the_boy

Just found out that I'm scheduled for a telephone interview for tomorrow and am in a state of panic.

The last telephone interview I had was with someone from HR and it didn't go well because they ask you the most inane and excrutiatingly numb questions
eg. what has been your biggest achievement to date?
what has been your biggest disappointment to date?
if I was to ask your team members what would they say about you?

Needless to say because I'm not a good liar I didn't get the job.

This time round it's an interview with the technical lead and I really want to make a good impression as this job sounds perfect for me...

I know he's going to ask me why I want to join them and why I want to leave my current post. Can anyone give any tips on how I can answer without sounding like a kiss a$$? Any generic advice would be most appreciated.
The job is for an IT post so if anyone from this neck of the woods can help that would be even better!!

I've come up with a few questions but they are all closed questions.
If I ask open ended ie. what would be the future plans and goals of the company, if I asked the interviewer why they joined the company....would that be too OTT?

HELP please

mj

Why not have a bit of a speech prepared? - don't recite any of it over the phone though, maybe if you write something down and read back through it a few times you will have stuff in your head and be more prepared for the questions that come at you.

imlach

I'm afraid these are pretty common and actually quite reasonable to ask. They want to find out about your communication skills, your confidence, a bit about your history, etc. We'd be asking you similar questions too, and we're not HR! We're engineers!

You don't need to lie. You just need to learn to emphasise the positives, and if necessary (and only if asked about) throw in a weakness which you have proven to have worked on to improve yourself in that regard.

Practice makes perfect. You'll get used to these questions and how to answer them as you move around in your career in future years....

imlach

That's quite easy.....
You want more of a challenge....you want to further develop your skills....you feel your current job isn't pushing you enough.....you have mastered your current skillset and want to learn new skills.....etc etc.

scoobyjimbo

[QUOTE=the_boy]Just found out that I'm scheduled for a telephone interview for tomorrow and am in a state of panic.

First of all good luck.. you will be fine.
be yourself - all the interviewer wants to find out is whether you can communicate and tell them about past roles etc.. they more than lilely will ask you about past roles and what you have done etc, what you did well and what you thought you didnt do so well on, this is the harder question, its always a good idea to answer this with a positive negative i.e. i.e. my weakness are being overenthusiastic.. i.e. that you want to work hard and do well and progress but sometimes you might try a bit too hard..
Also they are lilely to ask techical questions relating to the role as usually this is the reason for techical interviews they weed out the people that dont have the role experience they are after and then the 2nd interview they will role out HR to ask all the wooly questions that everyone hates..
be yourself, speak enthusiastiucally about your current role and sell yourself in terms of what you have acheived in your current role.. and whatever you do dont slag off your current company/role.. when they ask you what you want to leave say something like you have been there x number of years and feel you have acheived a great deal and you now require a new fresh challenge.

good luck

J

Smiler

The questions you were asked during your last phone interview ere quite reasonable.

I phone interview as well. The last position I filled I phone interviewed 17 people, only 3 actualy were invited for a 1st interview.

My phone interviews last 10 mins and I'm trying to establish two main things

1/ Is your CV full of BS. You would be surprised. I've had people hang up on me when asking the most basic of questions.

2/ Can you communicate!!

I always give a time when I will call you. At the time agreed I don't expect you to be eating lunch/out driving etc.

the_boy

It went better than I thought, mainly technical questions and some background information on what I'd been involved with previously. The guy seemed amiable and easy going so we just had a chat about previous experiences and examples. None of this best experience rubbish which I don't think measures anything.

Got a call back from the agency an hour later to say I'm through to the next round
Mega chuffed!!
Feedback was that he liked my techie background and that I seemed friendly if a bit quiet (but that was a mixture of nerves and that I couldn't get a work in edgeways).

Interview for next week and I can't bloody wait......!!!!

scoobyjimbo

Well done fella.. good luck with the interview
J

the_boy

Cheers J