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Default Jun 21, 2019 at 01:17 PM
  #1


I thoroughly prepared for my phone interview this morning for an admin role with a global company that has a local office here in my city. The recruiter was really cold, aloof, and just asked me questions in a robotic fashion.

I understand that the goal of the recruiter with phone interviews, is to see how the candidate responds to questions and writes down the candidate's responses.

But this gal only asked me 3 relevant questions regarding my work history in the 30 minute phone interview. She didn't ask me to talk about my accomplishments or anything.

Almost is if she already decided she wasn't going to move me forward to the next stage, which is doing a live interview on site at the company office.

The 3 questions she asked me:

-name a time you had to deal with competing schedules (context: the admin role has to manage 5 execs calendars for travel and for meetings)

-what type of boss do you want to work for (I referenced my masters program course on leadership styles and the Northouse book on Leadership and went into detail about the types of leadership I respond best to vs. the "nice boss" generic answer and raved about my masters in leadership program and how it will inform me in admin roles etc.)

-how would you rate your knowledge of Excel, Access, PPT, Word (I tried to be glib and answered "Well, according to Kenexa I do..." and then I told her my scores for each one. She didn't even laugh. WHOOPS! No sense of humor, this recruiter. At all.

So, can anyone give me ANY TIPS on phone interviews?
  • I gave her a 2 minute overview of my 20 year work history.
  • I demonstrated that I could multitask and manage 5 execs competing schedules. I provided real life work examples in response to her questions.
  • I expressed clear enthusiasm for the role.
  • I even highlighted about 6 things I really like about this global company and referred to myself in their vernacular aka the nickname they give themselves. She didn't even chuckle when i did that or acknowledge how thoroughly I researched this global company.
  • I asked her about 5 questions related to the admin role too.
  • I sent her a very professional yet short thank you email after the phone interview too.

I just don't get it. What did I do wrong? Can recruiters already have bias and just go through the motions with candidates on the phone they aren't interested in? I feel like she sabotaged me somehow. I thought I did everything you're supposed to do in a phone interview.
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Default Jun 21, 2019 at 01:42 PM
  #2
Quote:
Originally Posted by StreetcarBlanche View Post


I thoroughly prepared for my phone interview this morning for an admin role with a global company that has a local office here in my city. The recruiter was really cold, aloof, and just asked me questions in a robotic fashion.

I understand that the goal of the recruiter with phone interviews, is to see how the candidate responds to questions and writes down the candidate's responses.

But this gal only asked me 3 relevant questions regarding my work history in the 30 minute phone interview. She didn't ask me to talk about my accomplishments or anything.

Almost is if she already decided she wasn't going to move me forward to the next stage, which is doing a live interview on site at the company office.

The 3 questions she asked me:

-name a time you had to deal with competing schedules (context: the admin role has to manage 5 execs calendars for travel and for meetings)

-what type of boss do you want to work for (I referenced my masters program course on leadership styles and the Northouse book on Leadership and went into detail about the types of leadership I respond best to vs. the "nice boss" generic answer and raved about my masters in leadership program and how it will inform me in admin roles etc.)

-how would you rate your knowledge of Excel, Access, PPT, Word (I tried to be glib and answered "Well, according to Kenexa I do..." and then I told her my scores for each one. She didn't even laugh. WHOOPS! No sense of humor, this recruiter. At all.

So, can anyone give me ANY TIPS on phone interviews?
  • I gave her a 2 minute overview of my 20 year work history.
  • I demonstrated that I could multitask and manage 5 execs competing schedules. I provided real life work examples in response to her questions.
  • I expressed clear enthusiasm for the role.
  • I even highlighted about 6 things I really like about this global company and referred to myself in their vernacular aka the nickname they give themselves. She didn't even chuckle when i did that or acknowledge how thoroughly I researched this global company.
  • I asked her about 5 questions related to the admin role too.
  • I sent her a very professional yet short thank you email after the phone interview too.

I just don't get it. What did I do wrong? Can recruiters already have bias and just go through the motions with candidates on the phone they aren't interested in? I feel like she sabotaged me somehow. I thought I did everything you're supposed to do in a phone interview.
I don't have experience in these thing because I am a 16 year old kid, but maybe that is just the way the recruiter handles the interview. It may not seem professional but it is there way about it. From what you posted here it seemed to me you nailed the interview especially given the fact that the interviewer didn't give you much help at all. I wish you all the luck in the world.
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Default Jun 21, 2019 at 02:11 PM
  #3
Quote:
Originally Posted by StreetcarBlanche View Post


I thoroughly prepared for my phone interview this morning for an admin role with a global company that has a local office here in my city. The recruiter was really cold, aloof, and just asked me questions in a robotic fashion.

I understand that the goal of the recruiter with phone interviews, is to see how the candidate responds to questions and writes down the candidate's responses.

But this gal only asked me 3 relevant questions regarding my work history in the 30 minute phone interview. She didn't ask me to talk about my accomplishments or anything.

Almost is if she already decided she wasn't going to move me forward to the next stage, which is doing a live interview on site at the company office.

The 3 questions she asked me:

-name a time you had to deal with competing schedules (context: the admin role has to manage 5 execs calendars for travel and for meetings)

-what type of boss do you want to work for (I referenced my masters program course on leadership styles and the Northouse book on Leadership and went into detail about the types of leadership I respond best to vs. the "nice boss" generic answer and raved about my masters in leadership program and how it will inform me in admin roles etc.)

