Phone Interview Number 2

I had phone interview number two today. It went pretty well but I still feel as if I’m only marginally better at the phone interview style. I prefer face to face and there’s some amount of disconnect if I’m trying to sell myself based on voice, cadence and what I can actually say in a 20 minute conversation. I won’t say the company until I know if I got the job or got denied but I will say that it’s a sales job. I have three years of experience in customer service so sales as a whole is somewhat easy at this point but quota based sales has never been something I’ve done. The fact that it was quota based and I’ve only had regular sales and customer service experience seemed to be the interviewer’s biggest concern. I can’t fault her for that but everyone’s got to start somewhere, right? I think I nailed the question about if I could keep up in that sort of environment though and maybe that coupled with at least a little bit of experience and a college degree will help me in the long run. I feel as if I did better on this one than the first one but I guess we’ll see in a few days.

It’s been interesting trying to turn this blog into me logging the do’s and don’ts and working methods of my personal job search. I’ve tweeted my resume post to a few celebrities asking for a RT but no luck yet. WordPress community member @michaeltorbert tweeted it to his followers for me and multiple RT’d him as well which was definitely a big help and I thank all of them for that. A lot of this seems to be based on timing and the earlier in the day you can get your link rolling, the more people will see it in the long run and, in turn, tweet it.

I have yet to receive any offers but I also didn’t expect this to work very fast. I figure at the rate the current job market is expanding, I likely won’t receive anything through simple applications over the course of the next year. I may get an interview, maybe even a second round interview, but due to how competitive the job world is, without any contacts I may have to wait a while. I feel as if I’ve mentally prepared myself for this more than some of my colleagues and hopefully that will help me with the rejection over the long run.

Overall after about 3 months of casually searching and 4 weeks of REALLY putting myself out there, I’ve realized that a lot of this world has become knowing people. I had always realized that but never fully believed it. I think this is a majority of the reason that I really dislike phone interviews and would rather walk up to someone, look them in the eye, introduce myself and shake their hand. I do much better one-on-one and think it’s because I excel at giving off a genuine feel and positive vibe; that’s something that isn’t as evident by many people on the phone.

Another thing I’ve realized in that time (and in line with what I just said) is that I need to get better at verbally selling myself. A lot of people can put up a facade and show that they’re just as good as the next guy but it’s really how you speak of yourself that does the trick and gets your foot in the door to room two. Unfortunately, I feel as if there’s no real way for me to work on verbally selling myself over the phone so it may just take finding an interview and falling on my face to finally get the hang of it. Sure you can practice with a friend or family member, but in the end, they already know you and subconsciously you’re more comfortable with that.

Tomorrow I leave for Raleigh and, subsequently, WordCamp Raleigh. Maybe I can finally get some pictures put onto that ‘My Trips’ tab up there. My brother graduates that following weekend, my friend’s commissioning party (Air Force) is that weekend, and I should be doing things like Braves games, museums, etc. at points during the trip.