Career Blog
Interviews for your dream job, whether a co-op placement, an internship, or a full-time position, can be stressful, to say the least. Many interviews happen face-to-face, but along your career path, you may very well come across an interview via telephone.
Employers are often conducting phone interviews as part of their initial pre-screening stage. Phone interviews are often seen as less intimidating than in-person interviews, because your body language and professional attire are not considered. However, there are other things you should consider when talking to an employer on the phone: your enthusiasm while answering questions; your genuine interest for the job and the company, etc.
In this article, I’m providing you with some tips on how to ace your next phone interview and increase your chances of receiving an invitation to attend a second interview.
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Focus and Eliminate Distractions
Make sure you are in a quiet area where you are able to talk privately with minimal distractions. This will help you eliminate any potential background noise the employer could notice. If you’re doing your phone interview from home, I would recommend sitting down at a table or a proper desk during the call. I tend to lose my focus and train of thought when surrounded by distractions. It is therefore important for me to set up a “work” environment before the scheduled phone call.
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Prepare Brief Notes
Just as for an in-person interview, you should gather some thoughts and write down a few points for the common questions that you anticipate. The difference with a phone interview though is that you can have your notes in front of you as a reference. Although this may alleviate your stress, do not write down an entire script for each question, as you might not sound genuine when you read it verbatim.
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Listen Carefully
Especially during phone interviews, it is common to listen only to the first part of a question and to overlook what is being asked overall. Many jump to conclusions too early and start answering questions too quickly, without taking a 10-15 second pause to gather their thoughts and focus on how to highlight their abilities/experiences with regard to the needs of the organization. Sometimes it is also difficult to gauge when to stop talking during a phone call, as a long, awkward pause may arise while the interviewer is jotting down notes.
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Follow-up
Many people overlook this crucial last step of the interview process, and it can sometimes determine if you move on to the next stage of the hiring process or if you are eliminated from the pool of candidates. Even though you did not meet the interviewers in person, it is still very important to follow up with them via email, within 48 hours, thanking them for their time and for the consideration.
Through these tips, I hope you will feel more comfortable when your next phone interview happens! Best of luck in all of your future interviews!
What is your dream career, and how are you preparing for it right now?
“In terms of my dream career, I’m not looking at any specific role for the moment. However, I am looking into international politics in the future, and also into diplomacy. Before that, I would perhaps do some political‑risk consulting, because the global economy has always been very fascinating to me. With regard to the global economy, I’m also passionate about other cultures and ways of life. I love meeting new people and making connections beyond frontiers. In order to get ready for this career, I’ve put a lot of effort into learning languages and getting to know people around the world, essentially expanding my global network. I am currently fluent in English, French, Hindi, German, Spanish, and Italian. My goal is to speak all of the UN languages; so 3 more to go (Mandarin, Russian, and Arabic). I also want to get experience at Canadian embassies around the world through the co-op program.”
Ayaan Virani, 2nd-year International Management Student
Inspired by Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York, this weekly feature of the Telfer Career Blog will contain photography of individuals from the Telfer School of Management community and a corresponding narrative that gives us a glimpse into their lives.
Personal branding. As business students, we know what it is. We have to know what is is, or else we won’t survive.
That may be exaggerated, but it’s not entirely false. Business school is naturally competitive, and as it’s been repeated to you time and time again, you must differentiate yourself. We know how to get this done: we must network, take part in extracurricular activities, volunteer, you name it. And all of that is true. We must get involved and network in our community, or else we won’t have a certain advantage in this “competition”. However, I’m not writing this today to tell you what you already know. As a student at Telfer, I want to remind you that your personal brand will serve you better if it remains on the individual level and true to its name of “personal” brand.
As students, you may have noticed the slight lack of personality around you, or even within yourself. We tend to separate our personality, our true passions and the personal aspects of ourselves from the business persona that we define as our “personal brand”. Building a personal brand means continuously establishing a prescribed image or impression of oneself in the mind of others. It’s essentially marketing, and we tend to believe that marketing is showcasing the good stuff, and hiding the other, not so good stuff. But when it comes to personal branding, there’s no better way for you to stand out to your peers, employers, professors and LinkedIn network than by showcasing all of you. Your personality. Your true attitude. Your passions. In other words, be genuine, even when establishing your prescribed image in the business world.
