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seesaw · Jun 21, 2019 at 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StreetcarBlanche

I thoroughly prepared for my phone interview this morning for an admin role with a global company that has a local office here in my city. The recruiter was really cold, aloof, and just asked me questions in a robotic fashion.

I understand that the goal of the recruiter with phone interviews, is to see how the candidate responds to questions and writes down the candidate's responses.

But this gal only asked me 3 relevant questions regarding my work history in the 30 minute phone interview. She didn't ask me to talk about my accomplishments or anything.

Almost is if she already decided she wasn't going to move me forward to the next stage, which is doing a live interview on site at the company office.

The 3 questions she asked me:

-name a time you had to deal with competing schedules (context: the admin role has to manage 5 execs calendars for travel and for meetings)

-what type of boss do you want to work for (I referenced my masters program course on leadership styles and the Northouse book on Leadership and went into detail about the types of leadership I respond best to vs. the "nice boss" generic answer and raved about my masters in leadership program and how it will inform me in admin roles etc.)

-how would you rate your knowledge of Excel, Access, PPT, Word (I tried to be glib and answered "Well, according to Kenexa I do..." and then I told her my scores for each one. She didn't even laugh. WHOOPS! No sense of humor, this recruiter. At all.

So, can anyone give me ANY TIPS on phone interviews?

I gave her a 2 minute overview of my 20 year work history.
I demonstrated that I could multitask and manage 5 execs competing schedules. I provided real life work examples in response to her questions.
I expressed clear enthusiasm for the role.
I even highlighted about 6 things I really like about this global company and referred to myself in their vernacular aka the nickname they give themselves. She didn't even chuckle when i did that or acknowledge how thoroughly I researched this global company.
I asked her about 5 questions related to the admin role too.
I sent her a very professional yet short thank you email after the phone interview too.

I just don't get it. What did I do wrong? Can recruiters already have bias and just go through the motions with candidates on the phone they aren't interested in? I feel like she sabotaged me somehow. I thought I did everything you're supposed to do in a phone interview.

Do you know she didn't advance you to the next round or are you just assuming right now?

As a hiring manager, phone interviews are to weed people out. They are generally to make sure a few certain skills are confirmed before we even bother bringing them in.

It sounds like content wise you had all the right responses ready to go. My only suggestion would be no joking in the future. The HR recruiter is going through a number of phone screenings in a day and just needs to get certain questions answered. You also can't see the other person when it's a phone interview so you can't read body language and tell if joking is appropriate. My suggestion would to be professional, polite, cordial, and keep all aspects of personality (humor, sarcasm, whatever, not saying you were sarcastic or anything, just an example) at bay. Be beige. Lol.