Never Fail Your Phone Interview Again

If you read this blog post carefully and apply the learnings, then we promise you will never fail your phone interview or your initial recruiter round again. Ok, we can’t guarantee that. But we're sure you’ll feel more confident for your next recruiter round. 

But why are we so confident about this? 

Who are we? I am Priya and I work for Google and have done hiring for many teams. Darshan, the founder of itsokyaar, works for indeed and is very tapped into the job market and understands the nuances of recruitment so we decided to combine our knowledge and share it all with you! 

Here’s what we are going to share in this blog post:

1. What is the recruiter looking for in this round?

2. What is the most important question in this round? It’s something you all love to hate

3. How to prepare for that question

4. Some other important questions and how to answer them

5. Next Steps

So, let’s get started. 

What is the recruiter looking for in this round?

There are times when the recruiter shortlists a few resumes and shares them with the hiring manager, and your first round will directly be with the hiring manager or with someone in the hiring team. 

But there are times when the recruiter shortlists a bunch of resumes and they don’t want to overwhelm the hiring manager with that many interviews. So,  they do an initial screening with the candidate to filter out a few more people before they share their profiles with the hiring manager. Now, this process may vary from company to company. But it’s good to have this overall understanding of the initial hiring process. 

Now that we have this context, let’s understand what this round is for. The recruiter will usually use this opportunity to:

• Describe the company and the position they’re hiring for

• Ask questions to see if you meet the basic requirements for the role, 

• if the position matches what you are looking for and if you are genuinely interested in pursuing the role

• Answer any questions that you may have about the company, role, or hiring process

From their questions, they try  to gather basic information about your- 

1. skills

2. experience 

3. Personality & communication

4. Culture fit

5. Your salary expectations

And they do this by asking you certain questions. And you know what their favorite question is? “Tell Me About Yourself”

One question that we all hate from the bottom of our hearts, right? The first thing that comes to our mind when a recruiter asks us this question is “It’s all in my resume if you bothered to read it”.

Well, we want to break this myth for you. 90% of the time, the recruiter HAS read your resume. They’re not winging it, unlike a lot of us.  You can be sure that a copy of your Resume is in front of them while they’re talking to you.

They ask this question to understand 2 things about you:

1. Your communication skills

2. Are you fit for the role

What do we mean by this?

Believe it or not, your job will require you to communicate with others. It could be sharing updates, or managing a team or asking relevant questions. The most basic test that recruiters apply to check your communication is whether you can speak about yourself and your past work for a minute or so. And from your answer and your work history, they can gauge if you’re somewhat fit for the role or not. 

Now that we’ve understood why this question is asked, let's try to understand how to answer this question. You’ll find a ton of content on the Internet suggesting different ways to answer this question. But the format that works best for me is: Present, Past, Future. 

So, what is the Present, Past, Future format?

Divide your answer about “Tell Me About Yourself” into 3 sections. In the first part, you talk about your present job. It should include a couple of lines about your role, where you work, and a couple of key responsibilities in that role. 

Next, you talk to them about your past roles. If you’ve had multiple jobs in the past, only talk about the roles that are most relevant to the role you’re interviewing for. 

For example, If I’ve worked as a Software developer earlier, but my past 2 roles have all been as a Marketing specialist. Then in my answer, I would not talk about my experience as a software developer as it’s not relevant to the role I'm interviewing for. 

Before moving to the final section of your answer, if there’s something about yourself that is not related to all your previous jobs but it’s something that you think makes your profile stronger and you want the recruiter to know, then add it here. 

And finally, conclude by sharing a couple of lines about your future aspirations and how the role you’re interviewing for will help you in it. 

So, let’s summarize the format:

• Present: a couple of lines about your current role and key responsibilities

• Past: 3-4 lines about your previous relevant work experience

• Filler line to share something personal you want them to know

• Future: Your career aspirations and how this role will help you in it.

