Most Common 10 Telephonic Interview Questions

Telephonic interviews are a very common occurrence these days as it proves to be cost-effective for the companies. You’ll most probably get a phone call after you apply for a job than getting called for an interview. Since this will be impromptu, don’t be caught unawares. Being prepared is the key. Sometimes, recruiters also inform you beforehand, which gives you enough time to prepare as well. Need help preparing the questions? Here’s a list!

1. Tell me something about Yourself?

When the interviewer asks you this on phone, you’ll get a minute at the most, to sum up, your entire academic and professional history. Not to mention, you’ll also have to add in a few of your achievements, skills, and strengths. This is your shot at getting the attention of the interviewer. Make sure you have a good idea beforehand about what your answer will be, else if the interviewer loses interest, there are high chances that the call won’t last long.

2. Tell me about some Achievements?

This is drawing from the first pitch you gave about yourself. Now is the time to deep-dive into your achievements. Make sure you’re talking about them as clearly as you can, supporting them with numbers or stats. Saying, I achieved the highest sales target of the month, you could put a number to it. Focus on points where you’ve contributed positively to your organization and exceeded personal expectations as well as professional.

3. Did you face any challenges?

It’s okay to say no here as well. Provided, you sound genuine and confident about it. If you have an egoistic undertone while saying, “Of course not. Why would I face challenges?”, you’re not aiding your selection for the job. Instead, if you admit about challenges, you can highlight your problem-solving skills or where you converted a customer who was with your competition, etc.

4. Why are you leaving your Current Job?

This might be a tough question to handle, but honesty is the best policy. Everyone changes jobs for better opportunities and growth, and this answer is the most common one. If your answer is tending towards something negative, refrain from answering that.

5. Why our Company?

This is to test your research skills. Be prepared with an answer where you know much more than what their website says about them. Read up on news articles, press releases and give them a reason to believe that you’re truly interested in the company’s activities.

6. What interests you about this Job Role?

Here you need to talk about how this role is aligned with your career path and how you see yourself growing by leaps and bounds. You can talk about applying all the skills and knowledge you’ve gained to this job to make it more successful. You need to show your enthusiasm to contribute to the company’s growth.

7. Where do you see Yourself in 5 years?

The future. This answer needs contemplation and some serious introspection. Therefore, this definitely needs to be written down beforehand. The interviewer wants to see how ambitious and at the same time, how practical you are. You need to stress on the fact that this job is a long-term proposition for you and you’ll achieve stability in this.

8. Your Salary Expectations?

A lot of recruiters do this to filter out candidates. A smart move here would be to remain non-committal about the compensation as a simple telephonic call might not answer all your questions about the job responsibility. Save your salary talks for a face-to-face meet where you can emphasize your value addition in a better way.

9. Tell us about your Strengths?

This is tooting your own horn but you need to do it quite subtly. Focus on those strengths that are related to the current job profile that you’ve applied to. The interviewer is checking whether you have an understanding of what value you’re getting to the organization.

10. Tell us about your Weaknesses?

The key is to talk about a weakness that doesn’t raise any red flag, but instead has a scope of improvement. FOr instance, saying you have an issue with tighter deadlines will come across as your drawback as opposed to saying something like you are too particular and too nitpicky about project documents. The secret is to be positive while sounding negative.

These answers will decide your future. So, don’t take them for granted and always prepare beforehand. All the best!