Re: Preparation for a phone screen interview

["Mike O." <obie1121 -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

George wrote:
> I have a phone screen interview with an enterprise 
> software company for a senior technical writing position. 
> The manager told me they were going to ask me 15 standard 
> questions they ask all applicants but she didn't seem
> inclined to share with me what those questions might be. Any 
> suggestions?

Here are my expectations, based on my experiences:

If you are interviewing with the documentation manager, I'd
expect you will be asked about your expertise on his/her her
favorite publishing tool, and sadly those will probably be the
most critical questions of the interview. If you can find out in
advance what they use, it would help to brush up on it and be
ready to talk about it. 

If you are interviewing with a project manager, I'd expect
him/her to probe you about your experience in developing project
docs like requirements, specs, and test plans, because they are
probably already behind schedule with those documents. 

If you are interviewing with an HR person, they might be
screening you with HR questions like your citizenship status,
salary demands, clarification of employment dates, reasons for
leaving, references, "tell me details about that job in 1992" 
etc... Have all your documents at hand. 

If you are interviewing with a technical person, I'd expect them
to ask you about your experience with their database and their
core programming language. If they give you some conversational
space, try throwing a semi-thoughtful question at them like "Are
you putting JavaDoc comments in your code?" (or whatever
language they are using). Try answering the question, and then
going to a higher level of detail: For example, if they ask you
about your experience with XML, ask them "Are you using
Microsoft's XML tools? or W3C standard? Are you using schemas or
DTDs?  An African or European swallow?") etc. As long as you
know what you are talking about.

If it is 15 standard questions that they screen everybody with,
I'd expect it to be a very brief phone call, not really like an
interview at all. So you might not even get a chance to speak
much, which can be very disconcerting.

The fact that they won't discuss the questions with you in
advance is a red flag that they intend to use the element of
surprise to see how you react under stress. Get a good night's
sleep, eat breakfast, switch to decaf, do whatever it takes to
get yourself in a good frame of mind. Before answering each
question, take a deep breath and count to three... measure your
words, and don't speak excitedly even if you are passionate
about the topic (i.e., don't babble). If you do say something
you regret, just move on to the next topic and don't try to
mitigate it or recover, they aren't listening and you'll only
make it worse. 

Good luck,
Mike O.

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