Behavioural Weakness? (Formally informal Interview)

I have a phone interview with a bank on a tech. support position.

So far the interviews I have done in the past were in person.

Do anybody have any advice on how to do a phone interview and what kind of questions they would ask?

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Kaminsky

You have to keep your wits about you in a phone interview. Your have to remember your not talking to your mates or something like that. It's a formal phone call so imagine that there is a group of people at the other end listening to a speaker phone with only one of them doing the talking.

Once you are in that mindset, it is the same as if you were sitting in front of them in a normal interview. It might seem a more relaxed situation but don't relax too much. Just be yourself and just be professional.

Oh, and take your self into a nice quiet area with no interuptions or too much background noise if you can.

sprkymrk

Keep some nicely organized information in front of you, such as your resume, references, and some notes to jog your memory about your past experiences and accomplishments in case they ask you the typical "what is the hardest thing you ever did", or whatever those typical interview questions are. You might want to have a few windows open on your computer to their main website. Also, as soon as the guy who calls introduces himself, write his name down and USE it when speaking to him. Just start out "Hello Mr. Jones, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak with you" or something polite like that. If he says "Just call me Bob", then you can drop the "Mr Jones". If he has one of those really hard to pronounce names, ask him to spell it for you so you don't go through the whole conversation in an awkward way.

Gundamtdk

Does anybody know how to handle this question:

Have you gone above and beyond the call of duty? If so, how?

oldtech

Had a phone interview last wednesday, it was more like a chat then an interview , maybe that was the interviewers skill. No technical questions he just wanted to get to know me. I have had no feedback as yet, I was told middle of the following week, so fingers crossed. It took about 20 minutes in total.

sprkymrk

Gundamtdk wrote:

Does anybody know how to handle this question:

Have you gone above and beyond the call of duty? If so, how?

Well hopefully just tell about a time or two when you did. You know, after hours support when you weren't on the clock but because it was important to someone else, you stayed as long as it took to get it done.

In other words, you did something that was of importance or benefit to the company or a client that you weren't required to do.

Gundamtdk

sprkymrk wrote:

Well hopefully just tell about a time or two when you did. You know, after hours support when you weren't on the clock but because it was important to someone else, you stayed as long as it took to get it done.

In other words, you did something that was of importance or benefit to the company or a client that you weren't required to do.

I see this question as a two way street.

If you did something that the company didn't expect you to you could be going against the guild lines or rules.

Had a phone interview last wednesday, it was more like a chat then an interview , maybe that was the interviewers skill. No technical questions he just wanted to get to know me. I have had no feedback as yet, I was told middle of the following week, so fingers crossed. It took about 20 minutes in total.

What kind of questions did the interviewer ask you?

I am a little nervous on what the interviewer would ask. I am afraid the interviewer would ask those hard pressed questions.

I really want to get this job.

Kaminsky

Staying on to field phone calls when there is a flak on even though you should have gone home hours ago and fielding phone calls isn't actually your job, just so you could help let the engineers get on with dealing with the crisis. Things like that which shows commitment and selflessness to the overall goals of the department. I would say that that is the required answer to a question like that. You have to be realistic though as obviously you wouldn't have done that if there was no panic on but, in rare times of need you are willing...

Gundamtdk

I had my phone interview.

I had no problems talking my past work experience, but I somewhat fell apart when we started to talk about the job position.

1) My tongue slipped and named the wrong bank. (I quickly apologized for the slip, but I fear the damage is done.)
2) I fluttered when he asked me about the company's wages and work hours.

It beats me that these are simple mistakes that I could have avoided.

Olajuwon

Gundamtdk wrote:

I had my phone interview.

I had no problems talking my past work experience, but I somewhat fell apart when we started to talk about the job position.

1) My tongue slipped and named the wrong bank. (I quickly apologized for the slip, but I fear the damage is done.)
2) I fluttered when he asked me about the company's wages and work hours.

It beats me that these are simple mistakes that I could have avoided.

It happens to the best of us, dude. If you don't get the job, take it as an experience and learn from it.

Gundamtdk

Olajuwon wrote:

It happens to the best of us, dude. If you don't get the job, take it as an experience and learn from it.

Knock on the wood of God, they asked me to come into do a face-to-face interview!

They want to do an half-hour informal interview with me.

Has anybody been through an informal interview?

How do I approach an informal interview?

Olajuwon

Gundamtdk wrote:

Knock on the wood of God, they asked me to come into do a face-to-face interview!

They want to do an half-hour informal interview with me.

Has anybody been through an informal interview?

How do I approach an informal interview?

They will be checking your personality to see if you will fit in. They might also throw in some more technical Qs. Be kind and smile at everyone. Joke with them when you get the opportunity.

Kaminsky

Gundamtdk wrote:

Olajuwon wrote:

It happens to the best of us, dude. If you don't get the job, take it as an experience and learn from it.

Knock on the wood of God, they asked me to come into do a face-to-face interview!

They want to do an half-hour informal interview with me.

Has anybody been through an informal interview?

How do I approach an informal interview?

Informal Interview = informal for them.. not for you. Relax and be you. You've got this far for a reason. Oh.. and make sure that this time you repeat the name of the bank over and over in your head before you go in

Good Luck

Gundamtdk

Kaminsky wrote:

Informal Interview = informal for them.. not for you. Relax and be you. You've got this far for a reason. Oh.. and make sure that this time you repeat the name of the bank over and over in your head before you go in

Good Luck

Ha...easier said than done. This is the only company has offered an interview to me out of the 20+ jobs I have applied for.

There is this sick to the bottom feeling as what happens if the interview is a burst.

Gundamtdk

My interview is this week.

Does anybody know how close I am to landing a job?

With the informal interview are they just checking that I don't act/look like a bum.

Gundamtdk

I had my interview today and I don't what is the outcome is.

The interview covered mostly about my previous employment and a bit of role playing. (E.g. How would you handle ABC customer given these situations)

There is one asked me, "Name one behavioral weakness you have?"

How do I answer such a question?

Kaminsky

Well, don't say things like you have a severe nervous twitch and that you like mug old grannies and dress up and call yourself Mandy on weekends.

This is a great question but you have to prepare for it beforehand. You take minor negative trait and word it into a very good positive.

Example, say you like chatting a lot to the users while your fixing faults you could word this as you like to spend a little extra time building up relationships with your userbase.

The classic is that you are a bit of a perfectionist but you have learnt how to manage your time in order to keep up with existing fault calls.