Questions To Expect For Your Specific Case
Every person’s case is a little different, so it is impossible to list here all the questions the EDD might specifically ask you about your individual case. As mentioned above, the back of the interview notice has a list of questions that might be asked by the interviewer. If you have an idea what the issue is, you can research it by looking in my Practice Guide for Unemployment Insurance Benefits in California. It’s on our website here. If you would like to talk to someone about your specific case, please feel free to call our office at 320-1616 or email us at [email protected]. We can provide one-half hour of coaching assistance for your EDD interview at very reasonable rates, usually around $74. to get priority status for your consultation.
Typical Telephone Interview Questions
Telephone interviews are typically conducted by a member of a firm’s human resources team, or outsourced to a specialist organisation . Questions will usually focus on:
- Your motivations for applying to the firm in question
- The particular industry and job role
- Your knowledge of the firm itself
- Your skills, qualifications and competencies
It is less likely that a telephone interview will include technical questions, brain teaser questions or commercial awareness questions .
Where possible, always use a different example when answering each question.
Never Take The Interview Somewhere Noisy
It might seem like common sense, but youd be surprised what interviewers say they can hear in the background of their phone interviewseverything from barking dogs to screaming children. Prepare for the interview by securing a quiet space in advance, even if it means escaping to your car parked in the garage, advises Chere Taylor, founder of Fulcrum HR Consulting. If you can lock your home office door, by all means do it. We’ve all been there and sometimes things just happen, but the more time spent anticipating what could go wrong, the better prepared and organized you will appear to the interviewer and the greater likelihood of success. That doesnt mean that if your washing machine beeps once in the background all hope is lost, but the more effort you put into being in a quiet place, the more focused youll be.
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Who Calls First In A Phone Interview
After 15 to 20 minutes have passed, you should give the interviewer a call at the number that was provided. While you may be tempted to simply email, its more professional to try to call first. This can allow you to immediately speak with the interviewer if they answer to either reschedule or begin the interview.
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Will You Travel For This Job
Again, one you should consider before the interview. This one might be a little easier than the first question as it means you should be able to come back to wherever you are right nowbut again, keep in mind what this means to both your professional and personal life. Be honest. Be honest. Be honest.
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Proper Phone Interview Etiquette
Review these guidelines for appropriate phone interview etiquette, so you make the best impression on your interviewer.
Answer the phone yourself. First, be sure to let family members and/or roommates know you are expecting a call. When you answer the phone, respond with your name. You can say, “This is Jane Doe” or “John Smith speaking!” That way, the interviewer will know they’ve reached the right person. Make sure to use an upbeat tone of voice .
Follow the interviewer’s lead. Some interviewers may wish to engage in a few minutes of small talk. Others may want to get right into the interview. Let the interviewer steer the start to the conversation, but be prepared to talk about the weather or make other small talk.
Listen carefully to the interviewer and don’t start speaking until the interviewer finishes the question. If you have something you want to say, jot it down on your notepad and mention it when it’s your turn to talk. It can also be helpful to jot down the question .
Don’t worry if you need a few seconds to think of a response, but don’t leave too much dead air. If you need the interviewer to repeat the question, ask.
Dont Talk About Your Personal Life
…Unless youre directly asked a question about what you like to do in your off hours. The point of a phone interview is to focus on getting to know a candidates professional experience and goals, says Mckenzie Roark, campus talent specialist at Lithko Contracting. A recruiter is trying to qualify them to see if they are the best fit for a role, and learning about their personal life doesnt help. For example, when asked where you see yourself in five years, we dont want to know that you hope to be married or that you want to buy a new house. That is nice but that isnt relative to anything professional.
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How To Conduct The Call
Your role in the call is similar to the role of a witness giving testimony at trial. The interviewer will lead the call with his questions. Much of the good advice given to prospective witnesses applies to your situation:
Answer the question as briefly as possible. There are a couple of good reasons for keeping your answers short. First, your interviewer’s time on the call is limited if you ramble on you are making it tough for her to keep on schedule, which is irritating. Obviously, you do not want to irritate someone who may be deciding your benefit eligibility. Second, when you begin elaborating on your answers, you are “opening the door,” an informal legal term meaning once you have put any new information out there, your EDD interviewer has a right to follow it up. Sometimes this new information may work in your favor. More often, it won’t have any effect at all and may make you appear defensive. This could lead the interviewer to conclude based on the new information that you are ineligible.
