Please tell me about phone screen interviews!
January 31, 2019 9:47 PM Subscribe
I have a short phone screen interview coming up. I haven’t done formal interviewing in 17 years, and have no idea what to expect. My experience, qualifications and the job requirements are a good match. This is for biotech. Also, any tips on what to ask them?
Best answer: With the caveat that I am not in biotech, I have done my fair share of phone screens, and here's some tips I've found helpful:
- Make sure that you're able to take the call in a quiet place without distractions. Turn off the music or the TV or whatever external noise you're in control of, and stay off the internet while you're on the phone, so you can be focused on the call.
- Make sure your phone (and any ancillary device(s) you need for the call) is fully charged.
- Treat it like an in-person interview: get dressed, don't do it in sweats and a t-shirt. Make it feel like a real in-person encounter and you'll take it more seriously. You don't have to wear a suit or anything, but wear proper clothes.
- If you have a work surface/desk at home, sit at it to do the interview. Again, simulate in-person as much as you can to put yourself in the right mindset.
- also good advice for in-person, but this is vital for phone screens: don't try to fill awkward silences. If they ask you a question and you feel you've answered it fully, STOP TALKING and wait for them to continue. This is really hard, but the more you stammer and stumble to fill a void the worse it will get.
As for what to ask them, I don't really know about your field, but questions about company direction are always good, like "what do you have on your roadmap that excites you" or that sort of thing. You say it's a brief phone screen, so there's probably not a ton of time for you to ask a million in-depth questions about the culture of the office you'd be working in (those can be done in person at that interview), but if you can get a sense for what it's like to work there, that would be good.
As you wrap up the call, thank them for their time, and be sure to ask about their timeline for making a decision. Good luck!
posted by pdb at 10:03 PM on January 31, 2019 [4 favorites]
- Make sure that you're able to take the call in a quiet place without distractions. Turn off the music or the TV or whatever external noise you're in control of, and stay off the internet while you're on the phone, so you can be focused on the call.
- Make sure your phone (and any ancillary device(s) you need for the call) is fully charged.
- Treat it like an in-person interview: get dressed, don't do it in sweats and a t-shirt. Make it feel like a real in-person encounter and you'll take it more seriously. You don't have to wear a suit or anything, but wear proper clothes.
- If you have a work surface/desk at home, sit at it to do the interview. Again, simulate in-person as much as you can to put yourself in the right mindset.
- also good advice for in-person, but this is vital for phone screens: don't try to fill awkward silences. If they ask you a question and you feel you've answered it fully, STOP TALKING and wait for them to continue. This is really hard, but the more you stammer and stumble to fill a void the worse it will get.
As for what to ask them, I don't really know about your field, but questions about company direction are always good, like "what do you have on your roadmap that excites you" or that sort of thing. You say it's a brief phone screen, so there's probably not a ton of time for you to ask a million in-depth questions about the culture of the office you'd be working in (those can be done in person at that interview), but if you can get a sense for what it's like to work there, that would be good.
As you wrap up the call, thank them for their time, and be sure to ask about their timeline for making a decision. Good luck!
posted by pdb at 10:03 PM on January 31, 2019 [4 favorites]
To ask them: Ask questions about what differentiates them from any close competitors. How much funding do you have? How far are you away from launching a product? Who are your major clients (if a supplier or CRO)? Will this job be in a regulated space? How do you share knowledge at the company, do you use a collaboration system?/
Think of a complicated biotech project you have worked on and attempt summarizing the approach and challenges in a paragraph. Summarize a project that failed and diagnose why(could be political, management, or scientific reasons).
posted by benzenedream at 11:02 PM on January 31, 2019
Think of a complicated biotech project you have worked on and attempt summarizing the approach and challenges in a paragraph. Summarize a project that failed and diagnose why(could be political, management, or scientific reasons).
posted by benzenedream at 11:02 PM on January 31, 2019
I don't know about biotech. In IT, my experiences have been that they're pretty short and low pressure - five to ten minutes of basic questions by someone that's not actually the hiring manager to make sure you can speak in complete sentences about what's on your resume and that you weren't just bull shitting. They may not understand the technical parts of what you talk about but will take notes to pass onto the manager. Questions from the interviewer are things like checking the salary range but not a lot about the job itself, as the recruiter doesn't really know detailed information about the position.
posted by Candleman at 4:14 AM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Candleman at 4:14 AM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
If you have a pet, be sure to put them in a separate room! My cat made an appearance during a Skype interview once and cute as she is, it was a major distraction.
posted by peppermind at 4:34 AM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by peppermind at 4:34 AM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
I just did a TON of phone screens before I found the right job for me. I am not in Biotech, so caveat there, but basically most of them spent some time talking about the job itself, a bit about the company itself, then asked me to go over my resume as they asked some detailed questions that a resume doesn't cover. Past that, if I felt I was building a good rapport, I let my questions be a bit more free-form. If I wasn't sure, my questions were a bit canned.
Example - question asked to good rapport: "If you had a magic wand, what would you change about your company?" Answers ranged from "office with a nap pod" to "a better X process" (which gave me an opportunity to highlight that I spent time as essentially a process fixer) to "I'd get a new CEO that is growth minded" (which told me I probably didn't want to go there).
posted by skittlekicks at 6:40 AM on February 1, 2019
Example - question asked to good rapport: "If you had a magic wand, what would you change about your company?" Answers ranged from "office with a nap pod" to "a better X process" (which gave me an opportunity to highlight that I spent time as essentially a process fixer) to "I'd get a new CEO that is growth minded" (which told me I probably didn't want to go there).
posted by skittlekicks at 6:40 AM on February 1, 2019
I'm also not in biotech, but my experience is similar to Candleman's; phone screens tend to be rather short (my last was about 15 minutes), and they did most of the talking. I think the only real question I was asked was whether I was still interested after hearing their pitch. Generally there's an overview of the position, then some mention of culture and perks...less substantive discussion about the nitty gritty details of the job.
Personally, I now try to find out the salary range in the phone screen. Some people will advise against this, but sometimes the interviewer will offer it unprompted. Asking has never negatively impacted my candidacy but it may be different in your industry/area.
posted by sm1tten at 9:08 AM on February 1, 2019
Personally, I now try to find out the salary range in the phone screen. Some people will advise against this, but sometimes the interviewer will offer it unprompted. Asking has never negatively impacted my candidacy but it may be different in your industry/area.
posted by sm1tten at 9:08 AM on February 1, 2019
Best answer: When I used to interview people, we used phone screens to identify any obvious problems, like people who didn't read the job description and either didn't really want the type of job we were offering, or didn't want to work where the office was. This happened more then you would expect. We also asked a few basic questions to make sure the person had a clue. The goal wasn't to do a full interview, but rather to weed out anyone who would be an obviously bad fit so as to not waste their time or ours.
A few tips:
1. Make sure you are in a quiet place with minimal interruptions.
2. Have a copy of your resume and cover letter on hand in case there are any questions.
Good Luck!
posted by nalyd at 3:39 PM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
A few tips:
1. Make sure you are in a quiet place with minimal interruptions.
2. Have a copy of your resume and cover letter on hand in case there are any questions.
Good Luck!
posted by nalyd at 3:39 PM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: The phone screen lasted 45 minutes! It was intense but went well. I heard nothing back and two weeks later read a press-release that they laid off 30% of their staff...
posted by gryphonlover at 3:07 PM on March 31, 2019
posted by gryphonlover at 3:07 PM on March 31, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
"My background seems really aligned to what you're looking for, so what would you recommend I read up on to really hit the ground running in this position?"
posted by erst at 10:02 PM on January 31, 2019