The format remains the same for an international student on an F1 visa as well. 

You start with your current Majors and university, and some key projects you’ve worked on. Then share about your previous work experience if any and share what your career aspirations are and how this role can be a stepping stone towards it. 

Here’s a sample answer:

Hi, I am a senior creative strategist with a decade of global experience in broadcast companies, OTT platforms as well as startups. Currently I am working with an IoT-based startup in the hospitality industry where I’m focused on producing product videos, building a team of content writers, and creating a social media strategy. 

Previously, I’ve worked with Sony Pictures as a Content Manager, where I handled all things content, including some large OTT productions as well as content acquisitions.

After moving to the US in 2019, I joined a social media platform for Immigrants, Home is, because I believed in the mission of helping immigrants, wanted to explore the startup space, and was getting the opportunity to work directly with the CEO. 

Since I’m very close to the cause of helping Immigrants, when homeis shut down, I created my own content platform – It’s Ok Yaar, which creates content for South Asian Immigrants. I work on it in my free time.

I’m looking for roles that keep me motivated and continuously challenge me to reinvent myself and that’s what brings me here today for this exciting opportunity.

If you’ve followed us on Instagram, you probably know that this is Darshan’s “Tell Me About Yourself” that he used to get a job at Indeed as a Creative Strategist. 

Now that we’ve understood how to answer this question, we want you to write your answer and share in the comments. And we’ll help you polish it. 

And here’s the main tip. After writing down this answer, memorize it. Practice saying it out loud, either in front of the mirror or record yourself saying this answer. And keep on repeating. Memorize this to such an extent that you should be able to answer this confidently even if someone wakes you up at 2 am in the night. 

But why are we asking you to memorize it?

Because this is your elevator pitch. It needs to be perfect. If the recruiter likes this answer 80% of the battle is already won. 

And here’s what an answer like this does:

• It establishes you as articulate and confident

• It shows you know exactly what you’re doing

• Most importantly. It shows that you’re fit for the role

Like I said, once you’ve answered this question, even you’ll feel confident, and half the battle is won. After this, the recruiter will probably ask 2-3 more questions and then allow you to ask a few questions. 

So, let us discuss some of those questions, how to answer those questions and what questions you should be asking at the end of the interview.  Typically, here are some of the questions that you will be asked:

1. Why are you looking for a new role?

2. Why are you interested in this role?

3. What are your salary expectations?

4. Do you have any questions for me?

Remember, by now if you’ve answered your “Tell me about yourself” confidently and established a role fit then the recruiter is rooting for you. They already like you. So, unless they find any major red flags in your next few answers, you have a good chance of progressing to the next stage. 

So, let’s understand how to answer these questions.

Why are you looking for a new role?

If you frame your answer carefully, it will help you answer this question but will also include the answer to the next question, “why are you interested in this role?”

But before I share how to answer this question, it is important to understand why this question is being asked. Basically, the recruiter wants to know if the reason you’re leaving your current role could also be the reason why you’ll leave this new role. 

For example, if you’re leaving because there’s no upward mobility in your current role and the role they’re hiring for also doesn’t have that opportunity, then there are high chances you’ll end up quitting that role soon. Please note that it’s completely ok to say that you’re leaving because you need to grow in your career. But if the role you’re applying for doesn’t offer that, chances are you won’t get through. But we think it’s for the best, right? 

Another reason they ask this question is that they want to know if you are able to keep your emotions in check. If you are respectful of your current employer and avoid personal attacks, it shows maturity and professionalism.

And here are a couple of ways you can answer this question:

1. I've worked for XYZ for more than eight years and, in that time, I've gained both responsibilities and promotions. I've learned a lot about the world of marketing in that company. However, I don't believe I can continue to develop here as there are no more progression opportunities. I am, therefore, looking for a role in a larger company. When I came across this position online, it felt like a great fit, and I’m confident that I can use all my previous experience to good use to help grow the company and my career as well.

