By Stephanie A. Ristvey/The Legal Intelligencer
As more and more human resources personnel in corporations, law firms and recruiting firms throughout the country are working smarter to save money and time, utilization of a telephone interview is becoming a popular tool to screen candidates for open positions and weed out weaker candidates. In today's competitive legal market it is imperative for job seekers to understand the significance of a telephone interview and how to prepare for it. Far too often job seekers brush off a telephone interview, wrongly equating it with a mere "phone call." This mistake proves to be a costly career error, usually taking candidates out of consideration for positions for which they may have been well-suited and in which they had a genuine interest.
The truth about telephone interviews
The fact of the matter is that telephone interviews are real interviews. After prospective employers carefully review candidate resumes for particular positions, they may choose to use a telephone interview as the next phase in determining which job seekers will be invited for face-to-face interviews and which will be removed from the process. An interviewer's initial objective is to determine if job seekers are articulate, telephone personable and qualified for an open position and whether, at least at the most basic level, they will fit in well with a department or office. Typically, an interviewer will place a telephone call or send an e-mail to job seekers to schedule telephone interviews. When scheduling a telephone interview, job seekers should ascertain how long an interview is expected to last, verify who will be initiating the call, obtain or provide an appropriate telephone number, then block off the appropriate calendar time. Always allow a little extra time for telephone interruptions or for a conversation that runs long. Job seekers receiving a voice message or an e-mail requesting availability for a telephone interview must respond quickly. If you have been away or received a request late in the evening, it is best to respond immediately, even if the response is made after regular business hours.
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