Be polite. This seems obvious, but anyone who has ever spent time in a state unemployment office knows that clients are often loud, angry and rude. Remember that your interviewer does this about 40-hours a week. After being yelled at for a few hours, your interviewer will respond favorably to a polite applicant.
Do Some Research Before The Interview
Odds are youve applied to more than one company and its always helpful to know a bit about who youre talking to, from both a professional and a business standpoint.
Double check the job description youre interviewing for.
Google the company. See how theyre doing and what theyre doing.
If you know whos doing your interview you can see what sort of digital footprint they have and find out more about them on a personal level. Look them up on but dont go overboard.
Its never a good idea to send them a Facebook Friend Request before you even have the interviewin fact, its probably not a good idea afterwards either. Maybe in six months when youve already got the job and youre all good friends having lunch twice a weekbut not yet.
The best part about doing this research is it also allows you to tailor your answers when you start getting hit with those interview questions.
Tailoring your answers is the best possible way to ensure that not only are you satisfying what the interviewer is asking, youre positioning yourself to be the best possible candidate for the jobor, dare we saythe perfect candidate!
Remember as youre pouring over all those notes you culled about the company and what they stand for that your ultimate goal is to be everything they need in a candidate and that means making sure your answers are specific, targeted and tailoredin a nutshell, customized.
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What Do I Need To Know Before I Apply For Disability
5 Things to Ask Yourself Before Applying for Disability Benefits Is My Condition Disabling Enough? The answer to this question may be difficult to answer. Is my condition severe enough to keep me out of work for 12 months? Am I able to continue working in any capacity? Does my work history qualify for SSDI ? Do I need assistance with filing my claim ?
Create A Location That Puts You At Ease
At a face-to-face interview, youve got to suit up and show offand roll with whatever accommodations they offerusually a grey, sterile, fluorescent-lit office. With a phone interview, you can set the scene that makes you as comfortable as possible. This doesnt necessarily mean you should do it from bed, wearing sweats and a t-shirt. In fact, some people actually feel more professional dressing up a bit, even if youre dialing in from home.
Whatever youre wearing, or wherever you choose to take the call, make sure to find a quiet spot with good service at least 30 minutes before your scheduled time. If you have a landline, use it.
Limiting background noise will help you stay focused during the interview and will not be bothersome to the person who is interviewing you, adds Wesper.
If youre video conferencing, make sure to find a spot with a great connection, or even better, use an Ethernet connection to minimize the chance of disconnecting half-way through. Find a neutral location with good lighting. Dont sit in front of a window. This creates a silhouette and youll most likely be in shadows the entire time.
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Email Sample : Responding To And Accepting A Face
Next, if youve been invited to meet in person, you can use this template to set up a day and finalize everything!
Hello NAME,
Thank you for getting back to me. Id love to come in and have the interview. Is this a full-day interview? Or how many hours should I set aside?
Im available Monday Thursday, 7:00 am 2:00 pm Central Time.
Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Best regards, Your name
This is a basic structure for responding to the company, but you can also add other details/questions as needed. For example, if you want to ask for the names of the people youll be meeting with, or the number of people youll be meeting, thats a good idea. If you need help finding the company location for a face-to-face interview, you can ask if they have instructions for arriving, too.
However, I like to get the scheduling sorted out first, and then ask other questions. Thats why I kept the email template above dead-simple. Take it one step at a time, and youll avoid confusion and complicated emails.
So Id recommend using the sample email above, and then ask further questions once a day and time is set!
Questions To Ask Your Interviewer
In addition to reviewing the typical phone interview questions that you’ll most likely be asked, it’s also important to have a list of questions ready to ask the phone interviewer. Its very possible that the interviewer will ask, at the end of the conversation, Is there anything I havent told you about the job or company that you would like to know?
Asking interested and informed questions during the phone interview can affirm your commitment to pursuing the opportunity.
Serious candidates want to know what its like to work at the organization, whether theyll fit into the corporate culture, and where their careers might take them at the company should they get the job.
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What Challenges Are You Looking For In A Position
Great candidates are always looking for growth in their next opportunity.
