Telephone interviews are an inexpensive and quick way for employers to screen prospective job candidates. Generally speaking, employers use phone interviews to verify that a candidate’s personal information, qualifications and skill sets in his/her curriculum vitae is correct, accurate and consistent with what employers may have learned about an applicant online. Another use of phone interviews is to determine whether or not a job candidate has the requisite oral communications skills required to perform the job that he/she applied for. Finally, and perhaps more nefariously, telephone interviews can allow employers to garner insight into a job candidate’s race, ethnicity or national origin (this can easily be discerned by accents, speech patterns and colloquial use of English) and immigration status.
In today’s tight job market, an outstanding command of the English language and permanent residency or U.S. citizenship are what many American employers prefer in permanent, full-time employees. However, this does not mean that well-qualified, non-native English speakers will not be invited to participate in a face-to-face job interview. To increase the possibility of a face-to-face, job candidates can do a variety of things to prepare for and optimize his/her performance during phone interviews.
These include:
