One of the most enjoyable parts of being a recruiter is interviewing. I think it’s because I get to meet someone new, and learn about them. It might have something to do with the fact I didn’t have many friends growing up, and never really had anyone to talk to outside my family. Wow! I digressed down a sad little rabbit hole for a moment there… Moving on…
Interviewing can also be one of the most frustrating parts of the job. I am not sure how many articles it will take to really handle this topic, but I do know this will be the first of a few to come over the next couple of months.
If you think of some hard questions you have been asked in the past, please write them in the comments below, and I will work to answer some of them either in future articles or maybe even directly in the comments section, if I have the time.
As I have said in the past two articles: The resume gets you the interview, and the interview gets you the job. If I have requested an interview with you, then most likely I saw something in your resume that made me intrigued. It might be that your entire resume is perfect, or it might be that I need some clarification on a couple of points I don’t completely understand, but if I or one of my peers has taken the time to talk to you, that’s a good thing! Now it’s your job to continue to impress.
I think it’s easy for me to say, prepare for the interview, but how do you do that? How do you ensure once you get a phone interview from a recruiter, that you get the call back to come in for a face-to-face meeting?
Tip 1 – Have a notebook and pen with you at ALL times.
Whether you are interviewing in person or on the phone, don’t be the person that is missing something to write with in an interview. The recruiter might need you to do one or two things when you hang up the phone, and if you don’t write it down you might forget. You might also be asked to write down a call back number if you two get disconnected. Bottom line, always have these two basic tools with you 24/7 when you are applying to a job. You never know when the first call will come.
Tip 2 – Give the interviewer 100% of your attention.
This is obvious to say, but what does it mean? First, don’t be at the bar or club when I call. Unfortunately, with global recruiting, this has happened in the past. If you are, please just don’t tell me! If we have a scheduled call, there is absolutely no excuse for you to miss my call or not be in the appropriate environment. You need to be in a quiet place where I can have your full attention. For the record, everything I am going to discuss with you, I have witnessed, so PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE learn from the mistakes of others!
When we talk, please make sure you are able to fully commit 100% of your attention and remove all outside distractions. I recently conducted an interview where there was, what can only be described as a smoke detector beep going off in the background every 15 seconds. Talk about distracting and annoying! The truth is, I wanted to talk to the candidate longer, but after 30 minutes of “BEEP” every 15 seconds, my headache won, which meant the candidate unfortunately lost.
Tip 3 – Research the company
You have to know something about the company you are interviewing with. Your first question should not be, “so what does your company do?” If this is the case, you are not going to impress the person on the other side of the phone. People like me want to hire people that are excited about our company. If I have to teach the interviewee about the company I work for, clearly he/she is not excited about working for us. This person just is excited about getting a paycheck. I want to be confident you at least have some idea of what you are signing up for.
Tip 4 – Know what the position should pay.
With online tools, there should be enough data to have a good idea of what the job you are applying for pays. I am not saying you are going to know it pays “$52,545” specifically, but you should have an idea of what the range is. So when I ask you the highly intimidating question, “What are your salary and compensation expectations?” you won’t feel so intimidated that you freeze and stumble through an answer. Always be prepared to answer this question!
This tip is so important that I really need to expand on this to separate some personal fact from fiction. Why do I, or someone else, ask this question? When I ask this question, I am not trying to lowball you on an offer. I can’t speak for other recruiters out there who might not be as ethical as me, but I’m asking you this question to be sure I am not wasting your time or mine. The last thing I want to do, is to go through potentially hundreds of resumes to find yours, get excited about you after our phone interview, bring you in to the office, have you meet everyone on the team, to only give you an offer you end up rejecting because our compensation plan did not meet your expectations. I want to determine as quickly as possible if I can afford you with the budget I have been given.
At the end of the day, as the recruiter, I am trying to evaluate if I think you are a fit for our company, and is our company a good fit for you. If I can determine there is not a good fit, I promise you, both parties will be happier. No one wants a job where their personality and values don’t align with the company culture. You won’t last long if you have to fake the “smile” every day.
Tip 5 – Have a couple of questions lined up for the recruiter to answer when the time is right.
I typically close an interview with something like, “Thanks for your time today, can I answer any questions for you?”
Undoubtedly throughout the course of the interview I have answered some questions you might have had, so this is why it’s important to have a couple of questions written down that you can ask when the time is right. This is also why you have a notebook with you throughout the interview. (Refer to Tip 1)
Having the pen and paper allows you to write some questions down throughout the interview as you think of them. If you don’t think of any new ones, then at least you already have a couple written down in advance that you can fall back on.
Sample interview questions for the candidate to ask the recruiter that are almost always appropriate:
- What is the company culture like at …?
- Why is this position available at …?
- How long have you (recruiter) been with the company and what do you like about working there?
Remember that these questions above are for your initial phone screen with a recruiter. If you get the opportunity to interview with the hiring manager, your questions should be more tailored to the actual job description and your experience.
I hope your biggest takeaway from this article is to go into the interview process intentionally. Prepare to speak intelligently about the role and the company. Good recruiters actually prepare to talk with you, and it’s always nice to feel like the candidate took the same preparations to speak with us.
Remember: Please use the comments section to let us know some of the toughest interview questions you have ever been asked during an interview. I hope to be able to use a blog in the future to break down how I would recommend you answer these questions.
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