Tips to Make Sure You Don’t Mess Up Your Next Phone Interview - a podcast by Brian Clapp - Work in Sports

Phone interviews are the pre-screening of choice for most sports employers, so we will all have to face them at some point. How do you nail the phone interview so you can get the face-to-face one? That's the subject of this weeks Q&A!Hi everybody I’m Brian Clapp Director of Content for WorkinSports.com and this is the Work in Sports podcast.Last week on our private facebook group I asked everyone to post a GIF that exemplifies the status of their sports job search.43 people responded… and they were pretty darn hilarious, but at the same time kind of depressing. 81% of the respondents had negative themes to their current job search.The cat running up a slide and getting nowhere… kid crying during a TV interview… a justin timberlake or two…I mean I laughed a lot…but it was sad, man.I want better things for all of you, that’s why I do this damn show. I’m not here for the sponsors… psst, there aren’t any.Unemployment is low thanks to Obama, and we have over 10,000 sports jobs available on our site right now, so what is going wrong?  Where is the disconnect between your skills and their openings?Before we get into today’s question, which is related to this subject, you’ll see…I want you to go through a little checklist:As yourself:* Am I being too specific? – Sometimes you need to broaden your search and change what you are willing to accept as an entry level position to get things started.* Am I being too rigid on where? I’ve said it many times before, you often need to relocate for sports careers – go where the opportunities are, take some chances, sports isn’t a passive industry, you can’t wait for something to come to your door. Also, make this clear in your cover letter. Finish off by saying something like – “While I am not currently local to the Pittsburgh area, I am willing and anxious to relocate for an opportunity like yours.” Phrase it better, but let it be known relocating is not an issue.* Are you lacking primary skills? You need the tangibles! What do you have that they need – if you can’t answer that question, you have work to do.* Have you done a personal audit? Check yourself and your skill set against job descriptions. Where are the gaps?* Are you networking? If you aren’t connecting with all of the gueests on this show – if you are active on LinkedIn sharing, commenting and liking, if you aren’t going to your career center and finding out about alumni in your area of expertise – you are not working hard enough at getting a job. It’s work – put in the time.Alright let’s get on to today’s question – this one comes from Morgan in South Bend – I have known Morgans who are men, and Morgan’s who are women, so I will not specify gender and I will not judge. Morgan asks –I’ve been binge listening to your podcast and I have to say I love it, I can’t believe how much advice you give that motivates and inspires me to take action.[thanks morgan]You’ve talked a lot about interview techniques including video interviews… but I have a phone interview next week that I am very nervous about. Do you have any tips?YES! I’ll tell you this, I hate phone interviews. They always feel off-rhythm to me. I know for me personally I feed off of body language and reading the room… without that I feel like I’m trying to play basketball with both my hands tied behind my back.Which means I dribble with my face. Which is awkward.That said, phone interviews are a reality of our world and the most common pre-screening used before bringing someone in for an in person interview… so we all must deal.Here are a few tips to help smooth out this phone conversation:Let’s start with a couple easy logistical issues that are pre-interview – remember someone has to call you first to set up the interview:1: Check your voicemail outgoing message.

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