Job interview: first cut

June 4, 2015 5:10 PM

I’m scheduled for a phone interview with HR's recruiter. If it goes well, I’ll be invited in to talk with the hiring manager and others. What are the most likely questions I’ll face in this initial HR interview?
posted by LonnieK to Work & Money (8 answers total)

- How long you've worked at your previous employer
- Your skills that you've used in the past 5 five years
- Your references
- How long you've worked in the industry
- Other boring questions exactly of the type you'd expect from an HR interview
- Depending on the job, you'll hear some boilerplate template questions they'll ask just to make sure you aren't trying to pull a fast one on their hiring department and that you really do know the basics of the job you're interviewing for.

The HR interviews are usually pretty cake. Get a good night's rest and sound alert and interested on the phone, and you'll usually ace right through them with little difficulty.
posted by surazal at 5:21 PM on June 4, 2015

First question: "Tell me about yourself."
Last question: "Do you have any questions for me?"
posted by Sir Rinse at 5:50 PM on June 4, 2015

"What would you bring to this position?"
posted by shiny blue object at 6:11 PM on June 4, 2015

Read the job description again and note all the buzzwords describing what you skills you need to have (e.g. Excel, Word, Python, Salesforce, carburetor repair, whatever).

The HR screener will most likely walk this list and ask you to describe your history with each, maybe even explaining which jobs used which and how long. Yes, it's probably on your resume already. This is the time where you expand on your qualifications and they start stacking you up against other applicants. The best fits get called in.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:56 PM on June 4, 2015

It depends on the employer, really. I've had HR screener calls that just asked me to briefly tell them about myself, followed by a casual chat about the position and company. I've had other calls that ran down a list of typical cliche interview questions, like "What are your greatest strengths/weaknesses?", "Describe a time you faced a difficult situation and how you handled it," "Where do you see yourself in five years?" etc.

I like to prepare a cheat sheet for any phone interview I do. On it, I include:
-A few reasons why I like the company and want to work for them
-How my strengths and skills fit with the position I'm interviewing for (reference specific bullet points from the job posting)
-Examples of some of my greatest accomplishments from my work history (again, tailored to the job description)
-Well-thought-out answers to the cliched questions I posted above, just in case
-3 to 5 questions for the interviewer

This strategy has yet to fail me. Good luck!
posted by darkchocolatepyramid at 7:53 PM on June 4, 2015 [4 favorites]

All of the above is good.

It will also depend on the recruiter. If the recruiter is someone who actually knows the industry and the job (quite unusual, sadly) they will ask you specific job-related things. The purpose is to establish that you are competent, qualified and have actual experience doing x,y and z. They are much less interested in whether you think you can do it, they want to present someone to the bosses who has already done it before. If there's something you're not familiar with, do your homework and get those buzz words into your vocab. If you're confident about something that hasn't been core to previous jobs, embiggen your experience...just imply that it is something you know well, rather than telling them you've only seen someone else do it once.

If the recruiter is a general HR person, they will ask you all that cliched stuff like 'tell me about yourself' just to gauge how articulate you are, whether you're weird in anyway. They should also tell you about the company and more about the job.

Be super nice because even if it's just an adminny person type of recruiter who has little clout, they'll be the one making the short list and telling the hiring managers what they thought of you.

Good luck!
posted by stellathon at 8:31 PM on June 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

A phone interview is probably unlikely to touch too much on competency questions ("can you tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a coworker, and how you resolved it?") but it's worth brushing up on that. Certainly they'll want to know why you want that job, so make sure to have researched the company in question, what skills you bring to the job, your understanding of what the position will involve. They might talk through your cv a bit, so be prepared to expand on particular points and how they are relevant to the current role.

And, of course, make sure to have several questions of your own prepared. My personal favourites include

"What kind of size team would I be working with?"
"What opportunities for personal development would there be?"
posted by Cannon Fodder at 1:44 AM on June 5, 2015

Don't get too technical: if a question sounds like they want details, give 2 details then stop and say, "I don't want to get too far into the details". 90% of the time they have no idea what you're talking about, they just want to make sure you sound confident about the skills you're supposed to have.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 4:43 AM on June 5, 2015 [1 favorite]