Phone Interview Tips (Quality Over Quantity): Part I

The ultimate phone interview guide to mastery

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Got a job interview over the phone tomorrow at 9 in the
morning? That means you can just lie down in bed and wing it with a nice stack
of pancakes to your left and a hefty cup of joe to your right…right? Of course
not. The phone
interview is no joke, no time to relax and daydream or pretend you’ve
already got the job, and in fact in many cases is a do-or-die situation just
like a face-to-face job interview - so read up buddy boy, you’ve got a lot to
learn here.

I’m going to go over a ton of logistical tips for phone
interviews; that is, phone interview tips that’ll give you that extra oomph.
I’m talking quality, not quantity. The actual content of the phone interview is
a totally different thing, and you can read
on to find tips for that as well, but these are some ways you can nail the
phone interview that are essentially small tweaks in your routine.

First, let’s ask ourselves why oh why is the phone interview
often seen as something so trivial and not that big of a deal? The reason is obviously
because it’s over the phone (duh) and not in-person, but so what? Psychologically
speaking, it’s as if you have a moat, a trench, a buffer zone if you will,
between you and the interviewer so they can’t catch all your personality
quirks, mistakes, and blunders. To some people this means you don’t necessarily
have to dress up, have fantastic posture, smile, and basically give it you’re
A-game. Unfortunately, it’s this kind of thinking that leads to so many phone
interviews plummeting to failure. The phone interview normally comes before the
face-to-face job interview so if you bomb it, you won’t get the real deal.
Shocker, I know.

Now that I have awoken your phone interview spirit, let’s get
down to business here:



1. Dress The Part

This is a job interview, so no pajamas please. If you dress like you don’t care
then you will sound like you don’t care, and you care about getting that job
don’t you? Give it your best effort too, don’t settle for just a nice shirt or
a pair of dark pants either - go all out: suit and tie, blazer, nice shoes, the
whole deal. It truly is unreal how much your mindset will change once you dress
the part, believe me.

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