Great news! All your job search activities have paid off and you’ve landed a telephone interview with a prospective employer.

How to avoid being eliminated during the telephone interview

Eighty percent of human communication is body language: eye contact, facial expressions, the way you move your hands, your behaviors, the way you sit or stand, etc.—and all of this is missing during the phone conversation. Though these “body language” signals are missing, you still have these three powerful tools at your disposal: vocality, tonality, and content.

Vocality: The quality and structure of your language. This includes such things as your choice of words and sentence structure, and your ability to demonstrate a solid, consistent thought process.

Tonality: Your enthusiasm, energy level, and word enunciation. A technique often overlooked in both telephone and face-to-face interviews is mirroring. While you must demonstrate enthusiasm, you also want to pattern the rhythm and tone of your communication to that of the interviewer. If the interviewer is slow and soft in his or her speech, you should mirror that. If the interviewer is fast or loud, pick up your pace and volume.

Content: You only get one shot to avoid exclusion and the opportunity to move to round two, and that is why you don’t want to get forced into an interview you are not yet prepared to have. Here is how to adequately prepare for the telephone interview, as well as how to respond/react during the interview:

• By scheduling the call, you now have time to research the company and the position. Learn the employer’s “hot buttons” and then sell them what you know they need, i.e., tell them how you can either make ’em money, save ’em money, or both.
• Review news releases and other public information about the company, its website, and social media channels. Learn about any new product releases, awards, special recognitions, etc…
• If they don’t outwardly tell you who will be on the call, feel free to ask. Once you find out, do a quick LinkedIn or Google search to learn a little more about their background, how long they’ve been at the company, etc..
• Try to refrain from compensation questions during this round. If you are asked about your salary expectations, you can ask them what range they are offering for the position. You can also say that you would like to learn more about the opportunity and the team before discussing compensation.
• Come prepared with 3-5 questions written down. You can make it a mix of company and personal questions, like “What would the first 30 days in this position look like?” and “What has been your favorite thing about working here?”
• Try to use strong, positive phrases like “I know…” instead of “I think…”
• Never speak negatively of anyone or anything – a former boss, coworker, or company.
• Always emphasize why you want to go work for the company you are interviewing with, and not why you want to leave your current employer.
• Do not try to evade any questions. If you don’t know the answer to any particular question, say so. Or, if they ask about a skill or program you don’t have/know, you can say that you are eager to learn.
• If something doesn’t sound good to you, make a note of it, but don’t argue or confront the interviewer.
• Close out the interview by thanking them for their time, asking about the next steps, and that you are excited about the opportunity.
• Avoid mention of anything personal, e.g., marital status, sexual orientation, state of your health, etc…

As you can see, there is significantly more involved in the telephone interview than what the typical job hunter supposes or expects. If you will follow the advice in this article, as well as do the necessary “homework” to adequately prepare for the telephone interview, you will brand yourself as being considerably more than “just another applicant.” You’ll certainly be perceived as more than just another person to be excluded as quickly as possible during this initial stage of the hiring process. Indeed, you will be just that much farther along toward turning your job search into a job FOUND!