oo-er my first interview tomorrow!

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Thanks to the suggestions on here I have been merrily wading through my Mike Meyers book and doing quite well! Also my C.V was changed after reading the sticky and I've registered with the job sites mentioned here too.

now, I've only got myself a telephone interview tomorrow with a Support Consultancy! An agent saw my CV online at Jobserve and emailed me, I replied and a day later he phoned me and got my background (no certs but lots of geeky play which I called experience), he was impressed with my telephone manner and said he would pass my details across.

He phoned again and asked for my photo, I didn't have one handy so I took one at arms length with my phone and sent it off. (I'll put it at the bottom of this message)

Today he phoned me and said I would have a telephone interview with the MD tomorrow morning at 10am and gave me some details about the company which I will try and find on the internet later and research it.

Question is, what else should I do to prepare? I've never had a telephone interview before and I really want to get the job.
I'm thinking I might make a little timeline of my job experience and put down some key skills and achievments I used in the various roles.

any suggestions?

oh and a big thanks to all here, my lurkings have found many useful bits of info, without these forums I would have never known about the A+ books, CV tips and job sites and I definately wouldn't have been in the position to think I would get an interview!


would you give this guy a job? lol

 

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Well, you asked....

1. Be honest about all things.

2. Make sure you have your goals and what you know about where you want to go in IT pretty well defined in your own mind. If you're asked about them you don't want to stumble around on them.

3. A lot of people fall down on this one. Make sure you can present your personal strengths comfortably.

4. Be honest about any weaknesses, but show that you're aware of them and you're taking steps to cover them, i.e. put a positive spin on them in the end.

5. Be personable.

6. Be assertive, but not aggressive.

Anyway, that's what I strive for in my own interviews. If I don't know something I own up to it, but make sure I let them know I love learning and that I pick things up quickly.

 

Phone interviews are good and bad. They are good because people can't see you and you can look like a slob if you want. Also, if it is a technical interview, you can lay out any reference materials in front of you and if you are clever enough, they'll never know you're referring to them.

They are bad because you can't see them. You can't judge their reactions to you using any visual cues. I can't tell you the number of times I was able to determine that I *dldn't* get the job in the interview because I could see their faces and body language. If they are a rude lot, they can also make fun of you (I'm not kidding...I've seen this first hand) during the call by making faces and gestures at each other.

Why did they want a picture of you? Your appearence should be more or less irrelevant (ok...if you were applying for a job as a model, I could see why). BTW, nice photo.

Good luck on the interview.

 

good luck mate! i'm sure you'll do fine tomorrow.

 

that's good advice thanks freeloader!, I'll write them down so I don't get tongue tied on the call.

I've got my Mike meyers book and I'll see what i can do about my noisy keyboard keys, maybe I can search through here while I'm on the phone.

I was a bit taken back by that too, the agency guy said he didn't know why, something to do with european blah blah (I didn't really push it, I just wanted the interview).

lol, thanks! I wasn't sure if I should have put some black rimmed glasses on so I look more geeky

thanks moominboy! I hope so.

 

Nah...gone are the days when geeks have to look like nerds. I hear it's ok to have social skills, too.

 

Good luck glytch

 

thanks!
Had the telephone interview a while ago, lasted a whole 30 minutes!
He asked some real personal questions, all about why I left school at 16, why I've had so many jobs etc.
There were no technical questions and he seemed to be a quiet spoken person so it was hard to 'see' when he was interested in what I was saying and vice versa.

We talked about why I like computers and it came down to the fact that if you say you can do something with a pc, it's immediately obvious to anyone that actually knows if you can or not, it's not the type of job you can blag which is in complete contrast to my casino career (you can blame any problem on crap dealers!). He seemed to pick up on that and I expanded on how I would lke to come in and have a pc in front of me while he asks some technical questions, he mentioned that he'd had people in before that had a whole ream of qualifications but didn't have a clue when it came to actually doing something in front of them! one point for me there.

Apparently, he's got to see or speak to some other people and he'll contact me again.

I think I did OK, it was hard to tell as the conversation was more of a what did you do here, what did you learn there? kind of deal. I hope I get a chance to go in there and actually fiddle with a pc's innards.

thanks for the advice freeloader, having that information handy was really useful, he asked all those type of questions and it really helped my confidence when I could give an answer I had already thought about.