To be genuine means to insure your actions are consistent with your brand. So if you’re telling employers at a networking event that you are passionate about finance and that you’re a great team player, ask yourself if you embody those things in your daily life. Are you actually good at communicating with your teammates in a group project? Do you talk about finance even outside school-related contexts? If not, then you’re not being truly genuine, and employers will eventually see that.
To give you some context, I’m an HR student, and although the field of HR is arguably not as competitive as some other specializations, it is still my job to reach my goals and to get a job after graduation, at a company I feel passionate about. To achieve my goals, I got involved with the Human Resources Association and became a Career Centre Ambassador. But, so do other students. So what’s so special about me? Well, I try to stay genuine in everything I do. I am truly passionate about the field of Human Resources, and my team at the HRA can see that. I love leadership, and my teammates can pick that up as well. Therefore, my personal brand is the professionally focused me, which is still, in the end, me.
My takeaway is to hopefully encourage you to be yourself in everything you do. Don’t be afraid to promote ideas that you are passionate about and to express yourself, because that means you will always be consistent with the brand you are communicating, whether it’s to peers, teammates or employers. And trust me, what your peers know of you, employers will as well, eventually.
“Being in Telfer has opened up so many opportunities for me. I discovered a club named Telfer Law Society where I met people who share the same goals as I did. This pushed me to learn, grow, and become the best version of myself. I am grateful for everything I have learned, especially being able to manage a perfect work/school/personal life balance.”
- Sisina Tucciarone
4th Year Marketing Student
Inspired by Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York, this weekly feature of the Telfer Career Blog will contain photography of individuals from the Telfer School of Management community and a corresponding narrative that gives us a glimpse into their lives.
Some of us have heard of ghosting in the dating context. It is quite a vague concept. While some people consider it to be when someone stops communicating with you, regardless if you two have gone on a date yet or not, some consider ghosting to be only when a person stops answering your text messages post-date (probably because he or she is too afraid to be confrontational about not being interested anymore).
However, in the HR world, ghosting can mean something else: when a recruiter stops responding to you after you have done multiple interviews.
Professional recruiters say that ghosting is becoming more and more of a problem. The people applying to jobs and being ghosted aren’t happy either and consider this ghosting quite rude and unprofessional. When a person puts time and effort into applying for a job, preparing for an interview, attending the interview (and sometimes even attending multiple interviews!), is it unreasonable to expect at least a brief email stating that the company has selected another candidate?
Some companies have policies in place about this: they contact everyone who got an interview, even the unsuccessful candidates. However, things happen, managers can mess up, and sometimes, someone doesn’t hear back. Whether this is the case or not, you should always follow‑up after an interview to thank the employer for the opportunity. Read more about that here.
If the recruiter doesn’t reply back, wait it out. I would recommend waiting a few weeks before sending a follow-up email. Some people also recommend calling and getting straight to the point, something along the lines of: “Hi, this is so-and-so calling about the interview I had a while back for the so-and-so position. I haven’t heard back, and I was wondering what was the status of the job application”. You should get your answer right there.
However, there is also a situation where a manager completely stops responding and begins to ignore calls and emails. I won’t go into detail: there are numerous personal stories from hurt and dissatisfied job hunters. Some say that a passive-aggressive email is best (see Jane Turkewitz’s suggested email), however, my personal recommendation is to give it 8 weeks (unless you are positive it will take longer) from the interview date, and then to simply assume that the company has chosen someone else. Not only did they miss out on someone as amazing and educated as you, but they also did it in such an unprofessional and rude way that left a sour taste in your mouth. Would you want to work for such a company? Hold your head high and apply to more jobs. You dodged a bullet.
"My third year has been great so far! It’s more fun, because I get to specialize and learn more about my area, Marketing. The class sizes are smaller now than in first and second years, which means there’s more time to talk to professors.
Also, I recently got a new job at a bank. Everything at Telfer has helped me with this position. I’ve learned to manage my time properly between school, work, family and friends.
Telfer also offers many opportunities to find a job, whether it be an internship or a co-op term. I’ve experienced it myself. It is indeed an academic advisor from Telfer who told me about that summer internship at the bank. I applied, and I got the job!"
- Tareq Farah
3rd Year Marketing Student
Inspired by Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York, this weekly feature of the Telfer Career Blog will contain photography of individuals from the Telfer School of Management community and a corresponding narrative that gives us a glimpse into their lives.
“Who are your biggest inspirations in life?”