You see how at the end of this example, we added another line about the current role and why you’re interested in it? If the recruiter likes this answer, then they won’t ask you about your interest in the role. 

Here’s another example:

2. "I am in the process of relocating to [New Location] due to [personal/family reasons, such as closer proximity to family, spouse's job, etc.]. This move is important to me personally, and I'm equally committed to ensuring it's a positive step professionally. I'm excited about the prospect of joining [New Company] as it aligns perfectly with my career goals and also allows me to be in the desired geographic area."

This is a great answer for a lot of my audience because I know a lot of you have moved from India and this is a very reasonable answer. Darshan said he’s looking for job security because he’s been working for startups for the past 3 years and considering the current economic situation he wanted to move to a role that provides him more job security. 

The next question is:

What are your salary expectations?

Over the past couple of years, most companies have shared a salary range. And while some companies end up sharing ridiculous ranges, it’s still a step in the right direction. And it also gives us a starting point. One of the best things about the US is that your new salary is not dependent on your previous salary. It is dependent on your negotiation skills. We’ll discuss that too in detail in another video. 

Based on your experience, you can decide whether you fall on the lower end of the salary range or the higher end or somewhere in the middle.

And you can say something like:

“Based on my skills and experience and the current salary range for this role in the market I think I’ll be comfortable with something on the higher side of your salary range for this role. I’m open to negotiating this based on the other factors such as stocks, joining bonus etc at a later stage:

The idea is to aim high and not commit to a number at this time. And this brings us to the last question of the interview. But don’t rest just yet. Because this is important. Finally, the recruiter will ask: Do you have any questions for me? Please don’t say I don’t have any questions. As Indians, we’re generally not used to asking questions. We don’t want to offend anyone by asking questions. We think that if we ask questions, then they may think that we’ve not completely understood everything they were trying to explain. But that’s not the case. 

In the US. is is preferred that you always ask questions at the end of the interview. It means that you’re interested in the role and the company, and you want to know more about them. If you say you don’t have any questions, they may feel that you’re not interested in the role or the company and that you’re just wasting their time. 

So, it’s best to ask some questions. Make sure to not ask any technical questions. Preserve those questions for the hiring manager. This is an opportunity to ask questions about the company, its culture and a few other things. With this, here are some questions that you can ask them. 

1. What is your favorite part of working at this company?

2. What does success look like for this role?

3. What is the biggest challenge the team is facing currently?

4. Is this a new role or is this a back fill? 

5. What is the growth trajectory for this role? 

6. Is there something in my profile that will restrict you from hiring me?
   

The last one is a great question because, based on the answer, you’ll know what your chances are and if there’s anything that you need to work on before the next interview. 

One other important question to ask before the end of the interview is, “What are the next steps?”

Based on their answer, you can assume a couple of scenarios. If they say they’ll get back to you, chances are they didn’t like you that much or they’re confused. If they say that they’ll share your profile with the hiring manager and you can expect a response within the next couple of days, they like you but they usually rely on the hiring manager to take the call. If they’ve really liked you, they will say that they’ll share the details of the next round in a day and they will also share some tips to prepare for that round. 

Now obviously, that is not the case 100% of the time but largely that’s pretty much the case with most recruiters I’ve interacted with. Remember to send a Thank You Email within 24 hours, and try to mention at least 1 instance from your conversation that you enjoyed in that email. The Thank You Email also allows you to share any additional information about yourself that you want them to know, but didn’t have the opportunity to share during the interview. 

And that’s it for today. 

We hope that you’ve found this blog post helpful. We can confidently say that if you follow the tips shared in this post, especially on How to prepare: Tell me about yourself, you will almost always clear the recruiter round in the future. In our next video of this series, I will discuss the interview round with the hiring manager, how to answer behavioral questions and more.   

And if things aren’t going well for you. It’s Ok yaar. They will eventually turn around.