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Job Interviews: 8 Tips to Scoring Phone Interviews

Posted by Harshad

Job Interviews: 8 Tips to Scoring Phone Interviews


Job Interviews: 8 Tips to Scoring Phone Interviews

Posted: 15 Apr 2013 02:39 AM PDT

Many interviewers usually use phone interviews as a pre-screening filter for further interview assessments. Think it’s a piece of cake getting ready for your phone interview with your potential employer? Beware, whether you actually make it to the follow-up actual interview depends on how well you do on the phone.

Contrary to popular belief, phone interviews can be substantially different from face-to-face interviews. After all, it is essentially an exchange of verbal words without any hint of body language, so you can’t bank on them to help make an impression. In circumstances like these, pausing too long could hint on hesitation or a loss of concentration.

We take a look at how phone interviews are different and hence require a different strategy to score. Here are 8 exclusive tips that will get you well-prepared for that incoming phone interview.

1. Prepare Like It’s In-Person

A lot of people have the impression that telephone interview is easier than a face-to-face interview. To some extent, that may be true because you’ll feel less pressure without the presence of the interviewer.

However, as a result of this perception, interviewees tend to treat such phone interviews lightly and unknowingly sabotage their chances by going in unprepared or using a less-than-formal tone with the interviewer.

The best policy is to treat the interview as how you would treat any formal in-person interview, aka don’t cut yourself some slack. Prepare and rehearse answers to tackle some of the most asked interview questions.

You should also consider washing up and dressing up for the occasion even though you’re doing the interview in the comforts of your home. This will put you in the right mindset so that you will communicate to the interviewer in the proper manner.

2. Speak Clearly & With Energy

Not having the interviewer see you squirm with anxiety might be a plus for you, but it can also be highly detrimental. Since they’re not able to see you at all, they’ll need to rely heavily on your voice tone and pitch to assess you and gauge your confidence level.

Most of us are aware how different (and weird) we sound over the recorder. Even if you think you’re speaking clearly and with energy by your own standards, the other party may still think otherwise when they hear you speak.

To get a more accurate feedback of how you sound like over the phone, you might want to get a few friends to practise with and help you determine what you can improve on. At the very least, you should try recording your own voice and playing it back to hear it. Some of the more common speech issues include speaking too fast, slurring and talking monotonously. All you need is practice, practice and more practice.

3. Body language Matters

Let’s try this: smile and talk to yourself in front of the mirror and compare that with just talking to yourself without smiling. You’ll notice that your voice sounds more lively and friendlier whe you smile because your vocal cords are pulled differently. Besides that, you’ll instinctively find yourself more relaxed and positive when you do that.

So what does this mean? Well, if you slouch your body on your couch during the phone interview, you sound different from when you are sitting upright in a chair. And the interviewer can tell the difference. This is because your posture affects how you breathe and consequently your tone of voice.

If you can, during the interview try to talk into a Bluetooth earset so that your hands are free to gesture. Gesturing has been known to facilitate thinking, helps one to be more fluent in their speech and increases the level of enthusiasm in one’s voice.

4. Have All the Info with You

One edge you have with a phone interview is that you can lay down all the info you need in front of you. You can worry less about the details of your resume or stumbling upon a touch interview question that requires an online check.

To be safe, have a computer with you and stay connected throughout the interview. This is for an emergency scenario when the interviewer asks something you didn’t prepare for and couldn’t answer them on the spot.

They might ask you questions pertaining to the company you’re applying for, or general knowledge about the industry (e.g. any ideas who our competitors are, and what market share they hold?). Whatever it is, don’t take too long on your search or you will seem inattentive, preoccupied or hesitant to them. Oh, they might hear you type too!

5. Anticipate the Uncertainty

Like face-to-face interviews, expect yourself to encounter silences from the interviewer. It’s easy to jump into conclusions and feel uncomfortable when that happens. Don’t be too quick to fill in the gaps to break the deafening silence because it might give a less-than-confident vibe. Remember that the interviewer may be taking notes on the other hand.

To lessen the uncertainty and gain some control for yourself, try this: Get a photo of your interviewer if possible and place it in front of you. As he or she conducts the interview, look at the photo and visualize the interviewer’s expression to reduce your anxiety.

It will feel much more natural for you as you speak and it helps in relieving your tension as compared to simply listening and answering to the voice on the other side of the line.

6. Arrange Appropriate Time & Place

The other thing that’ll empower you as an interviewee is your freedom to arrange the time and set up the environment for the interview. Even if they call up impromptu, they will usually ask if you’re okay to take the interview now or check with you later in at a more suitable time.

Try to agree on a time when you’re most energetic (e.g. morning) and have some extra time to spare, just in case the interviewer takes longer than expected (typically 20 to 30 minutes).

Once you’ve fixed the interview appointment, it’s time to prepare for the interview environment. Common sense tells you that you’ll want it to be a place where it’s quiet with few distractions around.

