Why would any serious employer conduct so-called 'telephone interviews'? Are these things for real?

Anon - what is your issue with answering questions about your suitability for a job over the phone?

My issue with them is as follows:1. I have already sent them a sufficiently detailed CV to ascertain whether I am suitable for an interview. So why not meet me and interview me (or reject me)?2. They are paying an agent 25% of my salary or thereabouts to put them in contact with suitable candidates. The agent is content to put me forward. Do they not trust the capabilities of their own agent?3. Whilst I'm happy to answer questions on the phone, I feel that these "telephone interviews" are generally badly scripted and make it near enough impossible to "shine". An in-person interview takes exactly the same amount of time, so why not meet me? Do they not have enough office space or something?4. It smells of a 'scattergun' approach. Are they holding telephone interviews just to give their own staff a bit of training and maybe stroke their egos a little? Are they so unfocused that they have to do telephone interviews with huge numbers of candidates in order to find the ones they really want?5. These telephone interviews don't seem to assess my suitability for a job in any event. They want to run through detailed case studies and are more than just assessing my potential 'fit'. If they have a few clarifying questions before deciding whether they want to interview me, then fine. But these telephone interviews seem to be way more than just that.6. It's anonymous and impersonal. Do they hold "telephone meetings" with their clients? I doubt it!

Hello Mr NegativeGeneral - you want the job, then play by their rulesSome specificsPoint 2 - agents only care about a sale - I think that 99% of them reason that x% of their CVs sent land a role so the more CVs they send the more salesPoint 6 - you doubt they hold "telephone meetings" with clients. Wake up - most consultants have regular conference calls with their clientsAn interview is just a forum for the company to find out whether you are suitable for the role and you to decide whether you want it - shouldn't really matter if it is over the phone / videoconference or in person

Sure I'll play by their rules, but I'm interested in other people's views on telephone interviews. Basically, is a company that starts the process with telephone interviews really worth bothering with? In the same way that I tend to automatically ditch any company that expects me to fill out lengthy forms (or even worse, the ones which ask you to write mini essays about a time you showed leadership or solved a problem, etc), I'm wondering whether I should mentally chalk up the telephone interview type companies as likely time wasters (but that's not to say I might under certain circumstances give a really good role a shot despite the obstacles). If your point 2 is true (and actually, I've no reason to doubt that it is in many cases), then it beggars belief why a company would hire a recruitment agent at all.Regarding point 6, yes I'm all too familiar with conference calls etc... but do you think any enlightened company would propose a conference call instead of a face-to-face meeting for anything other than regular/ongoing matters? Somehow I can't imagine some partner sat at his desk telling someone on the other end of the phone "Really, you need some consultancy assistance and want to know more about us? One moment while I check my diary... when will you be free for a conference call? We'll tell you everything you need to know and then you can decide whether you want to take it further or send us a Dear John letter".I appreciate what you're saying about the purpose of the communication being more important than the medium - yes, in theory a telephone interview can extract the required information in just the same way a face to face meeting can... but really, whatever next? Interviews carried out by using Instant Messaging on Facebook?

Time constraints or distance to travel may be reasons for an initial phone interview. I doubt there is a 'type of company' that specifically uses phone interviews, I am sure most companies (or individual hiring managers) at one time or another use them or have used them. Maybe you could air your thoughts during the call. An astute manager may see your point and cancel future telephone interviews?

what a silly billy

Original anon - am guessing that you are due to graduate soon and looking into consultancy.Your comments seem to suggest a degree of inflexibility - bear in mind that sometimes in consultancy you will have to work under sub-optimal conditions (much like a telephone vs face to face interview) and still deliver.Waste of energy complaining - better use of time devising a strategy to work around it

I am an It consultant and telephone interviews are the norm. The company is well within thier rights to assess your initial skill base on the telephone to gague your suitability. Why would they was time money effort resouce on a face to face interview where at the outset it is clear despite your CV that your not suitable either from a skills or culture perspective?

lets put this very simply. As a consultant you often have to be able to interact with people, who you may never have met, in any number of different ways. These are often not optimal but you have to make the best of it. Therefore a telephone interview is a good test of consulting skills. It also allows copnaies to do a first cut and test things that they want to know, rather than what the apllicant tells them. In the same way this is often why specific application forms are used. They need to know specific things not just what you include on your CV.I despair of the state of the industry sometimes if the quality of people on here is anything to go by. A large number are either stupid or hold themselves in too high regard, or in this case both.

An odd attitude you have there, if I might be so bold.. I frequently have done telephone interviews and the reasons for so doing have nothing to do with your ' issue with them'. Amongst the key reasons are:1. My office is based in Paris. You'd be surprised how many timewasters there are who are keen on getting a free daytrip here;2. Most CVs that I see give a selective view of the candidate's reality. Before going on a round of interviews with the various tiers of management, I want to be able to test the candidates against a base set of scenarios and problems - that are uniquely applicable perhaps only to our particular environment - in order to arrive at a shortlist;3. I don't really care where you are or what you look like: what does matter to me, however, is are you able to react appropriately on the telephone to questions that you haven't prepared for(much of our contact and liaison during projects occurs via telephone conference due to the distributed nature of our work);4. Agencies will send CVs for, and talk up, candidates who have little relevance to our requirements. Generally, our confidence is fairly low - at least at the beginning of an engagement - in the CVs they send: therefore an early screening by telephone saves us and the candidates from wasting time, and allows the agency to focus better on our needs;4. We find that a telephone interview - once the technique has been mastered - is peculiarly effective at determining a match: probably because it's generally shorter; the concentration is on the candidate's replies to questions and not on why they've selected a weird tie, and the interviewers (presuming that there are more than one) can share notes in real time.In short, get used to it. Practice it and use it to your advantage. If you mumble and meander, you lose. If you come back with a clear, concise and apposite (preferably correct, but it's not wholly the point) response, you win. Consider this: you wouldn't go to a face-to-face interview poorly dressed and without having done some background research, would you? That's basic interview technique. An anologous approach applies to telephone interviews. Learn it and quit whining...