I had a phone interiew with a RIA this afternoon and I’m not sure if it was bad or if I’m just being a little pessimistic right now. I conferenced in with two different managers and I thought we had reasonably good rapport. They asked a couple of general questions like “tell us about yourself”…“why do you want to work here?”…etc. I then asked what they expected out of an employee, etc. I didn’t think there was anything really negative being said, but they didn’t ask many detailed questions. There was some laughter exchanged on the call, which I take as a good thing, but their didn’t seem to be a whole lot of interest outside general questions. I did stammer a few times during the call, but I don’t believe it was all that bad. They ended the call telling me they were just going through their initial screenings right now and will be setting up in person interviews in the next week or so. They said they hope to be in touch with me. This was my first phone interview ever… the other jobs I have had have always been 1 interview in person and that was it. I’m thinking this may be normal, but I just expected to have something set up right then and there. Maybe that’s not how it works. I was just a little concerned that after they asked me those general questions they didn’t ask much else although they did talk about the position and the company. The call lasted 20 minutes or so. I know it’s kind of hard to say without being there, but how do you think this went? What are your guys experiences with phone interviews?
ive had hundreds of phone interviews (including some) with hard ass CFAs and scumbag MDs. and ive interviewed candidates as part of the hiring process.
its less about your interview and more about about you compare to the candidate pool.
^ Agreed.
The competitiveness of the field should not be underestimated. Sometimes I feel I killed it and never received a call back and vice versa.
Most phone interviews I’ve had were just making sure I wasn’t a total idiot and that my resume wasn’t completely made up. Rarely have they cared about much else other than brief conversation and making sure I wanted the job.
Did you get a call back?
Agree with what’s been said above. Phone interviews are usually done as a first screen, so the pool of candidates could be quite large.
I interviewed for a place back in May by phone, got along really well with the guy, he even said that he thought I’d be a really good fit in the team, then asked me what I did for fun in my spare time, and even told me hints on what to expect with the next guy who would interview me. I was sure I had it in the bag, was already picturing myself in the job, and then a couple of days later I got a really generic email saying “Sorry, but we will not be continuing the interview process…blah blah blah”. Hit me really hard. I called the HR person I’d been talking to and asked for feedback saying that I’d thought it went really well. She just said that they had someone else who more suited than me. Just the way it is and especially in this environment.