However, you probably wouldn’t want to conduct the phone interview in your office if you’re switching jobs! The best place I can think of is your house and in a locked room if you live with others and/or have pet(s) around.

7. When Unclear, Paraphrase

Sometimes you may have the tough luck of getting an inexperienced interviewer or one who likes to mumble through his sentences. Yet, it seems improper to just ask him or her to repeat what was asked because it might reflect badly on you, making you sound as though you are inattentive or easily distracted. What do you do then?

One good way is to paraphrase their questions. Turn their question into a question from a different angle and ask for verification. This will appear more polite than to say 'I’m sorry?’ or 'Can you repeat your question?’ and thus possibly avoid offending the interviewer.

It’s okay even if you paraphrased it incorrectly because at least it shows that you’ve taken the effort to ascertain what was being asked.

8. Check Your Landline or Mobile Phone Line

It’s the era for mobile phones but if you don’t want to risk poor phone reception or even worse, disconnection, opt for the more reliable landline. If none is available, ensure that all your notifications and alerts are turned off if you can anticipate their call.

The sudden background tone or vibration can be a major distraction when you’re being interviewed. Again, treat it like an actual face-to-face interview.

Whether you’re using a mobile phone line or a landline, be sure to check with someone to see if the other side could hear you loud and clear. Do the same checks for volume and distortions to ensure both sides are comfortable conversing through the phone.

UI Design: Creating Cool OS X Flip Effect with CSS3 3D Rotation

Posted: 15 Apr 2013 02:35 AM PDT

There are two types of transform available in CSS3 specification, 2D and 3D. In our previous post, we have discussed on CSS3 Transform 2D. So, this time, we are going to look into transform elements in 3D space and specifically in this post, we are going to also create the OSX Flip Effect.

Click “View demo” below to see how the end result is going to look like.

3D Rotation Syntax

The Rotation in 3D space is basically similar to 2D, which we have discussed previously. To rotate the element vertically, we can write it in this way.

  -webkit-transform: rotateX(Ndeg);  -moz-transform: rotateX(Ndeg);  transform: rotateX(Ndeg);

We are also able to flip horizontally this way.

  -webkit-transform: rotateY(Ndeg);  -moz-transform: rotateY(Ndeg);  transform: rotateY(Ndeg);

There are many great resources you can take a look at to dig into CSS3 3D Transform further. Below are our recommendations.

OSX Flip Effect

As we mentioned above, we are going to apply CSS3 Transform to create the OSX or iOS flip effect. If you are using these OS, you probably are already familiar with these effects. In OSX, you can mostly find them in the Gadget of the Dashboard.

In the old days, creating such an effect is purely achieved with JavaScript libraries. But today, we are able to make it simpler by combining it with CSS3 Transform.

Assets

This time, we only need the jQuery and this PSD of iOS Passbook from Dribbble for our graphical UI. With Photoshop, we are able to do some adjustment.

Then, pick one of the passbook graphic and save it in two files: the front and the back face. In this case, we picked the Starbuck Passbook, as follows.

HTML

Then, let’s create a new basic HTML document and place the following markup inside the <body>.

  <section class="passbook">  	<div class="card front">  		<img src="img/starbuck-front.png">  		<a href="#" class="info flip">i</a>  	</div>  	<div class="card back">  		<ul class="nav">  			<li class="title">Starbuck Coffee</li>  			<li class="button done"><a class="flip" href="#">Done</a></li>  		</ul>  		<img src="img/starbuck-back.png">  	</div>  </section>  

As you can see above, we contain the front and back face in two different <div>. At the front face, we will have a link, which will flip the Passbook when clicked. Whilst on the back face, we also have a link to flip it back.

CSS

I will assume you have created a new CSS file. In this stylesheet, we will first specify the Passbook dimension and set the transform style to preserve-3d, that way the child elements will be transformed into 3D as well. And, we also added a transition effect to make the flip run smoothly.

Recommended Reading: CSS3 Transform: preserve-3D Documentation

  .passbook {  	position: relative;  	width: 300px;  	height: 380px;  	margin-bottom: 100px;    	-webkit-transform-style: preserve-3d;  	-moz-transform-style: preserve-3d;  	transform-style: preserve-3d;    	-webkit-transition: 0.5s;  	-moz-transition: 0.5s;  	transition: 0.5s;    	margin-left: 85px;  }

Then, we also set the card position to absolute, so each card will stack atop one another. We also need to hide the back face with backface-visibility property.

  .card {   	position: absolute;    	-webkit-backface-visibility: hidden;  	-moz-backface-visibility: hidden;  	backface-visibility: hidden;  }  

Front Face

Now, we add decorative styles to the link on the front face, as follows.

  .front .info {  	width: 18px;  	height: 18px;  	border-radius: 21px;  	font-family: "Georgia", serif;  	font-style: italic;  	background-color: #075621;  	color: #fff;  	text-align: center;  	position: absolute;  	right: 10px;  	bottom: 15px;  	font-size: 11px;  	line-height: 18px;  	display: block;  	text-decoration: none;  }  

We also need to position the front face above the back face by specifying the z-index higher.