A good answer might go something like this. I want to work for a company that really values collaboration, and has a healthy and supportive environment where people can grow.
I am looking for an employer with lots of opportunities to collaborate with dynamic teammates who are driven to succeed. I also need a workplace where my success is celebrated so that I can continue growing as an employee.
Never Put Your Interviewer On Hold
Phone interviews dont take that long, and there probably isnt anything else going on that is really truly so urgent that you need to pause your interview. Do not put me on hold to take an important call that just beeped in, advises Jeremy Payne, head of people operations at Remote Year. I am your important call. If you are expecting extremely urgent news , be sure to preface that in the early minutes of the interview, so the recruiter is aware of the situation and so you can work with them to reschedule if that interruption does occur, he says.
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The Importance Of Getting A Teacher Phone Interview Right
Some applicants may think that a face-to-face interview is where you really shine. But if you don’t do well during the phone interview, there may not be a second interview. How you perform on the phone matters.
Last year, a new teaching colleague of mine was looking for a job in a state facing serious teacher shortages. She applied for jobs online at several schools, and within 48 hours, she had two phone interviews and one Skype interview. Every interview ended with an offer of employment. Because of her preparation and interview skills, she was able to choose from three opportunities.
Have You Had To Make A Decision That Was Unpopular With The Rest Of Your Team Describe The Circumstance And Outcome
The recruiters perspective: They want to see that you dont get all caught up in . They want to see that you can keep the focus on what needs to be done, when you are going to do it and whats going to happen, rather than how people will feel.
The answer: How Ive handled this in the past is telling a story about these multi-million dollar requests for proposals that we had to put together in three days. Not very many people were happy, but it had to be done, and people had to get on board. So, I described what I did and what I learned. The manager is not always the most popular person, but youve got to get people on board.
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Phone Interview Tips That Will Land You A Second Interview
By Jeff Gillis
Congratulations!
Your resume is stellar, your application was impeccable, youve caught a potential employers attention and now they want to get to know you better.
In years gone by that would have meant an in person interview but in todays increasingly busy digital world, many preliminary and some final interviews are being held in a wide variety of mediums including on the phone.
A phone interview? As in, we talk on the phone and not actually in person? As in, they have NO idea what Im actually wearing during the interview!? This is AMAZING!
Great, right?
FREE BONUS PDF CHEAT SHEET: Get our “Phone Interview Questions & Answers Cheat Sheet” that gives you word for word sample answers to the most common phone interview questions that you can use in your next phone interview.
Nothing like an interview for your dream job where you can lounge around in your pajamas, secretly watching TV out of the corner of your eye and, gasp, maybe even surf the web at the same time and update your status to Kickin it in my footie jammies knockin out my interview!
Nothis guy isnt ready for his phone interview!
Not so fast. Yes, its true, your future boss might not need to know that youre on the other end of the line in your favorite Scooby Doo flannels, but that doesnt mean that you shouldnt treat the phone interview as seriously, if not more seriously, than any other standard interview.
But..butbut
No buts.
More seriously? Is that even a thing?
But First: Why Are Phone Interviews A Thing
Phone interviews are, as you can imagine, convenient. As former recruiter and Muse career coach Angela Smith points out, If there are a lot of candidates and youre just trying to narrow down who to bring in for an in-person interview, sometimes a phone interview can be super helpful. Especially if someone lives out of state, it saves the hiring manager from having to pay for the person to fly in and interview in the flesh .
What are they looking for in that phone call? Usually its very high level: Theyre screening for risks, theyre trying to validate your qualifications, and they want to see if youre a fit, says Muse career coach Tina Wascovich. In other words, she says, Who are you, what do you know about us, why do you want to work here?
Of course, its entirely possible youll get asked very specific questions that are unique to the job or your field. But more often than notand usually in addition to those behavioral or technical questionsyoull get asked the following in a phone interview:
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Issues With Their Resume
A candidates resume may meet the minimum requirements but it may still have gaps or raise some concerns. Ask them to explain and listen to their answers carefully. Ideally, they should sound honest, reasonable and give concrete responses.
Example questions:
- Tell me about this two-year gap in your resume
- I can see that youve changed many jobs recently. Why did this happen?
- How would you feel about changing industries?
- Why do you want to leave your current position?
