The phone interview is an important step when landing a software engineering position. For some internships, the phone interview may be the only necessary component to get the job.
Phone interviews can be simple screenings (to determine if you are a resume padder) or much longer blown-out programming questions. A phone interview, regardless of difficulty, presents an advantage for any less socially-skilled (sorry fellow nerds!) people in computer science that are not blessed with direct communication skills. Before we talk about the actual phone interview, there are some necessary fundamental tips that will make you feel and be perceived as more confident.
Fundamental TipsMake sure that you will have good phone reception! Do you absolutely trust your cell phone provider to not drop your calls? If no, then try your best to find a landline phone. Also, are you certain there will be a cell phone charger in that room in case your battery goes low? Go to the room for your interview and have someone call you to test your signal. If possible, put an extra cell phone charger in the room. These small things can turn into a nightmare and subsequently make you very anxious.
What Do You Sound Like?Your voice is crucial in sending the message that you will be a dependable worker. Imagine being the interviewer and talking to someone who was quiet and hesitant. We all form impressions of people when first interacting with them, and you want the interviewer to know that you have a personality!
Do this. Call your cell phone and leave yourself a message. Say, "Hello interviewer, my name is . My special skills are ..., and I have a lot of experience in ..." This may feel awkward, but try it anyways. Now listen to your voice. You sound different that what you expected, right? Do you sound confident, and are you projecting your voice? After hearing yourself, would you hire you? The interviewer cannot pick up on the cues of your body language, therefore it is important that you shed confidence through your voice.
Call your phone again and try these things. Stand up. Talk deep out of your chest. Talk with a smile on your face. Although this may not feel totally natural, I promise you will sound much more confident and happy.
Learn About The CompanyIt still amazes me when I help people with interviews and they do not have the slightest bit of knowledge about the company. For example, can you answer these: "What makes you excited about working for the company?", "What is a recent news story you read about the organization?", and "Which products are most interesting to you, and why?"
These are all simple questions that involve basic research. It is simply not acceptable to choke up when these questions are asked. If you do not know much about the company, try its blog. If the organization doesn't have one, the then the next obvious answer is a search engine. Do not go into an interview without knowing about the company. Find out more about the leaders, the competitors, the products, the headquarters of the company, future projects, etc.
Always try to keep up with recent technology news. Slashdot.org is generally filled with interesting stories, and the technology section of Google News has up-to-date stories. Why is this important? It shows you care about your field. One time an interviewer asked me about a recent technology that I found interesting. Luckily, I had read about upcoming 3-D printing technology, which led to good conversation with my interviewer.
Know Who Is Interviewing YouSometimes you will be told up front who is interviewing you. If not, you will often have a recruiter that can provide you with their name. Don't be hesitant in asking for this information as it can be extremely valuable.
Search for everything you can about your interviewer. Did they do a thesis? If so, read the abstracts of their work. Interview questions will often be similar to the interviewer's interests. For example, my Google interviewer was a large-scale graph processing expert. As I guessed, he asked graph question after graph question. I was able to handle them with ease since I expected them. I also found out information about his team and their software, which allowed for more discussion at the end of the interview. This information can leave a great impression in the mind of your interviewer, which of course comes in handy when they lobby for your employment.
Lastly...While most of these tips are basic, they are also some of the most important and overlooked. I promise that you will feel much more confident when the big day comes if you have already thoroughly prepared.
In my next tips for software engineer interview preparation, I will explain how you can deliver an elevator pitch to your interviewer. The interviewer will ask you to talk about yourself. You don't want to sound like everyone else, right? :)
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