"My biggest inspirations in life are my parents. Growing up poor in Pakistan, my parents did not have many of the simple things that a lot of us take for granted. In 2008, I had the opportunity to visit my Mother’s childhood home. Upon arrival, the sight of the kitchen left me in disbelief and shock. You could barely fit two people in there. What was even more shocking to me was the fact that my father’s kitchen was even smaller than that. My father and his family lived an underprivileged life. Fruits were a luxury for him and was something that his family indulged in twice a year. Looking back, I now understand why during my childhood, my dad only ever bought fruits for dessert. He’d spoil me by making me smoothies and bringing cut fruit to my room.
In 1995, my parents took the courageous step of leaving their life in Pakistan behind and starting a new chapter in Canada. I am proud to say that my parents worked so hard to get to where they are now. They are now very proud small business owners in Toronto. However, to this day, my mother determinedly works 10 + hours, 7 days a week. Sometimes this makes me sad, but it’s also comforting and gratifying to know that I have such inspiring and loving parents. I hope one day I will be able to accomplish something remotely close to what they have done and make them as proud as they have made me."
- Mishal Butt
3rd Year Marketing Student, Member of WMN
Inspired by Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York, this weekly feature of the Telfer Career Blog will contain photography of individuals from the Telfer School of Management community and a corresponding narrative that gives us a glimpse into their lives.
“I’d really love to go abroad for an extended period of time, but I’m just a poor student with no money.”
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say that, myself included. It’s almost as if being a student and travelling abroad are mutually exclusive. However, there is a way to get around this barrier. Doing a work term or finding a job in a foreign country! There is hard work involved, but with persistence and motivation, you will be rewarded.
By doing a work term abroad, you’ll have the chance to not only collect work experience, but more importantly make memories for a lifetime! For a long time, I had wanted to visit Germany, but due to CO-OP removing any possibility of a vacation, I had always thought that I would only ever get to go there on exchange and even then only if I received my first choice of university. Thanks to my program (International Management) I am obliged to go on an exchange, which is a fantastic thing, but for a lot of students in other commerce options, that is not an option.
Now, you might be asking, how do I find postings in a different country all the way here from Canada? Simple! Use Google! There are a number of firms which operate in countries all over the globe such as Deloitte, EY and KPMG among many others. For example, when I was looking for potential internship options in Germany, I simply googled, “(Company Name) Deutschland (Germany) Karriere”. If you wanted France, you’d use the same principle but with “France” and “carrière”. I also googled search terms like “Biggest Swiss banks”or “Biggest German companies”. These yielded a lot of results and often the websites of these companies had special options for students looking for an internship.
Following this, you’ll have to sort using parameters so that you find a job in your field of study (ex: Finance). There are usually checkboxes for that. Then, you will have to read over all the job postings and bookmark those that you would like to apply for. Here, you will find potentially the biggest hurdle to your candidacy. A lot of jobs require that you speak the local language and in any case, knowing the language of the country you wish to work in, as well as English is a huge asset. If you know English and French, a number of countries, such as France and the UK, among others, are already fully open for you. If you wish to apply to countries like Spain or Italy, it will obviously be required in a number of positions that you speak either Spanish or Italian to a decent level. If you are willing to put in the work, you would definitely be helping your chances.
After you have found the jobs that are right for you and that you want to apply to, you have to first rewrite your resumé in the accepted format of the country you wish to work in. For example: In Germany, one hardly uses more than a few words for each experience/activity and includes a photo in their resumé. These things are not usually the norm in Canada or in other countries. Therefore it is important to google the accepted resumé format and structure it accordingly. Sometimes, it might be necessary to use the local language for your application and it is quite likely that there will be errors. However, one can find help right at home in Ottawa. Usually, there are a number of exchange students studying at Telfer at any given time, and one can meet them at the events hosted by Telfer International. They can help you with the structure of your résumé and correct any mistakes. The second step is to write a cover letter following the right format and tailored to the job. Again, it would be ideal if you were able to get the help of a local so that your cover letter is ready for the job.
Based on my (German) experience, it is usually also necessary to include proof that you graduated high school and that you’re currently enrolled as a university student. If the country you are applying to requires that you have your résumé written in another language, include your English resumé anyway because of the fact that a lot of the job postings clearly state that good English language skills are a huge asset.
