Telephone Based Interview

Getting back to the Interview Types I wrote a couple of weeks ago, today I will be getting in a bit more details in the Telephone Based Interview:

This method is one that I love and also hate, and this is how I will split this article up:

• Reasons why I love it:

• First Encounter:

It is the first encounter between the candidates and the company, I like being there from the beginning  you can see the evolution of that employee.

Here comes a very important and high responsibility on the recruiter, marketing the company, and when I say that I urge everyone to understand how to do that beforehand, one point I feel should be emphasized is: Please NEVER LIE to candidates about the company in any way shape or form. Even if you managed to get that candidate, you will not be able to retain said candidate, and you will get yourself a bad reputation.

• Cost Effective:

When there is a high stack of potential candidates that is a very cost and time efficient way to lower the numbers to a reasonable number to pass to the next step of the recruitment process.

• Focused:

This is more of a detective work, where I can gather the information from the source and cross-check it with my knowledge and experience, you can figure out so much about the candidate from the way they behave and share certain information.

• Reasons why I hate it (some mentioned before):

• Candidates not Answering:

I understand that it is not his fault nor is it his reponsibility, but I can’t talk about this type without mentioning this annoying issue.

It takes about 5-10 minutes to prepare for the interview (Reading the CV) and I spend 5-10 minutes trying to reach the candidate, when I eventually stop trying I end up wasting ~20 minutes per unanswered candidate.

• Unstable Connection/Noisy Background:

Again, not the candidates mistake, but it ends up at the very least doubling my efforts and my time.

If the candidate knows that they are in a an unstable connection area, they should request to reschedule the interview, for everyone’s sake.

• Unbalanced Candidates:

Unbalanced can mean a lot of things, but I will try to make it short:

1. Too Funny, this can be conveyed as not serious.
2. Very Cold, this can be conveyed as not pleasant to work with.
3. Very Egotistical, believe it or not, there is a balance for that, and some hiring managers are looking for that balance.
4. Interrupter, this is just disrespectful to the recruiters.

And the list goes on.