Picture this: you’ve found a position you’re enthusiastic about and have just heard that they want to schedule a phone interview with you! Although every leader knows the significance of preparing for an in-person interview, many overlook the importance of preparing for the phone interview. While it’s a bit too early to start daydreaming about what your first day on the job will be like, below are a few simple steps you can take to help you nail the phone interview, so you can focus on taking the next step toward securing a job offer to make that daydream a reality:
- Preparation: do your homework. While this may seem straightforward, it is not enough to simply pull up the job description a few minutes before a phone interview and nothing more. Candidates differentiate themselves when they go above and beyond what is required of them and this is your first opportunity to do exactly that. Of course, researching the facility and the position are key – scour their website, their social media posts and the LinkedIn profile of the interview to get familiar with the organization and the people. If you really want to take it one step further, you can do additional digging by investigating:
• Recent news articles about the company (and/or parent companies).
• The organization’s inpatient and outpatient utilization statistics, beds and patient days by unit, as well as the hospital’s financial performance from the most recently updated data by using a source such as American Hospital Directory (ahd.com). This may give you additional insight for in-depth questions to ask.
• Additional openings at the organization. If a hospital has a large number of openings in one specific department, this can give you a better idea of some of the challenges they may be currently facing. - Presentation: first impressions are critical, especially when it comes to interviewing. One way to set yourself up for a successful interview is to eliminate the possibility of interruptions. This means:
• Be on the line 5-10 minutes before you are scheduled to speak.
• Make sure you are in a quiet place (connecting via Bluetooth on your commute home or where dogs might be barking does not count).
• Have the documents you may need to reference at your fingertips (e.g. your resume, the job description, and any additional notes or questions you might have). - Precision: being able to clearly communicate your accomplishments is essential. As we mentioned in our blog on resume tips, candidates that truly standout to hiring authorities are those that are able to demonstrate how they have done the following throughout their career:
• Identified a barrier to success.
• Implemented a process/procedure to address that barrier, and
• Resolved the issue to set the organization up for success.
Remember, someone at the organization thought your past achievements and skillset were valuable enough to move forward with a phone interview so this is your opportunity to share the in-depth details of what your resume only highlights.
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