  .front {  	z-index: 1;  }

Back Face

For the back face, we need to initially flip it.

  .back {  	-webkit-transform: rotateY(180deg);  	-moz-transform: rotateY(180deg);  	transform: rotateY(180deg);  }

Then, we add decorative styles to the navigation, including changing the text color, adding gradient color to the link button, and positioning it in the proper place.

  .back .nav {  	padding: 0;  	margin: 0;  	color: #fff;  	font-size: 12px;  	width: 100%;  	font-weight: bold;  }  .back .nav li {  	display: inline;  	position: absolute;  	top: 18px;  }  .back .nav a {  	font-weight: bold;  	text-decoration: none;  	padding: 7px 10px;  	border: 1px solid #095d25;  	border-radius: 5px;  	color: #fff;    	background: -moz-linear-gradient(top,  rgba(255,255,255,0.3) 0%, rgba(0,0,0,0.5) 100%);  	background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,rgba(255,255,255,0.3)), color-stop(100%,rgba(0,0,0,0.5)));  	background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top,  rgba(255,255,255,0.3) 0%,rgba(0,0,0,0.5) 100%);  	background: -o-linear-gradient(top,  rgba(255,255,255,0.3) 0%,rgba(0,0,0,0.5) 100%);  	background: -ms-linear-gradient(top,  rgba(255,255,255,0.3) 0%,rgba(0,0,0,0.5) 100%);  	background: linear-gradient(to bottom,  rgba(255,255,255,0.3) 0%,rgba(0,0,0,0.5) 100%);  }  .back .nav a:hover {  	background: -moz-linear-gradient(top,  rgba(255,255,255,0.4) 0%, rgba(0,0,0,0.55) 100%);  	background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,rgba(255,255,255,0.4)), color-stop(100%,rgba(0,0,0,0.55)));  	background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top,  rgba(255,255,255,0.4) 0%,rgba(0,0,0,0.55) 100%);  	background: -o-linear-gradient(top,  rgba(255,255,255,0.4) 0%,rgba(0,0,0,0.55) 100%);  	background: -ms-linear-gradient(top,  rgba(255,255,255,0.4) 0%,rgba(0,0,0,0.55) 100%);  	background: linear-gradient(to bottom,  rgba(255,255,255,0.4) 0%,rgba(0,0,0,0.55) 100%);  }  .back .nav .title {  	left: 105px;  }  .button.done {  	right: 10px;  }

Lastly, we add a class to flip the Passbook horizontally, like so.

  .rotate-3d {  	-webkit-transform: rotateY(180deg);  	-moz-transform: rotateY(180deg);  	transform: rotateY(180deg);  }

jQuery

The jQuery part is rather simple. First, don’t forget to link the jQuery library in the <head>, like so.

  <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.8.3/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>  

Then, we use toggleClass function from jQuery to apply .rotate-3d class that we have added in the stylesheet above.

  <script type="text/javascript">  	$(document).ready(function(){  		$('a.flip').click(function(event){  			$('.passbook').toggleClass('rotate-3d');  			event.preventDefault();  		});  	});  </script>  

That’s all the codes we need. It’s clearly much simpler than purely using JavaScript to achieve a similar effect. As usual, you can now view the demo and the download the source in the links below.

Getting Facebook Home On Unsupported Android Devices [Quicktip]

Posted: 15 Apr 2013 02:33 AM PDT

After releasing its redesign of their new News Feed the Facebook team released a new Android launcher called Facebook Home. So far, Facebook Home is only supported on a few phones: HTC One X, One X+, Samsung Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2.

But if you really, really love Facebook and cannot wait for deployment of a wider spread, then have we got just the post for you.

Getting Started

If you already have Facebook app and Facebook Messenger installed, make sure you have them uninstalled first.

To install Facebook Home, download the modified APK of Facebook app and Facebook Home (FB_HOME.rar) as well as the Facebook Messenger (com.facebook.orca.apk) with chat fix.

Once downloaded, extract the .rar file. We recommend B1 Free Archiver (which is free). With that installed, open the app and look for your downloaded rar file. Tap FB_HOME.rar once and choose Extract here.

The extracted files should contain com.facebook.home.apk and com.facebook katana.apk.

First, look for com.facebook.home.apk. Tap on it and choose Install.

Click Next and install.

Repeat the same steps for com.facebook katana.apk and com.facebook.orca.apk.

After installing all 3 files, open up Facebook app and login to your account.

Once you reach the home page, you will see a button saying ‘Finish Setup’. Tap it to launch the Facebook Home launcher.

Choose Home and is up to you whether you want to set it as the default android launcher or not.

And there you have it. Facebook Home on your android.

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Enabling and disabling facebook home

If you want to opt out of seeing Facebook Home all the time, go to your Facebook app home page and head to ‘Settings’.

Scroll to the bottom and you will see ‘Enable Facebook Home’. Untick it to disable and you’re done.

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