Start-up Journal 11 | How to conduct a successful telephone interview

Calling a potential candidate can be as nervous as receiving the telephone call. At least that’s how I felt when I started. I complied the following list for you if you are going through the same process. 🙂

1. Greeting
   State who you are and why you call.
   “Hi John (his/her name). This is Marry (your name) calling from ABB (company name). How’s your day/How are you… You emailed yesterday expressing that you are interested in *** position. Is that right?/ Is it a good time to talk?”
2. Articulate what will happen next
   Consider this the contents of your conversation, if we are reading a book, there is contents at the beginning to show up the structure of the book.
   For example: “This will take about 20 mins. I will ask you a few questions and at the end you can ask me questions that you want to know about. So, can we start by a brief introduction?”
3. Main dish
   In this part, you need to prepare before hand what info you want to draw out from the candidate. What are your criteria? The usual principles would be: what you (the employer) can provide; what the employee can do; and at what cost (how much you want to pay/ how much s/he wants to gain)? Once you know clearly what you want, design your interview questions based on that and examine them during the interview.
   
   If the telephone interview is what you have to examine the right candidate then you will want to take more time and spend more effort to ask detailed questions. If not, and you plan to schedule another face-to-face interview, then you only need to get the basics and then move on to schedule a time or not.
4. Ending
   -Ask for questions.
   “Do you have any questions for me?”
   -inform about the next step.
   If you feel like you find the right person, schedule a specific time for the next round of interview or inform them when they can join your team.
   If you don’t see him/her the right fit, then politely say we will let you know the result as soon as possible, and then follow up with a friendly rejection email.

Good luck to you. Let me know how you go and what are your tips. I’d love to hear about it.