“Hey it’s Rob, can you hear me now?”
When prepping for an interview, whether it be in person or over the phone, you want to make sure certain elements are in place. You want to make sure you’re prepared to speak intelligently about your own skills and the hiring company. You also want to make sure the circumstances under your control are in fact under control.
Let me tell you about a recent time when I failed to properly prep for a call with a candidate and ended up making our first conversation one to forget.
“Hey, it’s Rob, can you hear me?” Yep, this was me, over and over and over again on a call last week. The worst part was that it was me who was the culprit. I was in my office on the phone with a candidate and every sentence I attempted to complete was a noncoherent mess. I went through an entire call with my candidate not being able to understand what I was saying. At varying points, I was told the connection was breaking up and that the candidate was getting about every two to three words of what I was saying. I then walked to different points in my building to try and “clear” the signal. This did not work.
Here I was, having wasted my own time and the candidate’s time.
I was continuing a call while making my candidate more confused and conveying incomplete information. What I should have done was simply hang up the phone and call the person back. How hard would that have been?
At this point you might be saying, are you really rambling on about an unclear call? This happens all the time, right? Well if it does, it shouldn't. This should never happen when a call is scheduled and time is limited. Despite this situation being something so simple, it really happens with folks more often than one might think.
So what is the point here?
The point is this: when making a call take the time to ensure the connection is clear and that you can be heard on the other side. Heighten the experience for you and the other person on the line. Walking away from a call with more questions than answers is no fun. Nip the connection issue in the bud from the get-go. Hang up, call back. Move to a place with better signal. Do what you must in order to make the experience a good one.
Written by: Rob Scherer, Vice President at Hunter Crown, LLC
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