The Phone Interview….. Don’t Blow It Off!

About 75% of the time the Job Interview process begins with a phone interview.  This is the opportunity to make your first impression with your new potential employer.  Yet, not only do many job seekers put very preparation into this essential step in the interview process – they do not take this step seriously.   Job seekers need to understand that this step in the interview process is meant to weed people out.  The interviewer is looking for reasons to not move you forward in the process.  You as the job seeker have to provide them reasons why they need to move you forward to a face to face interview.

Your goal for the phone interview is to be moved forward to the 2nd step in the interview process which is normally a face to face interview with a General Manager or District Manager.  This is when you will be able to meet with an operator and talk in more detail about your restaurant management operations experience

Homework

Most of the time the initial phone interview will be with the member of the Human Resources team, either a Human Resources Manager of a Management Recruiter.   It is essential that you have done research on the company that you are interviewing with.   The basic first step is to go directly to the company’s website and spend a minimum of 15 minutes perusing all of the pages of the website.  There is a ton of pertinent information that you can pull from a company’s website.   Restaurant companies website’s are designed as marketing collateral for their brand.  They will most times show what and where future growth will be, what the company’s mission statement is,  what their core values are.  You will be able to pull a lot of information from these pages, and even gather some buzz words that you can incorporate into your initial phone interview.

Taking it one step further, it is mandatory that you visit a location and dine with the company that you are interviewing with prior to an initial phone interview.  You need to have a recent, firsthand dining experience with the company so you have an informed base of knowledge from which to refer to during this interview.  This simple step will show the potential employer that you are serious about wanting to work for this company, and it will set you apart from most of the other candidates interviewing for this position.

Phone Interview DO’s and DON’Ts

Below is a list of phone interview do’s and don’ts.  Many may seem like basic common sense, but trust me when I tell you that I pull these from real life experience that clients have told me about candidates.

• Be sure to schedule the Job Interview time when you will be at your best.  If you are doing a closing shift, and getting home from work at 3AM – DO NOT set an interview for 8AM the following morning.
• DO NOT set a phone interview time while you are at work – thinking that you will have time to step outside for the phone interview.  DO set it on a day off.
• DO NOT set a phone interview time when you know you will be driving, or shopping, or in a public place with lots of background noise
• DO answer the phone at the designated interview time.  DO NOT be talking to someone on the other line, run to the bathroom, or tell the interviewer that you will “call them right back”
• DO remain positive about your previous employers.  No matter how bad it was, potential employers do not want to hear negatives about your previous employers.  They will pass on you every time if you are negative.

Susan Adams,

If you’re a single parent with five kids, or caring for a gravely ill relative, or dealing with a serious medical condition–what do you say and when?

You’re interviewing for a job and you know you may need time away from the office to care for your children, or for your terminally ill mother, or for your own serious medical condition. What and when do you tell your potential boss? Vicki Brackett, who runs Make It Happen for Women, a firm in Denver that professes to do “job search makeovers,” takes a hard-line stance. “You never tell an employer,” she says emphatically. “Never. Not until you’ve been there a while.”

Especially in this job market, she adds. The competition for jobs is so fierce that employers will always go for the candidate they believe can work the longest and hardest. “What employer wants to hire someone who’s not going to be there?” she asks.

What To Reveal During Your Job Search

Many job seekers, especially women, want to find a job that fits their life, rather than the other way around, Brackett says: “What women want most is a culture that works for them. They make the mistake of thinking that other women are going to understand, or that employers will care. It could be that the woman who’s interviewing you barely got to work in the morning because of problems at home. She doesn’t want to hire someone who has problems at home too.”

Brackett advises that as a job candidate you focus on proving your value to an employer, not only throughout the job search but even in the first months on the job. Some companies don’t firm up their hires until an initial trial period of 90 days has come to a close. Only then should the employee consider asking for flextime. Frame the request by describing how it will benefit the company. “You should say, ‘It’s something that can help me be more effective,’” Brackett advises. “Every discussion should be about the company.”

Stay away from chatter about your personal life, including seemingly harmless topics, she also advises. Even if you just returned from a fabulous two-week honeymoon in Italy, keep that to yourself. “The boss may think, here’s someone who takes long, expensive vacations. She’s going to want a lot of time off.”

Though it may seem a smart move to form a personal bond with an interviewer, avoid the temptation, Brackett says. A harried employer can view even do-gooding work outside the office as a liability these days, she adds. “If you say you’ve been out banging nails for Habitat for Humanity, the employer might think, she’s going to want time off to do that.” Only bring up non-work subjects if you’ve done your homework and you know, for instance, that the company encourages employees to do volunteer jobs.

Keep in mind that employers are forbidden by law to ask most personal questions. Kathleen McKenna, a partner in the labor practice at the law firm Proskauer Rose, says that both federal and local statutes forbid job interviewers from asking about marital or family status, or about medical conditions. The only exception comes when a medical condition may directly affect the candidate’s ability to do the job. “If someone comes in in a wheelchair and you’re hiring for a pole-vaulting position, then you can ask, ‘Exactly how do you see this working for you?’” McKenna says.

Not all career coaches agree with Brackett’s zero-disclosure policy. Win Sheffield, a coach in New York City, says, “The way I look at the job interview process, it’s about three things: Can you do the job, is it a job you want, and will you fit at the company.” If you realize during the search process that a special medical condition or family circumstance will make for a bad fit, then speak up, Sheffield says, or at least be honest with yourself. If you don’t, you may wind up feeling you betrayed yourself–or your employer may feel you betrayed her.

Anita Attridge, a New Jersey career coach, says she has counseled candidates with special circumstances about grappling with whether they may in fact need a part-time, rather than full-time, position. Nowadays full-time really means full-time, she points out. “The expectation is that you come in and you’re immediately ready to go,” she says. “Everyone has really tightened down their head counts. They don’t have the option to accommodate people’s special needs.”