Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Job Search Telephone Etiquette: 6 Basic Tips it Seems Have Been Forgotten




As a career professional, I am always on the phone with clients for consultations, information gathering sessions, and follow-ups. To this day, it amazes me how few people actually know how to behave themselves on the phone. While things are slowly but surely picking up in terms of available jobs, employers are still pickier than ever and they will discount a candidate for the little things including your demeanor over the telephone.

The following six tips serve to remind you of how important it is to be courteous and warm on the phone, but also give you some other considerations that you may have lost along the way.

6. No Desperation…if you’ve been out of work for a while and your phone finally rings, don’t get so excited that the prospective employer is taken aback just by your sheer enthusiasm. Now, I’m not saying it’s wrong to be excited, but too much excitement can scare anyone away.

5. No Uncontrollable Environments…I know I’ve said it before, but if you are out in public and you cannot control the noise level around you, it may be good practice to let unknown numbers go to your voicemail. You can always call them back, but don’t ruin your first impression by asking them to repeat everything they’ve said because you can’t hear them over the blaring PA announcement or screaming kids at Wal-Mart.

4. Voicemail / Ring Tones…speaking of voicemails, consider leaving a personal greeting so that employment calls can verify that they’ve reached the right person and so they can know you are articulate and can communicate clearly (A MUST for most job opportunities). Also, if you have a custom ring tone, make sure it’s not offensive or contain vulgar language. If so, you can change it temporarily until you’ve found the position you were looking for. Lastly, it’s so irritating when the voicemail has not been set up or the mailbox is full. Check your messages often so you don’t run into these issue and stunt your job search progress.

Tips 3-1 and Complete Article

No comments:

Post a Comment