I’m on a Phone Interview & Losing It
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Here’s how to handle a situation when you’re feeling flustered or losing the interview.
Stupid Resume Mistakes: Focusing on the Wrong Thing
I was working with someone yesterday who asked me about how to handle situations where they feel flustered.
Feeling flustered often comes from a lack of preparation. Thus, you wind up in situations where you just don’t perform. Frankly, I believe for most individuals, if you took more time to rehearse answers to predictable questions, the number of circumstances where you feel flustered were losing the phone interview would decline quickly.
Proper Preparation Prevents ________ Performance. The full sentence is, “Proper preparation prevents piss-poor performance.”
Here’s what I always suggest that people do. Have you ever been on a call with someone who says, “Hold on 1 second. Someone’s interrupting me. Can you bear with me for a moment?” The call goes on hold, they come back and you pick up the conversation. Why not apply the same tactic here?
You’re feeling a little bit off. You feel like the interviewee is going south on you. You need to pull yourself back together again and don’t want to feel worked up. As soon as you send sense it, you say, “Could you bear with me for just a few seconds? Someone just walked in and I need to handle the situation.” You put them on hold or mute the call and what you do is take a few deep breaths, focus on what you have to do . . . Do that for 5 seconds. That’s enough time. You can do it in 5 seconds. You can put yourself back together and come back to the call, ready to continue.
Stupid Interview Mistakes: You Don’t Shut Up
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
People hire Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter to provide No BS Career Advice globally because he makes many things in peoples’ career easier. Those things
can involve job search, hiring more effectively, managing and leading better, career transition, as well as advice about resolving workplace issues.
Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us
He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2600 episodes.
Website: https://www.TheBigGameHunter.us (schedule a paid coaching session, a free discovery call or ask questions using my Trusted Adviser Services)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/TheBigGameHunter
Courses: https://www.TheBigGameHunter.us/courses
Main YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jobsearchtv
No BS Job Search Advice Radio Podcast: https://anchor.fm/nobsjobsearchadviceradio
Video Podcast of No BS Job Search Advice Radio: Spotify
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffaltmancoach
Medium: jeffaltmancoach.medium.com
Resume & LinkedIn Profile critiques www.TheBigGameHunter.us/critiques
We grant permission for this post and others to be used on your website as long as a backlink is included to www.TheBigGameHunter.us and notice is provided that it is provided by Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter as an author or creator.
Great advice!
Thanks for the kind words, Matt. I appreciate it.
Great advice!
Thanks for the kind words, Matt. I appreciate it.
I plan my phone interviews on Fridays these days for the simple reason I can observe the recruiter at the point in their week when they either have made their weekly call quota and are in a good mood or are in a mood to exit the office and they drop their guard.
For the same reasons I never allow a hiring manager to do an interview on an afternoon on Thursday or Friday – there is no buy-in or the interview is a great way to duck away for a while.
Another way ‘out’ of an interview that has gone completely south (job responsibility doesn’t match the job description, conversation veers into highly uncomfortable territory, non-competes or NDAs are brought up as a prerequisite to continue ‘the process’) is to hang up on yourself while _you_ are talking.
+Maurice Levie, I love the “hang up on yourself” mid sentence. B;ame it on the cell phone.
I plan my phone interviews on Fridays these days for the simple reason I can observe the recruiter at the point in their week when they either have made their weekly call quota and are in a good mood or are in a mood to exit the office and they drop their guard.
For the same reasons I never allow a hiring manager to do an interview on an afternoon on Thursday or Friday – there is no buy-in or the interview is a great way to duck away for a while.
Another way ‘out’ of an interview that has gone completely south (job responsibility doesn’t match the job description, conversation veers into highly uncomfortable territory, non-competes or NDAs are brought up as a prerequisite to continue ‘the process’) is to hang up on yourself while _you_ are talking.
+Maurice Levie, I love the “hang up on yourself” mid sentence. B;ame it on the cell phone.