-how would you rate your knowledge of Excel, Access, PPT, Word (I tried to be glib and answered "Well, according to Kenexa I do..." and then I told her my scores for each one. She didn't even laugh. WHOOPS! No sense of humor, this recruiter. At all.

So, can anyone give me ANY TIPS on phone interviews?
  • I gave her a 2 minute overview of my 20 year work history.
  • I demonstrated that I could multitask and manage 5 execs competing schedules. I provided real life work examples in response to her questions.
  • I expressed clear enthusiasm for the role.
  • I even highlighted about 6 things I really like about this global company and referred to myself in their vernacular aka the nickname they give themselves. She didn't even chuckle when i did that or acknowledge how thoroughly I researched this global company.
  • I asked her about 5 questions related to the admin role too.
  • I sent her a very professional yet short thank you email after the phone interview too.

I just don't get it. What did I do wrong? Can recruiters already have bias and just go through the motions with candidates on the phone they aren't interested in? I feel like she sabotaged me somehow. I thought I did everything you're supposed to do in a phone interview.
Do you know she didn't advance you to the next round or are you just assuming right now?

As a hiring manager, phone interviews are to weed people out. They are generally to make sure a few certain skills are confirmed before we even bother bringing them in.

It sounds like content wise you had all the right responses ready to go. My only suggestion would be no joking in the future. The HR recruiter is going through a number of phone screenings in a day and just needs to get certain questions answered. You also can't see the other person when it's a phone interview so you can't read body language and tell if joking is appropriate. My suggestion would to be professional, polite, cordial, and keep all aspects of personality (humor, sarcasm, whatever, not saying you were sarcastic or anything, just an example) at bay. Be beige. Lol.

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Default Jun 21, 2019 at 02:52 PM
  #4
Ive been told by bosses that i wasnt professional enough. After being a team leader myself, i can tell you, the last thing i wanted to do was respond to a report's jokes.

So maybe they were interviewing for a very professional person who wouldnt joke around. Not really a people person. If youre more of a people person, face it, we wouldnt be happy in those kinds of jobs. Not that we couldnt force ourselves to do them, but its really no good trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. It only gets us into more trouble.
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Default Jun 21, 2019 at 04:53 PM
  #5
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Originally Posted by Misery Business View Post
I don't have experience in these thing because I am a 16 year old kid, but maybe that is just the way the recruiter handles the interview. It may not seem professional but it is there way about it. From what you posted here it seemed to me you nailed the interview especially given the fact that the interviewer didn't give you much help at all. I wish you all the luck in the world.
Thank you for support regardless of your young age, Misery Business. I hope you can find a summer job that you will enjoy. My brother used to work at the movie theater in high school; that meant we always got to go to free movies. So, there's definite perks to working at a movie theater. Good luck!

Quote:
Originally Posted by seesaw View Post
Do you know she didn't advance you to the next round or are you just assuming right now?

As a hiring manager, phone interviews are to weed people out. They are generally to make sure a few certain skills are confirmed before we even bother bringing them in.

It sounds like content wise you had all the right responses ready to go. My only suggestion would be no joking in the future. The HR recruiter is going through a number of phone screenings in a day and just needs to get certain questions answered. You also can't see the other person when it's a phone interview so you can't read body language and tell if joking is appropriate.

My suggestion would to be professional, polite, cordial, and keep all aspects of personality (humor, sarcasm, whatever, not saying you were sarcastic or anything, just an example) at bay. Be beige. Lol.
No, but her tone led me to the assumption that she was not happy with my attempt at making a joke. Be beige. Lol. I wish someone had told me to do that. I was very rainbow-esque today on the phone. Not beige at all! Whoops!

Quote:
Originally Posted by unaluna View Post
Ive been told by bosses that i wasnt professional enough. After being a team leader myself, i can tell you, the last thing i wanted to do was respond to a report's jokes.

So maybe they were interviewing for a very professional person who wouldnt joke around. Not really a people person. If youre more of a people person, face it, we wouldnt be happy in those kinds of jobs. Not that we couldnt force ourselves to do them, but its really no good trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. It only gets us into more trouble.
I think you may be on to something unaluna. The job is 90% managing calendars for five execs who travel most of the time and so they will rarely be in the office. Not exactly a great job for a people-person like myself, who needs face to face contact in a work setting to feel stimulated, happy, fulfilled and valued. This is more of an "automaton" admin role, where the majority of communication is via an instant messaging system and not face to face.

I'm definitely a square peg and this job is a round hole. Probably not a good fit for me in the long run, because despite the awesome salary I know I'd be miserable there.

When I asked the recruiter what this company does to support the local community she said she wasn't sure. And when I asked her about the work culture, she said it was very much a whiskey Fridays boys club. Um, definitely not an environment for a gal like myself.

The global company that owns this smaller company is where I want to work but they don't have any direct hire jobs located in my city. They buy smaller companies and run them as a global management consulting company. Their work culture is 1000x better and they have offices in every country practically.

I think I will go back on their website and see if they have any other kinds of jobs that would be more suitable for a square peg like myself. Clearly, this admin. role would not be a good fit. My first phone interview in many years . Now I know: be beige. Not rainbow.
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