Graduate Telephone Interviews Secret Success Tips

1. Be prepared.

A shocker I know! By prepared I mean brainstorm about questions you could get asked, questions you don't think you will get asked and questions you don't want to get asked. Prepare them all. Normally telephone interviews consist of the standard motivational questions intertwined with competency questions and often you wont need so much preparation. But do you want to take that risk? Make lists, lots of lists and have those lists in front of you during the interview. It wouldn't be a bad idea to write out full responses to questions and learn them off by heart. As long as you practice giving a strong and seemingly flowing delivery, it could lead to excellent responses.

2. Study your resume.

Dissect, examine, investigate and conduct all manners of other scientific sounding like activities on your graduate CV so that you could quote it in your sleep. Identify all the key attributes the firm you're applying to is searching for and have lots of examples prepared where you have demonstrated these.

3. No matter how much planning and preparation you do, if your interviewer really wants to, he or she will give you a question that will unsettle you or a question that you will have difficulty answering.

Now this is not an ideal situation and there are many ways you could tackle this. My personal advice is to do as follows; first of all be honest that you would find that particular question difficult to answer, suggest you are happy to give it a try nonetheless and then take it from there. Some might try to muddle their way through such a question. I do not recommend this. You will be speaking to a professional and he or she will be easily able to tell if your response is just made up. <br/><br/>4. Be aware that a telephone interview is not a face to face interview. Yes this is blatantly obvious but you'll be surprised how many people act the same way on the phone as they would do in person. Sometimes this might not work. People can't see your posture, or your reaction to questions, whether you find them easy or not, if you're relaxed, if you could ramble on all day about that question or whether you're the nicest person in the world. All they get is a voice. That voice must be able to carry across everything that you would want to present about yourself during a face to face interview. - Listen carefully and speak clearly. - Keep your responses concise. - Local vernacular and slang is banned. - Don't repeat yourself. - Don't interrupt your interviewer. - Don't use your computer or other devices that can add background effects. - Do not think out loud with irritating 'thinking noises'. - Be professional at all times. This is not a friendly chat. - Smile. It will come across in your voice even if you cant be seen. Charles, GRB Journalist