Once you have all the required documents, go ahead and submit your application. I had to wait 1-2 weeks for responses from the companies, so it is necessary to be patient and not dwell on it. It is also important that you be prepared for a lot of rejections. A lot of the times, companies will prefer local candidates or have a host of other reasons for not taking you on. The main point here is that you will most likely not succeed immediately. However, that is not necessarily a bad thing. Staying persistent and not giving up is key. My personal interview to total job applications submitted ratio was about 1:20. Despite this, I never gave up and I got the chance to interview with Ernst and Young Germany. So remember, keep working hard and you will get the reward you deserve.
Interviews will depend on the position you are applying for, but based on my experience, my interview with EY was quite similar to interviews I had previously had in Canada.
Following the interview, I was notified that I had gotten the job that I had applied for (International Tax Reporting -Transfer Pricing) and I am going to be heading to Germany for my first co-op term in May 2019! I hope my experience was helpful and that it gives you the spark you need to start blazing your own trail in the world!
What does it mean to be a leader?
A ‘leader’ doesn’t just ‘lead’ the group. A ‘leader’, is not just someone who has followers that look up to them. A ‘leader’ isn’t just someone who knows how to delegate.
A leader is someone who strives to make other leaders. As a leader, your first goal is to empower your team members.
But how can this be done? Here are things I learned as a student in a leadership position.
Delegate, delegate, delegate
This doesn’t mean to simply boss people around. Delegation is how any organization moves forward, and is one of your key roles as a leader. However, it is important to find a balance between lack of involvement and micromanaging when you are delegating. Your team members need to learn for themselves and go through the same struggles you went through in order to grow both professionally and personally, but they need to be able to use you as a resource. It is important to find that balance between delegation and micromanaging. You want to give your employees their space to do their assignments how they want, but still be near in case they encounter challenges. This can be done by asking your employees what they need help doing, what they are finding easy or hard, how their tasks have been proceeding so far, etc. Then you can step in as you see appropriate.
Motivate your team
This is probably the most important takeaway. Motivating your team can be difficult, but isn’t impossible. Firstly, encourage your members. Remind them of the importance of their work, remind them that they are a crucial part of the organization. Second, celebrate their successes. Make them feel proud for what they have accomplished. Doing this will give them the confidence to aim even higher next time. Finally, show that you rely on them and trust that they will do the best job possible. By doing this, they won’t want to let you down and will put their highest efforts towards their tasks.
Be approachable and understanding
Your team members will make mistakes and it is important that they feel comfortable coming to you when encountering challenges. You can do this by speaking to them on the same level. Don’t let your ego of being given a leadership title get in the way of the success of the organization. A strongly divided hierarchy is intimidating and makes you look more unapproachable. Don’t be afraid to share your mistakes or admit when you are wrong. By doing this, your team members are less likely to hide their mistakes too. Finally, encourage a strong team dynamic; you want to be friends with your team. This can happen by planning team socials, celebratory dinners, and talking about things not work related- actually getting to know your team members will make you more approachable.
To conclude, leading a team cannot be taught in a short blog, it is something you learn overtime. Remember these three points, and you will be off to a great start. When in doubt, remember every leader, manager, or supervisor you ever worked under: what did they do to (de)motivate you?
One of the main reasons I joined the Telfer Career Centre as an ambassador was because someone told me it would be a great way to learn how to network. The Centre allowed me to start networking in a pressure-free environment. As I started volunteering at networking events and information sessions held by various employers, I was able to practise networking easily. In many of these events, I had to communicate with our guest employers to ensure everything goes smoothly. The best part is that I was paired with another student, usually a volunteer. This proved to be especially important during my first few networking events. It made all the difference knowing that I had a partner there with me.
Getting involved with Telfer also let me see all the opportunities made available to students. I had a chance to meet the people involved in some of my favourite events. When I first heard that it was possible for clubs to prepare case competitions and to compete against other schools from other cities, I was astounded. In other clubs, volunteers are called upon to help organize events such as the CASCO annual gala, which showcases everybody’s hard work towards a great cause. These are only few of the many opportunities and experiences you have access to by getting involved with the Telfer Career Centre. Were it not for my work as an ambassador, I would never have heard or known about some of these events and the complexity of their planning.
Lastly, volunteering at the Telfer School is, in my opinion, one of the best ways to make friends. I often saw the same students in class, but I barely got to know any of them. Once I became an ambassador, I started to realize that many of my classmates were also volunteers! My work as a volunteer gave me a fantastic opportunity to become acquainted with a lot more people from my program and to build my network. This wouldn’t have been possible without the Career Centre!