Phone interview today

Some of you may remember that I had a situation at work where I was given the choice of moving to a company that I was uncomfortable in or losing my job. I decided that the best move for my family was to look for work elsewhere. I have been trying to find work for the two weeks since my position was eliminated. Today at 11am EST I have my first ever phone interview.

I've been working with Teksystems (despite my better judgment) and they have found a contract to permanent position with the water company. I'm already envisioning myself in the position and this is a nationwide company that loves to hire from within so I'm going to do my best to knock it out of the park. I've been trying to prep for some typical phone interview questions so hopefully I'll be energetic and impress some people. There'll be at least two people in the interview and my recruiter wouldn't be surprised if there were three.

Has anyone been really thrown for a loop with an phone interview question? I think I have good responses for typical questions.

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Comments

peanutnoggin

Good luck...

Yes, I've been thrown a question that was waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy out in left field. I recently had a phone interview where all the typical scenario questions were asked, then the technical questions... then after 45 minutes or so on the phone, this question came out of no where:

"What's your biggest pet peeve"?

Without missing a beat, I gave the answer... "spitting on the ground"! The phone conversation went silent for a few seconds... and then everyone on the interview (3 or 4 people) burst into laughter... I started laughing as well... I tried to bring it back on the topic of work and they told me... "no, no, that answer is fine... we really like your honest and instinctive answer. The question was open-ended so you answered just fine"! I must say... I was truly embarrassed, but I was still offered the job! So needless to say, it was an interesting interview the rest of the way.... Again, good luck...

-Peanut

drewkeg

I have a couple experiences to share. When prepping for a phone int you usually touch up on some of the more difficult terms, situations etc, but what has thrown me in the past is the basic simple question that you are completely not expecting, and on top of that you're nervous energy makes it difficult sometimes to spit it out.
The other just happened to me last week, although it was a face to face int. She asked what I thought the top 5 qualities needed for this position. Then she asked out of those 5, which one do you feel you're weakest in. Now normally you may prep to get the strongest / weakest quality about yourself, but when it asked like this, I was off guard.

Anyway, good luck man, and hope this brings you a face to face.

tbgree00

The recruiter put me under the impression there there won't be a face to face. My direct supervisor is in West Virginia. He said they are looking to hire off of a phone interview. I thought that sounded weird but the time between the job posting and narrowing down the applicants was 3 days and both interviews with the "finalists" are happening today. If it wasn't such a big company I would be really suspicious. As of now I'm just marginally suspicious.

The spitting answer is fantastic and a pet peeve I share. I also despise smokers and drinkers but am leaving that quiet since I don't want to offend anyone.

lenell86

tbgree00 wrote: »

I've been working with Teksystems (despite my better judgment) ...QUOTE]

Forgive my ignorance, but whats wrong with TEKsystems?

tbgree00

I guess there isn't really anything wrong with TEK, I would prefer to work for myself if possible. They hold all the jobs here, though so I have to use them. I don't like how they've worked with me on submissions. Every time they've said "What money or perks do you want to make you happy?" and I tell them. An hour later they come back and say "We have one guy with twice your experience wanting the amount you said, we have one guy with half of your experience and degrees and they want X money. Where do you want to be?"

Who knows, maybe they really do have three people for each job and one always has twice my experience and wants the exact amount of money I want and the other always has exactly half my experience and wants 10 dollars less than my initial asking salary. It's happened quite a few times now, exactly the same story.

tbgree00

Excuse the double post:

I got off my interview a few hours ago. It went very well with the scenario portion and the personality portions of the questions. The technical questions were all very easy but I stuttered and stammered through them. They were impressed with how I took ownership of my users so hopefully personality and drive counts more than being able to answer basic questions on command.

I'm a little embarrassed that I wasn't more authoritative with my answers than I was. The guys were 10 minutes late and none of them knew they had an interview so they hadn't prepared or even knew how to read their scripts. It was intriguing.

I asked them if I could have the job as my last question and they laughed really hard, saying that I was on a good path to get it and HR would call me soon, likely in the next day or two.

Turgon

tbgree00 wrote: »

The recruiter put me under the impression there there won't be a face to face. My direct supervisor is in West Virginia. He said they are looking to hire off of a phone interview. I thought that sounded weird but the time between the job posting and narrowing down the applicants was 3 days and both interviews with the "finalists" are happening today. If it wasn't such a big company I would be really suspicious. As of now I'm just marginally suspicious.

The spitting answer is fantastic and a pet peeve I share. I also despise smokers and drinkers but am leaving that quiet since I don't want to offend anyone.

Hehehe..thats me busted then because I smoke. I hope they come back with some good news for you.

Hypntick

tbgree00 wrote: »

I guess there isn't really anything wrong with TEK, I would prefer to work for myself if possible. They hold all the jobs here, though so I have to use them. I don't like how they've worked with me on submissions. Every time they've said "What money or perks do you want to make you happy?" and I tell them. An hour later they come back and say "We have one guy with twice your experience wanting the amount you said, we have one guy with half of your experience and degrees and they want X money. Where do you want to be?"

Who knows, maybe they really do have three people for each job and one always has twice my experience and wants the exact amount of money I want and the other always has exactly half my experience and wants 10 dollars less than my initial asking salary. It's happened quite a few times now, exactly the same story.

Yeah my experience with Tek has been night and day. Before my last job I tried going through Robert Half, absolutely nothing aside from an install job 4 hours away for only 2 weeks. pay wasn't even that great. So I called up Teksystems to see what they had available, a week later i'm hired.

Fast forward to today, Tek has had my info for about 2 months, I haven't gotten so much as a phone call or response email after the first 2 weeks. So I say okay let's try Robert half again, 3 prospects in a week with my choice of spots.

I think it's just one of the pitfalls of dealing with staffing agencies, they're inconsistent as heck and give weird conflicting info. Hope you get that job!

tbgree00

I just got a call from my recruiter, they want a second interview tomorrow at 9am. I'm not sure I'll have a face to face. My supervisor would be a state away. Hopefully I get it, I'm excited because it's life changing money and a huge company.

MrAgent

Good luck and let us know!

ehnde

I'd love to see you get the job, living in Kentucky and all! That bit where you asked for the job at the end of the interview....classic! Best thing you could have asked, no joke. Hope you hear from them soon!

ibcritn

tbgree00 wrote: »

Who knows, maybe they really do have three people for each job and one always has twice my experience and wants the exact amount of money I want and the other always has exactly half my experience and wants 10 dollars less than my initial asking salary. It's happened quite a few times now, exactly the same story.

I don't work for TEK, but before I accepted my most current role I was using them to seek new opportunities. Nearly went with a role and it seemed they did a very similar thing to me....my guess is its a sales tactic to ensure they get you for as low as possible. The less they pay you per hour the more in their pockets.

Good luck on getting the job!

tbgree00

ibcritn wrote: »

I don't work for TEK, but before I accepted my most current role I was using them to seek new opportunities. Nearly went with a role and it seemed they did a very similar thing to me....my guess is its a sales tactic to ensure they get you for as low as possible. The less they pay you per hour the more in their pockets.

Good luck on getting the job!

I worked for a different placing agency briefly for my first job. I actually did accounting and paid the bill for my wages. My supervisor then said they called the agency and said "we have 20 an hour find us someone" and I assume that's how this job is working. They are paying X per hour so they talk me down.

The interview went well, no technical questions. They wanted a lot of scenario and examples of my work. Those are hard to come up with on the spot. I didn't have to shut down any of them though, so I've seen situations very similar to what they think I'll face.

I should hear back by Friday. Thanks for all of the well wishes!

tbgree00

Update: I am the only candidate in the running but they've got cold feet about me because they aren't sure I'm able to work by myself. I'm not exactly sure how they determined that, they asked me 5 questions today about times I worked with someone else. They didn't ask about any experience I've had being by myself.

To be honest this has made me pretty upset. It's like they set me up to fail with trick questions. I guess they wanted me to say "I don't work with a team, I work alone." And also they're concerned that I will rely on someone else's opinion before I make a decision. They literally asked me about a time that I worked with someone on a project that had a different opinion than me and I turned them over to my way of thinking. I had an example about this.

I'm the type of worker that does everything I need to in order to make my department and supervisor look good. Doing something wrong or rushing into something without thinking it over doesn't accomplish that.

MrAgent

So did they get back to you at all?

tbgree00

Not since last night. I guess I'll hear today. I almost wonder if it's a bargaining chip as much as anything. They've worked so fast to get the position filled (it has been open for a week today) so it's weird for them to suddenly get super picky.

tbgree00

I was told last night that they're making an offer today. while I'm temp it will be 11.50 more per hour with a chance to be 26k per year more once I'm hired on. I'm excited to start. One month of unemployment wasn't too bad to essentially double my wages.

ehnde

That's all you needed was the opportunity. Now that they're giving you a chance you'll knock their socks off. Congratulations!

Mike-Mike

congrats!