Preparing for interviews – the phone call

Posted by Sarah Hobbs

When you’re going for a job interview, you need to remember that you’re usually asking someone with very little – if any – knowledge of you to make the decision to hire you in just one or two meetings. Considering it’s one of the riskiest decisions in their team’s short to medium term future, you need to give yourself the best edge you can.

One of the best things you can do to increase your chance of success is to phone the interviewer and see if you can get some time with them to find out more about the role. Not only will this give you better insight into the interview process, but you also give them chance to make their decision based on a series of successful contacts – not a single conversation.

1. When is the best time to call? If you want to speak with the interviewer you’ve got two options. 1) You can ring without any warning, and if you do and get hold of them you’ll get their immediate and possibly more honest answers but you probably will not get a thorough, considered answer. Or 2) You can call them at a planned time (for example off the back of an email), in which case you’ll probably get a more considered answer, but it will be fuller and deeper.
   
   
2. When in the recruitment process should I call? There are two main times to make the call – either before you’ve submitted your application or after you’ve been shortlisted. By doing this you’ll hit the two times they’re thinking about the candidates in terms of decision making – and it’s usually the best time you have to influence the outcome.
   
   
3. What am I trying to find out? The critical thing is that you’re trying to understand the 3 or 4 things that are most important to them in terms of making the selection. Whilst the job description will be full of things they are looking for, the reality is that the “real” priorities are much narrower, and you need to find those out.
   
   
4. How much should you sell yourself? Much less than you’d think! Don’t do too much talking during the call, the point is to ask questions. Leave selling yourself to the interview – this is just for finding out about the role.
   
   
5. How can I make the call easy for the other person? Be really friendly, build great rapport and ask good open questions. For example, “what are the key challenges you face in your role?”, “what are the 4/5 most important skills?”, “how is success measured in this job?”, “is there a structure or format for the interview?”, “what’s the wider department trying to achieve?”
   
   
6. Thank them, thank them and thank them. Be profuse in your appreciation for the time and attention they’re giving you. “I really appreciate your time”, “that was really helpful” and “it really gave me some great insights” are great ways to leave a favourable impression.
   
   
7. Make it clear you’ve already read everything available. You don’t want the interviewer to think “why are they asking me things they could read elsewhere?” So you need to make it clear you’ve already read the available information. For example, ask questions like “I read the job description and there are quite a few things you’re looking for – what are the 1 or 2 things that are really important to you?”
   
   
8. End by summarising the conversation. When you are talking to people about a role at an interview you can worry you’ve misguided someone. By giving the interviewer reassurance you’ve understood the conversation “You’ve really given me some insight into x, y and z,” they’ll feel they got their message across correctly – and that they haven’t misguided you.

TAKE AWAY
There are only a small number who make the call, and you’ll stand out above the rest of the field if you do. So always make the pre-interview call!