Recruitment

Selection

Some tips on how to do telephonic interviews

Be in a quiet place where you will not be disturbed. (At home, or a private office)

The Panel. Listen carefully as the panel introduce themselves (and insist they do). Make a note of their names and posts, so you know who you are talking to. You could ask for an email explaining who they are in advance, for clarity.

Prepare well - by reviewing your CV and application and anticipating questions that are likely to arise from it. - Why do you want this job? - What experience do you have of management? - What do you think will be the main challenges for you? (Main challenges of the job, and main challenges for you. How will you address them?)

• by reviewing the ‘skills and competences’ listed in the Oxfam job description, preparing and making a note of a couple of examples from your experience relating to each of skills. Giving brief examples from your own experience are very powerful. Have some examples lined up.
• by preparing some ideas on how Oxfam could/should develop its programme in that country (from your brief initial reading… only ideas, you won’t be committed to them)
• by preparing some questions that you want to ask (issues that have seen in Af. – role of advocacy and campaigning; coordination; budget planning; security; staff association; or personal things, schooling; etc….)
• In the phone interview: - be an equal partner (with the panel). You are interviewing them as much as them interviewing you. You are clarifying if this is the job for you. Delicate balance of courtesy, responsiveness, enquiry, assertiveness,…
• take your time, don’t be rushed. Take time to think through their questions and your responses. Silences are OK – but feel odd on the phone so we avoid them, and rush. Even say “Yes, Just let me think about that for a minute….” think, decide your points, even jot them down….
• then answer clearly and precisely. Make a max of 3 points, in 3 sentences and stop! Don’t gabble on. Don’t go on and on till they stop you! Seems an obvious thing to say, but so many people talk too much – without being able to see body language of panel that indicates “we’ve heard enough on that”. If they want more explanation they will ask you for it.

I think this is a big issue. They can’t see you so you can make notes – but coming across clearly and precisely is more important when you can’t use body-language and hands to aid your communication.

I suggest you study the ‘Skills and Competences’ listed in the Job Profile, and prepare a list of the key bits of your experience, which you can use, in just a few sentences, to illustrate that you have each of these skills and competences. If they are a competent panel they will probably go through the list of skills one by one, to check you out on each! It’s as simple as that!

My suggestion is that you resist the temptation of thinking that you know your own work so well that you don’t need to prepare, you can just speak off the cuff about your experience without preparation. I think you will do much better if you have thought through examples on each of these things!