I spent an entire week preparing for my very first phone interview. I weighed my strengths and weaknesses and carefully crafted responses to typical interview questions. I did research on the institution, practically memorizing the information on the website.
I decided to use a room at work for the interview, thinking that it would help me to stay in “professional mode.” Just minutes before the scheduled time, one of my coworkers decided to inform my whole office that I was about to have my first phone interview.
No pressure or anything.
The interviewers called me at the exact time that was arranged. “Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself?” they asked. Now this should not be a complicated question. I told them “a little bit,” unfortunately talking a mile a minute. With each pause I realized how out of breath I was.
The rest of the interview was situational questions and at the end of the interview, I deeply regretted only telling them “a little bit” about myself in the beginning. I feel like I nailed some of the questions, but really dropped the ball on some others. How did I fail to mention some of my key qualifications that were written on a list right in front of me?
I can’t stop analyzing every moment. Why couldn’t I just slow myself down? This isn’t how I typically act on a face-to-face interview, so why couldn’t I get it together? Hopefully I’m just being hard on myself. Too bad it will be another month until I find out how I performed.
No sense dwelling on something I cannot change. I’m off to prepare for my interview next week!
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Phone interviews are becoming more and more popular as they provide a cost-efficient method of screening out the excess of candidates that apply for each job posting. You have to practice a phone interview to really be prepared. Most candidates speak too quickly and lose the interviewer as a result. Practice with a friend, control your breathing and rate of talking, and get feedback on how you are coming across.
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