Acing a Phone Interview: The New Trouble on the Line

By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN

Job seekers, beware the telephone.

For years, the phone interview was a preliminary step that allowed
an employer to give a candidate the once-over and schedule an in-person
interview. But these days, many recruiters are using the phone
interview to pose the kinds of in-depth questions previously reserved
for finalists. What's more, job hunters say the bar for getting to the
next level has been raised much higher, catching many of them off-guard.

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In
a recent first interview for a senior marketing job, Robyn Cobb was
grilled by a hiring manager for an hour and a half on topics ranging
from her work history and marketing philosophy to her knowledge of the
company and its industry.

"I thought it was never going to end," says the 45-year-old Ms.
Cobb, who lives in Alpharetta, Ga., and was laid off in December from a
midsize communications firm.

Until recently, candidates could often breeze through most phone
interviews in 10 minutes or less by answering a few softball questions.
Little preparation was necessary, and most people could expect to be
invited for a "real" interview before hanging up.

These days, job hunters are finding that they need to reserve an
hour or more for a phone interview. They may be asked to discuss their
full work history, including the exact dates of their experience in
various business areas. They may also be expected to cite examples and
exact stats that illustrate their strengths and offer details on how
they would handle the position.

During a call earlier this year about a
director-of-Internet-marketing job, Jaclyn Agy of Wheat Ridge, Colo.,
says she was asked to describe about 10 different marketing initiatives
she's worked on, plus provide metrics resulting from each. "I didn't
have those stats off the top of my head," she recalls of the hour-long
conversation. "I expected to be asked that in a face-to-face."

Some
job recruiters are starting to screen job applicants over the phone.
Clarity Media Group CEO Bill McGowan explains how to avoid a few common
mistakes.

Ms. Agy, 30, says she assumed she'd need
only to describe two or three past accomplishments in general terms. "I
was taken back by how specific [the interviewer] was getting," she
says. Ms. Agy was better prepared for a follow-up phone interview. She
was later invited to meet with eight members of the hiring company in
its Denver office, though she didn't land the position.

Employers say they've raised the phone-interview stakes in part
because they're attracting more candidates who meet their basic
qualifications. They're digging deep to identify the best ones, and in
some cases adding second-round rigor to phone screens as one way to
accomplish that.

"You can be pickier," says Joyce A. Foster, vice president of human
resources at Hilex Poly Co. LLC in Hartsville, S.C. Salaried job
openings at the company's 10 U.S. locations have been attracting up to
three times as many qualified applicants -- including more candidates
with experience in Hilex's niche, plastic film and bag manufacturing
and recycling -- than during more robust economic times, she says.

"Before, if a person had only recycling experience in paper, we
might have said OK," Ms. Foster says. "Today we can be more specific.
I'm going to find someone who's an even better fit."

Recruiters are also seeking to weed out those who seem likely to
change jobs as soon as the economy turns around. "We're trying to
determine whether what we're offering truly meets their long-term
objectives," says Paul Newman, assistant vice president of human
resources at OppenheimerFunds. And when it comes to candidates who were
laid off, recruiters for the New York-based asset-management firm want
to know the circumstances behind what happened. "Was this person a
high-performance, talented individual who was let go because of the
economics of the business," he says, "or an average employee let go in
the first round" of layoffs?

For many firms, evaluating candidates over the phone also serves as
a way to save on recruiting costs. "In this economy, you can't afford
to fly every person out for an interview," says Jeff Cousens, vice
president of organizational development at Patrick Energy Services Inc.
in Lisle, Ill. After joining the energy concern in January, he
instructed recruiters to complete up to four comprehensive phone
interviews with candidates before inviting finalists in. Previously,
they made just one brief call, mainly to schedule in-person interviews.
"When a candidate comes in to meet the hiring manager, recruiters have
already gone through every detail to make sure they're a fit," says Mr.
Cousens.

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Jason Schneider

Job
seekers should prepare for a phone interview as seriously as they do
for an in-person one. When asked about your qualifications, for
example, you can craft a better answer by asking what the company wants
and why, says J.T. O'Donnell, a career strategist in North Hampton, N.H.

If you're asked how many years of experience you have with a program
you have used extensively, but not for years, you could reply by asking
how much is required and at what level, says Ms. O'Donnell. Maybe the
company chose a number based on how much experience the last person in
the position had, and you might have just as much, but in a condensed
time frame. You can then provide a convincing reason as to why you
should be considered for the job even if your answer doesn't match
exactly what the recruiter is looking for.

You should also prepare to answer more complex and detailed
questions in phone interviews by creating a list of key statistics and
abbreviated answers to commonly asked questions, says Bill McGowan,
founder of communications-coaching firm Clarity Media Group Inc. Some
examples: What do you know about the company? Why do you want the job?
What are your greatest strengths? What are your career goals? How do
you see yourself fitting in?

"What traps a lot of people is they think and talk at the same time.
They make up answers on the fly," says Mr. McGowan. "It's better if you
know your conversational path."

Don't expect to defer answering questions to your first meeting with
a hiring manager, says Maureen Crawford Hentz, a talent-acquisition
manager at Danvers, Mass.-based lighting manufacturer Osram Sylvania
Inc. That may have been the case in the past, but not now. "People
think if you're talking to someone in HR, this isn't a real interview,"
she says. But these days, it might be your only shot.

Be sure to brush up on your phone etiquette, too. Ms. Crawford Hentz
says candidates have put her on hold while they answered another call
or tended to their children. Once she could tell a candidate was
visiting a drive-through restaurant during a call because she heard a
loudspeaker requesting the person's lunch order.

Finally, be mindful of common faux pas, such as giving long-winded
answers that go off topic. "Sometimes the longer you talk, the more it
sounds like you're trying to explain your way through something," says
Mr. McGowan. "The most confident people don't need to drone on."
Another common flub: answering recruiters' questions before they've
finished speaking. Not only does that show disrespect, but it "makes it
seem like you have stocked, canned answers," he says.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com