Thursday, February 12, 2009

Phone Interviews

One of you asked about phone interviews, so here are a few quick thoughts.

Phone interviews are usually a candidates first official interviews with a bank, and are usually conducted by people in HR. Occasionally they will be conducted by analysts or associates who are usually alumni of the school. Interview questions are just about the same on the phone as they are in person for a first round interview, so make sure you can answer the big three:

(1) Walk me through your resume / tell me your story.
(2) Why banking?
(3) Why [insert name of bank conducting interview]?

You might get a few technical questions, but especially if it's somebody from HR, you probably won't get anything too deep, so just know the basic Vault Guide stuff and you'll be fine. The big focus will be fit.

Phone interviews present unique challenges and benefits to you as the person being interviewed. For one thing, it's a lot harder to get your personality across over the phone. You have to try extra hard to be animated without sounding like a cartoon. On the phone, though, it is easy to sound like a robot so be conscious of your tone and vary it as you describe different things.

Another challenge is that you can't see your interviewer, so you don't know how they are responding to what you're saying other than how they inflect their voice. It's still a good idea to use humor and be easy going, but pay more attention than normal to how they are responding to you.

One of the benefits of a phone interview is that you can have all of your information right there in front of you. You should never be stumped by a question on a phone interview. Usually before an interview, I'll get out my phone interview resume. This is my normal resume, but with examples of different stories or qualities that are related to every bullet. It's actually about three pages long, but I never have to scramble to come up with a story to tell about X experience because I have it right there in front of me.

I'll also have all of the information about the company, including awards they've won, their stock price, recent deal information, and my reasons for wanting to work at that bank. I have a calculator there, a blank page with a pen, and the name of my interviewer all right in front of me (side note - if you use the calculator, make sure to do it quietly - you don't want them thinking you're not paying attention. Same goes with using a computer - don't type while you're on the phone because it's distracting and they can hear it.

Normal principles of good interviewing still apply. I even will wear my suit for the phone interview because it helps me to remember to be professional and not too casual. Make sure you have a reliable number for them to call, and don't have a stupid voice mail message, just in case you miss their call.

Good luck with the interviews!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post! What do think about the top restructuring groups? Do you have any friends in that field? Could you write something on this? Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Hi, Have you ever had to pass an assessment centre? It is becoming usual in Europe and Asia, like the Superday but with more group cases, sometimes presentations, panels, more competency questions...

Anonymous said...

In one of my interviews I was asked:"If I give you an offer now, will you take it?" How would you answer this question?

Unknown said...

Thanks for this! It was just in time, since I have my first phone interview early next week. I've been reading you blog for a while now and I'm really appreciating your interviewing tips since it's that season now.