to ask you questions. In general there are three different types of questions:

• motivational questions - in these questions they try to assess your motivation and why you want to work for their company


• competency based questions - usually the longest part of the interview; they ask you about your skills and experience


• analytical questions - some companies gives you case studies you are supposed to solve quickly; for these questions it is impossible to prepare and I think it is the most difficult part of the interview

Motivational questions

Motivation or "about the company" questions are questions relating to the company and the job. They try to find out if you are really interested in their company or you just apply to every company possible. They usually want to know if you are able to identify with the products or services they offer and if you enjoy the job. Especially Big4 companies are obsessed with these questions. So what you should expect?

• Q: Why did you choose our company?
  A: try to provide 2 - 4 reasons why you chose to apply for their company; for example: 1) I have studied IT and I see my future in IT department of big multinational, 2) you provide excellent trainings, 3) I strongly believe that your company will allow me to travel and meet different people and so on...


• Q: Why did you apply for this job?
  A: Again, you should rationalize why you chose that job; this should be simple since you know why you applied for this job; you can answer this question in the similar way as the previous one, but don't say the same!


• Q: What do you know about our company
  A: Very simple one; do your research about their company and talk about 1) history, 2) main products or services, 3) future, 4) mention main competitors


• Q:What do you think you will be doing first year?
  A: Big4 companies ALWAYS ask this question and it is not easy to answer it. Some suggestions: deepening theoretical knowledge and gaining industry recognized certification, building social network of contacts etc.


• Q: What are the main issues in our industry?
  A: Provide the main news about what is going on in their industry. For example: SOX in Audit (for Big4) or Web 2.0 and collaboration in IT (for Cisco). It is essential to do some research to be able to answer this question.

For this part of interview you should do some research - read about the company and the job on their webpage, use wikipedia.org and servers like wikijobs.co.uk. It is quite easy to prepare for these questions, it just need some time. Next time I will be writing about competency based questions.