5 Tips On How To Crack A Telephonic Job Interview For Freshers

A traditional interview would require you to don formal wear and turn up with a folder containing all your important documents for that all-important meeting. There a lot is said and judged based on what you wear and how you carry yourself. Your mannerisms also have a major role to play here. In such a scenario, you know what things you must take care of and you put in the best of efforts to ensure that things go perfectly.

However, the entire process is not that that simple when it is a telephonic job interview in question. Here, your voice is the only tool that you have and using that you need to impress the interviewers and convince them to give you the job. Your entire personality and professional capability will be judged based on how and what you say.

Thus, every word that you speak must be gauged very carefully. At the same time, it must be ensured that you are spontaneous and the conversation does not appear to be scripted. As a fresher, you probably don't have any experience with traditional interviews, let alone telephonic interviews. So, this article talks about 5 tips for freshers, which if followed, will help you ace telephonic interviews and land the job of your choice.

1. Choose Your Spot

It will rarely happen that you are caught in a telephonic job interview without being intimated of the same well in advance. When you are told that you have to attend a telephonic job interview at a stipulated time, make sure that you are prepared for the same. The first step in this type of preparation would be to choose a spot that is free from hustle and bustle.

Make sure that you choose a room that is free from disruption and talk to your family members well in advance so that they do not disturb you when the interview is in progress. Under no condition should external noise like that of the TV or the traffic on the road be heard by the interview board on the other side of the line.

Also, make sure that your phone has a good connection. If possible, switch to the landline for such important calls. Remember that a call drop at this hour may well cost you the job of your dreams. In fact, for formal telephonic job interviews, it is a good idea to use headphones instead of earphones as the call clarity is much better there.

2. You May Use A Cheat Sheet

While preparing for an interview, there will be certain questions that you will expect. You must have chalked those down by now. Make sure that you jot down important pointers to those questions in a sheet of paper. Your handwriting should be legible as you will be reading what you've written under pressure.

However, make sure that you only note down the important points and not the entire answer. If you write down the entire answer and then read the same from the paper, it will make your answer sound very scripted. This will make the interviewers question your originality.

Remember the biggest advantage of a telephonic interview is the fact that you are hidden from the interview board. If you can use this fact to your benefit, you can easily ace the interview.

3. Keep Your Documents Ready

Now it is obvious that no one will ask you to hand over your resume when you are in the midst of a telephonic interview. However, understand that they will be reading through your resume while talking to you. Having the same set of documents handy will allow both the parties to be on the same page, literally and figuratively.

Also, keep a pen and a few papers handy for taking notes. In case there is something that you would want to jot down in the middle of the job interview, you would not want to keep the panel waiting while you look for the same.

4. Do Your Research Well

This is one point that applies to your telephonic interview as much as it would to a general face-to-face interview. Make sure that you do your research well. Read up on the company and the job profile that you are applying for and make sure that you are able to mention details of the same in your cover letter.

Trustworthy websites like Glassdoor, naukri.com, monster.com and others can help give you insights about the company that you are applying. Reading up on interview experiences of others will give you an upper edge over other competitors. While doing so, make sure that you focus on telephonic interviews.

In case you know the name of your interviewer in advance, you may look them up on professional networking websites (like LinkedIn) in the course of your preparation for the job interview.

5. Smile

As absurd as it sounds, it is important that you have a positive frame of mind when you sit for a telephonic interview. Although the people at the other end of the line are unable to see your facial expressions, they will be able to gauge your mental state from the tone of your voice. Hence, make sure that you have a positive outlook, are confident and have a smiling face.

The combined effect of all of this will help you radiate positivity which will, in turn, will prompt the employers to hire you. Make sure that you treat the telephonic job interview as an actual formal interview and not as just another phone call.

If you are finding it difficult to do so, you may consider wearing formal clothes and practising the same in front of the mirror. This type of practising will help you get into the character and do justice to the job interview.