One the most overlooked items with respect to the job search is the phone screen.  Many job seekers appreciate the face-to-face interview, but few focus on how to proceed through this often undervalued meeting.

The phone screen is an a process where an HR professional, hiring manager or someone who is tied to the recruitment process contacts a prospective applicant via phone.  Seems like a simple process? Actually this step is critical for a few reasons:

1. If you are successful at this stage, you will be called in for a face-to-face interview or another phone interview.
2. if you mess this one up, chances are slim you will be called back for this role or indefinitely (if the company has a good applicant tracking database)
3. Typically the lower rung or employees that have less accountable and experience are contacting you. Let’s face it, calling applicants rank low on the “nice to do jobs”, so they are often given to subordinates.  These employees lack insight into the job and lack the vision that is required to filter out the good and bad candidates.  Tell the person exactly what they want to hear and you may need to spell things out exactly.  Make a good impression and you will get a call back.
4. This is your chance to clear up some important items, like asking how much the role pays (yes, talk about money up front, there are ways of asking that makes you sound confident and not entirely money hungry), ask a few questions that will make or break the deal. After all you do not want to waster your time when you arrive to find out they are offering the position with some weird stipulation, less pay or obscenely far commute.

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