Telephone Interviews

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I have just come off the phone from a recruitment consultant.

He just asked me about my experience so he can forward it to the client with the job Im applying for. And will possibly get a telephone interview soon.

I couldnt even be articulate about my skills to the recruitment guy let alone an interviewer !

Has anyone had a telephone interview before ? What are they like ? Any tips ?

I've had a phone interview before, suprisingly I got the job. I remember them asking a question about when I had a problem with someone that I had to deal with, and how I dealt with it. I couldnt come up with anything, so they said they'd come back to it at the end of the interview. When they finally did, I still had nothing. So I made up a story about some fight I got into with my sister.
How I got the job is still a mystery to me

I've had a telephone interview before. I was put on the spot so they didn't expect too much from me, but it was still hard. I think it was better that I was put on the spot because I was allowed a little more time to think of answers and such and I had a little more leeway when they judged my results. The question about how you've dealt with a situation is quite common. I wouldn't worry too much about trying to say alot when you answer, just try and stay calm and think for a few seconds before attempting your reply - they won't expect you to have the answer straight away. At least with a telephone interview it's only your response and not your body language that you have to worry about!

Well my agency called this morning giving me about what ? 20 mins to prepare ! !! I was like $$@@! !"

But it turned out to be fine, it was only a screening interview so it was fairly short, I was caught off guard on a few questions so took me a while to answer. Also took me a while to realise these long uncomfortable silences was the interviewer writing things down ! I didnt really want to say anything at the time, but boy was i relieved when I heard his pencil scribbling.

The interviewer actually sounded quite nervous as well at first, and I think I came off a bit robotic.

I was actually quite nervous for this but I tell you what, my recruitment consultant rang me just before and that actually calmed me down a lot, I dont know why this was the case but i was really suprised.

but the worst is yet to come, 2 more stages of face to face PANEL interviews - Yikes !

But I hope to get through to at least the first one

A telephone interview is probably to the advantage of a a candidate with AS. The advice I always got from my father was always two words "Be yourself", and it really is true. But there's so many things many AS people have to do differently, and much more so in a face-to-face interview. The best example is how you dress. When you normally don't dress formally and next thing you know you must wear a suit and tie, you are not being yourself. You feel different, and this can be uncomfortable. But appropriate dress really does count a great deal, and at least in a phone interview dress is not a factor. The other thing about the interview is that you are effectively a salesman for an hour. You must show great confidence and put yourself in the best light. For many people their strategy is to fake something, and try to pull it off. This is one of the worst things for an AS person. Body language really shows in this part of an interview, something of course cannot be assessed in a phone interview.