26% of all organisations conduct a telephone interview as the first stage of the selection process. You may feel that as you cannot see the interviewer – and obviously s/he can’t see you - that it is OK to be casual about the call. If the interviewer can only hear your voice you need to make sure that you keep the tone bright and positive. Make sure that you are not distracted by anything going on around you and have a copy of your CV to hand so that you may use it for reference.

The best way to make a good impression over the telephone is to imagine that you can ‘see’ the interviewer sitting beside you. This should make you sit up and give lots of enthusiasm to your responses. If you have no idea whether you have said too much – or not enough – ask. Say, ‘Is that enough information for you?’ If the interviewer keeps saying ‘Thanks for that – that’s very interesting’. This is likely to mean shut up – you’ve said enough. So keep quiet and start preparing for the face to face interview.