Telephone and Skype Interviews: How to Improve your Performance

TELEPHONE INTERVIEWS AND SKYPE INTERVIEWS: HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR PERFORMANCE
The telephone interview has traditionally been the weapon of choice for the ‘client on the go’, where time or logistics are the enemy. It is seen by many as the face to face interview’s younger sibling, ‘Interview Lite’, if you will. However, the march of modern technology has seen a rival to the telephone interview emerge: the Skype interview. The Skype interview shares many of the features and potential pitfalls of the telephone interview, but in other respects it presents considerations and challenges all of its own. When it comes to interview preparation and technique, whether we are talking about telephone or Skype interviews, these significant hurdles on the way to that elusive job offer are often overlooked, so I have compiled here some hints and tips to help guide you on your way.

1: Underestimate At Your Peril!
Although some hiring decisions are made on the strength of a telephone or Skype interview, especially in the temping/contracting arena, more often than not this remote mode of interview is used as a precursor to a face to face – a chance for the client to do some screening and filtering to ensure that once the diary gets full with face to face to face interviews, there is already a level of confidence in the quality of the candidates. As the job-seeker therefore, ‘Interview Lite’ is the wrong perception to have because if you don’t take the telephone interview/Skype seriously, you risk being ruled out of the running before you’ve even had chance to polish your shoes and visit the company in question.
As such, you should prepare for a telephone interview/Skype in exactly the same way as if it were a face to face interview, even if the advice you have been given is that it’s just a case of ‘covering the bases’. There is enough material out there that covers effective interview prep, but here are the fundamentals:
1 – Know every line of your CV. Understand that you may be questioned on any line and prepare an answer for such a question…ie.an example of where you have exhibited this behaviour or experience and what the outcome was.
2 – Know every line of the job description and person specification. Again, you might be asked a question on any line of either, so it’s always better to pre-prepare your answers rather than have to tackle the question on the hop.
3 – Make sure you’ve researched the company and the person conducting the interview so you have a good general knowledge of what the company does, how big it is, how it brands and projects itself, where it’s heading in the market place and what its’ challenges might be. Also hit LinkedIn and find out about the interviewer: what’s their own background and tenure with the company? You should also prepare some sensible, pertinent questions about the role and the company.
If you don’t put in the work prior to the interview and come across as ill-prepared then you are just as likely to fail on a telephone or Skype interview as if you were in a face to face, so don’t take the more remote forms of interview as anything less important or worthy of your time investment.

Location, Location, Location
Unlike a face to face interview where the venue and setting is out of your hands, you can choose to take a telephone call or Skype pretty much wherever you like. This invites all manner of disconcerting possibilities…I have known candidates take calls in taxis, airports, at their desk at their current work place, in their children’s play rooms (complete with children). The key here is to pick a location that is quiet and private. You need to be able to focus completely on the call, with no distractions. For telephone interviews, landlines are a better bet than mobiles as calls that are constantly cutting out due to poor reception become vexing. For Skype, make sure that your connection is strong, try a dummy run with a friend before-hand to make sure that everything is working as it should. You should also consider what Skype address you are giving to the client, as nicknames or other amusing variations on your name might be funny for your friends, but perceived as lacking in professionalism to a potential employer.
Skype brings a further consideration: the purpose of the Skype call of course is that the interviewer can see you as well as hear you…but what that also means is they can see behind you too. Maybe that photo of you and all your mates on that stag/hen party in Amsterdam shouldn’t be on view? Also, think carefully about what you are wearing. My advice would be to dress for a Skype interview in the same way as you would dress for a face to face: smart. I have known some clients take exception to candidates wearing t-shirts or generally not dressing in a professional manner for a Skype call.

The Art Of Projection
One of the disadvantages of a telephone interview, and where it differs from both a Skype and a face to face, is that you don’t have the ability to read all of that wonderful body language that is being projected to you from the interviewer. Most of us have the ability either instinctively or otherwise to read the body language of a person that we are communicating with in order gage whether they are interested or not in what we are saying. In an interview this can encourage us if we feel that the recipient is ‘buying in’ or it can spur us on to offer more or something different if we interpret the opposite to be true. In a telephone interview the inability to do this can be somewhat unnerving.
There are several remedies to this. Firstly, it is a perfectly valid tactic to ask the interviewer ‘have I covered what you wanted to know’ when you have offered an answer. Realistically, the client can only respond to this in three ways: “yes, thanks” (and you move on to the next question); “no, can you expand on XYZ” (which gives you the opportunity to offer more information); or “well I was really looking for XYZ information” (in which case you might have misinterpreted the original question, or been side-tracked in your answer, and now have the opportunity to put that right). This question gives you a vital opportunity to get yourself back on track if you have unwittingly fallen off course. Use it!
Additionally, ask friends, family or a good recruiter for honest feedback on how you come across on the telephone. We all have an idea in our head of how we sound, which can be surprisingly different to the reality when we hear recordings of ourselves. It’s important to build rapport and project yourself in the right way: try standing up when you talk, as this opens up your body/chest better which helps you to project; smile as you speak (cheesy perhaps, but it does tend to inflect a level of enthusiasm and engagement in to your voice). If the feedback you get is that you can sound a little flat on the phone, try to inject a little something in to your tone. Don’t forget, the interviewer can’t read your body language either, so help them to feel like you are engaged by employing plenty of agreement sounds as they are talking (‘yes, OK, aha’)

To See Or Not To See
One advantage of not being visible in a telephone interview, is you can have your CV in front of you with plenty of notes, examples of behaviours and experience, good questions to ask etc. This takes away some of the pressure of having to store everything in your memory banks, so make sure you employ this tactic to maximum effect.
Conversely, doing things like standing up when you are talking might work in a telephone interview but on a Skype call nobody wants to see or talk to your mid-section! Try to keep your sitting posture upright and engaged (slouching suggests a lack of interest). Also unnatural though it is, try maintaining ‘eye contact’ with the cam, not the interviewer on the screen. Don’t forget, the interviewer only sees what the cam directs them to see, so the option is still there to have your CV and notes tucked away out of the line of sight, as long as you are not making a show of constantly looking downwards to address your notes…you’ll have to be more subtle that that on a Skype call!

Onwards & Upwards
In summary therefore, understanding what makes Skype interviews and telephone interviews distinct from each other and from face to face interviews, will help you to develop your strategy for success. By following the simple hints and tips above you should be well on your way to succeeding with these tricky obstacles on the way to your ideal job!

Lee Knowles
Owner/Director
Adepto Technical Recruitment
www.adeptotechnical.co.uk
November 2015