How To Prepare For A Phone Interview

The main point of a phone interview is to decide which applicants should come in for an in-person interview. Your goals for a phone interview are to sell yourself and build a connection with the interviewer.

You should prepare for a phone interview similar to an in-person interview.

-Research the company

-Be prepared to talk about why you are interested in the position

-Discuss what skills make you a good fit for the company

-Have questions ready to ask

Remember to speak slowly and enunciate clearly. Try to avoid ums, and ahs. Lastly, smile while you’re speaking. It will project a positive change in the tone of your voice and the interviewer will notice!

How to Prepare for a Job Interview

 

1. Get to know the employer.
It only takes 15-20 minutes to learn enough about the employer to be able to speak more intelligently about them than much of your competition.

-Use the employer’s website –at a minimum read “about us” section.

-Get familiar with their clients, work and general approach.

Make sure you can answer these questions: What does this organization do? What are they all about? What makes them different from their competition?

2. Learn the job description like it was your own.
The best way to use the job description to prepare is to go through it line by line. Think about how your experience and skills fit with each line. Write this down for each one, making sure to include examples from your past as supporting evidence that you’d excel at this job.

Now, picture yourself doing the job. What are the likely challenges? What ideas would you bring to the table? If you think through these questions now, you can weave those thoughts into the conversation at the interview.

3. Practice, and then practice some more.
Write down at least 10 interview questions that you’re likely to be asked and write out your answers to them. Cover these basics: Why are you thinking about leaving your current job? What interests you about this opening? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What experience do you have doing ___? (Fill in each of the major responsibilities of the job.)

Now, practice your answers out loud. Practice saying them out loud over and over and over, until your answers fly off your tongue automatically.

4. Come up with questions of your own.
Come up with several questions of your own, because at the end of the interview you’ll be asked what questions you have. Good questions at this stage are clarifying questions about the role itself and open-ended questions about the office culture. You’ll also want to ask about their next steps and their timeline for getting back to you.

Adapted from Alison Green via http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2011/02/07/how-to-prepare-for-a-job-interview

Job Interviews: The Wow Factor

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3 impressive qualities of job candidates and how to prove your have them:

1. Results – Have concrete examples of how you’ve delivered on a project. The more detail, the better.

2. Preparation – Have questions ready for the interviewer that demonstrate you’ve researched the company.

3. Passion – Don’t just give the answer you think they want to hear. Show that you have a true interest in their business.

Interview Take-Along Checklist

You’re interviewing for a job tomorrow, and you think you've done all the interview preparation you need to do. You’ve practiced your answers to a multitude of common interview questions and have thought up some questions to ask the interviewer. Your interview suit is pressed and ready. But what do you bring to the interview?

Career Fairs: Tips for Success!

By Andrew Belanger - Career Services Coordinator (Lansing Campus)




I recently had the opportunity to attend several career fairs for business and community development. At the Greater Lansing Journey to Job Career Fair on April 26th, I participated as an employer representative, collecting resumes and speaking with potential candidates. Below are several things that stood out among job seekers that I spoke with: