Telephone Interviews
If you are looking to work overseas there is obviously a great need to arrange employment, in a perfect world, before you actually move to your country of choice. However, if you’re looking to move to countries such as Australia you will need, in order to fast track the immigration procedure, to offer a service or a skill which is required but possibly short in supply in the country itself. Quite how you’re able to arrange a job position without actually going to the country and going through the interview process is a mystery for many which is where telephone interviews may well come into play.
There is a very informative and in-depth thread on the Australian forum which discusses the subject of telephone interviews from the other side of the world and indeed gives three perfect examples of different interview techniques and approaches.
Background to the thread
The forum member who began this particular thread is from India and has experience with a large IT company in India which is more on the development front than say customer services and consultancy work. Two of the interviews were arranged by consultants in Australia working on behalf of the Forum member and companies in the region to bring together suitable skills and suitable employees for relevant employment positions – the other came via a networking portal.
While the three interviews are very different they do bring out the vast majority of skills and techniques used in the employment market.
Interview one
This particular interview was arranged at short notice and there were two people interviewing the potential candidate via telephone from Australia. Obviously the consultant in question had forwarded the candidates curriculum vitae and details to be company involved and initially the telephone conversation and telephone interview went well.
The interview itself was purely technical-based with no behavioural or personal questions at all although when a specific software tool was mentioned and the candidate had no experience it seems that the interview ended fairly quickly and the application was unsuccessful.
Conclusion
This is the perfect example of a consultant trying to put together an employee and employer where they should really have known that there were issues and potential problems. It was interesting to see this one was purely technical-based as opposed to technical/behavioural although whether it may well have developed into a behavioural interview if the subject of software tool X had not been brought up is open to debate.
Interview two
While this particular interview started very well on the technical front with regards to integration experience and other qualities required, it very soon turned into a behavioural interview where questions such as:-
Tell me about yourself
Why Australia?
Tell me five things you love about your job?
Tell me about your management experience?
Why leave a big company back home and settle for a small company at here in Australia?
If we are to offer you a position by when do you think you can join?
After the initial interview the candidate was expecting a more technical based interview rather than a behavioural interview and while all of the questions were answered reasonably well the poster believes he may have fallen down on the behavioural questions.
Conclusion
It is difficult to know what to expect from a telephone interview where you are not able to see the people face-to-face and it is to all intents and purposes a very impersonal situation. Unless you have taken part in telephone interviews before it is difficult to know what to expect and very difficult to actually try and lead the interview down a particular path. While the initial interview appeared to have been blown because of technical issues, it looks as though the second interview may well have fallen down on the subject of behavioural issues.
Interview three
While the first two interviews were the result of contacts by consultants in Australia, the third interview was from a networking portal and not through a formal consultancy. Due to a mixture of knowing what to expect before the interview, and appreciating techniques used in interview one and interview two, the candidate was much more organised and ready for this particular interview.
Among the additional questions asked in his interview were:-
Tell us about yourself
Greatest strengths
Greatest weaknesses
Management style
Salary expectations
How much time I would require to join
This interview was taken by two architects over the telephone and the prospective employee found it much easier to talk to them and appreciate the questions they were asking and effectively give the right answers. The very fact that salary was mentioned gave both parties the chance to bring remuneration into the conversation and ensure that both parties were of a similar understanding on the issue.
Conclusion
We are unsure as to whether the poster was successful in the third interview but it does offer an interesting insight into different ways of obtaining employment in Australia and the various interview techniques which can be used over the telephone. An interview which did not discuss remuneration and employment conditions would be strange to many people, as would an interview which was purely about behavioural aspects or purely about technical issues.
Employment in Australia
As we touched on above, a number of skilled worker positions are always available in Australia and if you manage to fill these positions you are highly likely to be fast tracked with regards to visas for the country. Creating a list of contacts who may well be able to help you with employment in the future is difficult but as we saw in the above three interviews, where two came from a consultancy firm and one from a networking portal, there are options available. You need to find out about the consultant or networks in question and ensure they are in a position to help you and you are in a position to help them.
Summary
The subject of finding employment in Australia, and other countries around the world, is often touched upon in passing but the details about issues such as telephone interviews are not often discussed. These can be very beneficial to both parties as they do not waste time, money and can give all parties involved the opportunity to give their input. These three particular interview techniques and interview styles are ones you may come across if you are looking to move overseas and it is beneficial to be forearmed and know exactly what may be coming your way.
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