Phone interviews & Recruiter Chit chat

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Hi guys.
I've been applying for jobs recently. moved to where there are some in my feild. And got a lot of email responses. The problem is they all want to phone me.
That should be a good thing but I have a big phone phobia. In person I'm fine but I can't even order a pizza on the phone.
I did manage one interview and it was ok. lead to a real interview. But I had to drink ti handle it and latly I seem to be worse.
Worse than phone interviews is the chitchat recruiters want before you can continue. Its worse.
At least with an interview they accnolage it is one, tell you when it is, who the interviewer is, what the company is looking for ect. but the recruiters ring in the morning on a blocked number with no notice. It drives me nuts.

I got a call today. potentaly for my dream job. the number was blocked and i hung up in a panic.
I was so pissed off with myself that it sent me into a weird agitated, meltdowny mood for the whole day. I'm just now at nearly 1am settling down. It really sucked. At this point I'd probably work for the first person whi would meet me for an old fassioned face to face interview.

This is going to sound like terrible advice but I have the same exact issue. Today I had a phone interview and an hour before the interview I was trembling and my voice was cracking. There was no way I could answer that phone without sounding like a nutcase.

I couldn't get myself to calm down so I had a glass of wine. Just one.
It worked in calming me down. I was able to communicate more effectively.
I only do this in severe circumstances, however. ( I had also just came from a doctors appointment and found out bad news, so I was already nervous and upset from that.)

Thanks. I did have one beer before and it worked wonders. now if i can get them to tell me when they are going to call.

If you don't know who is calling can you let the call go to voicemail and then call them back (promptly)? That might let you mentally prepare for the conversation. You already know it's a phone interview, even though they don't call it one, so treat it as such - an interview, but over the phone. Do whatever you would do to prepare for an in-person interview. In addition, you can write notes for yourself about what you're going to say - even lay them out all over your bed or something. That wouldn't work for an in-person interview, so the recruiter not being able to see you has its advantages, too.

The chit-chat is hard and I don't think there's any simple solution to it. You just have to learn the things to say, which inevitably takes practice. The other thing is, how you say it is often more important (to NTs) than what you say. Eg. if they ask "how are you?" (a question that epitomises NT social rituals that drive Aspies crazy) then there's a world of difference between saying "Good! Yourself?" with energy and a smile in your voice and saying the same words ("good... yourself...") in a bored, monotone way. And yes, it helps to physically smile, even though they can't see it - it still comes through somehow. I'm not saying those things are easy to do, I'm just pointing them out because they're not obvious (to us).

Thanks, I worked through my anxiety with face to face interatation and built up the skills but it's like
I mentally get knocked back to where I used to be years ago. I guess I have to tell my subconcious
that I can handle it.

I love phone interviews!! Ok, not literally, but they're so much better than the face-to-face ones. You can have a list of talking points right in front of your face, you can interview in sweat pants and a t-shirt....you can have a big bowl of ice cream in front of you to create a self-induced sugar coma if you don't get the job...the list goes on!

If you don't have problems with face to face interviews, just try to imagine the person sitting in front of you while you're on the phone. Maybe if it helps you could have a friend or family member sit across from you during the interview, so you can pretend you're talking to them. Not sure if it'd help, just trying to throw out some suggestions.

As for missing calls and such, just always keep your voice mail on. If they're interested they will always leave a message and you can call them back at your convenience (though don't wait more than a day...the sooner the better). Unless of course you actually have a scheduled interview with someone, then make sure to be available to answer at that time.

And about the chit chat, I assume it's things like "how's the weather?" and "did you have a good weekend?". If it isn't a part of the actual interview I wouldn't worry too much about it, just give a nice and short answer. They're just trying to make sure you seem like a reliable person for the job, so show em that you are!