I finally made some contact yesterday, after waiting through about two weeks of silence. I've been steadily applying for jobs as they come up, but there really aren't that many to apply to. I get through maybe three applications a day, five if it's a good day.
I had two phone calls today from companies I had applied to nearly two weeks ago. Both calls came almost at the same time, and both were interested in doing a phone interview/screening. If the screening goes well, then they bring me in to meet the managers and executives.
One of the strangest part of today's interview was that I felt totally revved up but unprepared. I had a cup of tea pulsing through my veins, probably at the most inopportune time, and I was just excited because I hadn't had a phone call in weeks.
The typical questions were there, much of it masked in HR-speak:
Where do you see yourself with this company?
Please describe a situation where you helped a client/co-worker through a situation. What did you do, and were you effective?
Salary expectations (seemed quite early, but I suppose they needed to know)
If there's a book I'd recommend about interviewing, it's Monster Careers: Interviewing: Mastering the Moment that Gets You the Job, by Jeffry Taylor and Greg Hardy. Excellent resource to navigate through those tricky interview situations. I think most job interviews are fairly predictable, so knowing where they're expecting things to go is part of the solution. The face-to-face interview is probably the key: being presentable, friendly, professional, and intelligent, all adds up to tip the scales, so to speak.
I have another phone interview/screening tomorrow afternoon. I'll be sure to blog about it then.
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