Success at end of line

PHONE interviews now play a major part in the recruitment screening process. But, how should you prepare?

A phone interview may be briefer in length than a face-to-face interview but you should prepare in the same way.

To help you, we’ve teamed up with website Fish4jobs to bring you the five most common phone interview questions:

Tell me why you applied for this role?

The interviewer is looking for not just your enthusiasm but also your knowledge of the role and the company. This is your chance to show how much you know about the role and what really excites you about it.

Tell me a bit about your relevant experience?

Don’t run through your entire employment history. Focus on key experiences, skills and achievements that are directly relevant to this role. Thorough research of the company and the job is a must, so you can prepare an impressive list.

What are you salary expectations?

There’s no point continuing with the application process if your expectations don’t match the offering.

Why are you leaving your current role?

This can be a tricky one. Talking negatively about your current employer/company (no matter how bad it may be) will reflect badly on you.

Instead, try something along the lines of: “Although there are lots of great things about my current role, I am looking for something more challenging and with better development programmes.”

This shows that you’re not afraid of hard-work and also that you’re keen to learn new things. What is your notice period? This simply gives a clearer picture of your current situation and how quickly you could be available.