1) Find a quiet room to be ready to take a phone interview.
- Treat the phone interview as an on-site one. Make sure that you will not be interrupted during the phone interview, and the interviewer will not hear any noise from you.
2) Put a chronology resume in front of you, and write the dd/mm/yy when you started and ended for the position on the resume.
- It will be good to be fully prepared for answering any unexpected question regarding your resume. (I failed one time when a HR manager asked me to walk him through my resume, and I made a mistake about the year that I was holding the position.)
- Highlight the greatest achievement with each position on resume, and find a chance to sale yourself by talking your achievement during phone interview.
3) Write down the question that you are going to ask the interviewer on a piece of paper, and put the paper in front of you.
4) Write down some questions that you’re struggling to recite, and put papers in spots that being easy for you to look at and read.
5) I save each resume that I sent out for the different position, so that I will have an exact same resume as the one that an interviewer holds on hand. It sounds funny, but we sometimes make a stupid mistake just because we don’t pay close attention to details. It helps me to answer any question regarding the resume.
6) Practice! Practice! Practice before a phone interview. Ask your friend to help you to do a practice, the best way to find a native English speaker to do the practice phone interview with you. You can also to practice a phone interview with a family member.
** During Phone Interview
1) Be smiling & passionate throughout the phone interview.
- Your tone will express your smile and passion through the phone.
- Listening questions carefully and don't talk too fast because, as Chinese, we have strong accent.
2) Listening question carefully and do your best to catch the key words or key points from interviewer, so that you will know how to answer the question by focusing on the key information that the interviewer wants to hear.
3) Don’t be scared to ask the interviewer to repeat his/her words to make sure that you fully understand the question. No interviewer wants to listen to you to talk something that nothing related to his/her question. Of course, you cannot ask the interviewer to repeat the question many times. :)
4) Do not turn pages of papers that wrote with answers during the phone interview.
- The interviewer definitely is able to hear the voice of turning pages.
5) You need make sure that you watch the speed when you read your answer of questions. Reading in a way that no one can figure out that you are reading! Do the pause during reading your answers!
6) Answer question by emphasizing the key point that interviewer wants to hear from you.
7) Speak confidently even though you are not sure if you answered 100% correctly.
8) Interact with the interviewer by using “yes, I agree with you”, “oh great”, etc when he/she is talking or introducing something. It will show that you are really listening and focusing on his/her talking. Show your respect and interesting by appropriate interacting through the phone no matter how boring the interviewer talks.
** After Phone Interview
Send a thank you note within two hours after a phone interview.
The key points to pass a phone interview, as my 2 cents, are preparing, practicing, being passionate, and being confident. Hope my 2 cents could be helpful. Thank you!
