Phone interviews (for a technical position): what should I expect?

Question

Hi everyone,

I've got a phone interview coming up later today, and I'm a little nervous. I've done a fair bit of in-person interviewing, but I'm not sure what to expect from this one.

The position is a development position for a consulting company. I'm fresh out of college (or rather I will be this May) and they know it. We've scheduled a phone screening that will supposedly last no more than half an hour.

I'm curious about two things:

1. Am I already on the borderline (and they're using this to figure out if I should be weeded out immediately)? Or is this more benign and they're just trying to figure out how to save a little money on flying people out?
2. Is this more likely to be a people-skills interview or a technical one, focusing on programming questions?

Thanks for your time! -PlatinumAzure

Answer 1

Typically a phone interview is used if a face-to-face is too expensive. So it probably means this is a 1st-round interview. But that doesn't automatically mean they won't hire you.

Anyway, expect it to be fairly similar except that they can't see what you're writing on paper. Questions on programming basics, OO, etc, class projects. Probably not coding tests but maybe "how would you do X" questions.

Make sure to have a pad and pencil to note down questions and do scribbling, but don't sit in silence while working things out.

Answer 2

There are many "interview"-type questions around SO, so I would take a look there for what to expect. However, having done a few phone interviews myself (giving and receiving), one of the biggest things that I can stress is this: make sure you are not being distracted at any time during your interview. Treat it as if the person is sitting right there in front of you. It is very easy to tell when the person is distracted, looking up answers (gah), or doing a myriad of other things and are not focused.

Answer 3

I've been through a number of phone interviews and the one thing they all seem to be about double checking that you haven't misrepresented yourself on your CV or that the agent hasn't misrepresented you and doing so without wasting everyone's time by having the meeting face-to-face. It means that when you do get to a physical meeting you can be sure that the candidates meet your basic requirements.

Some have focussed on technical skills, others have been more of a discussion on programming styles etc. In one case even though an area of weakness came up and was discussed, I was still invited for a face-to-face interview. I didn't get offered the job primarily because of that weakness, but it won't necessarily stop you from getting to the next stage where you might be able to impress in other ways.

So don't let it worry you. Be yourself and don't exaggerate your skills - you will be found out.

Answer 4

Nobody in this economy is going to fly someone out for an interview. I'm sure they're screening out the morons, losers, and resume padders. Did this recently and went from fifty or so prospective candidates to about four via phone screening.

Most likely it will be a more technical one. You can't tell too much about someone over the phone, unless they have some serious personality issues. They'll ask you about your resume and maybe some questions based on what you'd be doing.

Hopefully they won't try to pull any cutesy s**t in a phone interview. Don't forget you're also interviewing them at the same time. Do you want to work for these people? What about after what they did in the phone interview?

Answer 5

Most of the phone screens I've had have been light technical interviews. Usually the idea is not to ask you to prove P=NP over the phone, but just to make sure that you're not a clown and that you're worth the substantial investment of everybody's time it represents to have you come in an interview face to face. There's a high percentage of truly incompetent people in this field, usually they just want to make sure you're not one of them.

Typical things I've had people ask me in phone screens are things like a factorial function, string reverse, or some basic object-oriented questions. Almost every technical thing I've had people ask me in a phone screen has been something that's simple enough that you should have no problem answering if you know what you actually claim to on your resume.

A light technical phone screen is a good sign - it means the actual interview will be more difficult, and the quality of the people you work with is going to be higher. Be wary of preliminary calls that are too "HR-ish": "What was a time when you made a bad decision?", "What's your biggest weakness?". Yecch.