Career Worth Living For!
Hullo? You there?
I just spent a full 3 hours last week conducting phone interviews to hire customer support associates and here are some interesting responses which, I thought, are “noteworthy”.
I purposefully spoke only in English to see how the applicant will react and how well they spoke the language as I do need fluent Engish-speakers (by the way, all of them stated in their resume that they spoke Good English):
Â
Q: Hi, this is Ethan calling for your phone interview (interrupted)…
A: Sorry, I’m crossing the road now. Can you call later?
Â
Q: Hi, this is Ethan calling for your phone interview, is this a good time to talk?
A: Yes.
Background: “Please stand back from the door. <Doo doo doo doo doo doo>” (MTR train door closing)
Q: Ok, I’m sure you took a look at our website to understand our business. Do you have any questions from there?
Background: “Next stop, Tsim Sha Tsui…” intermixed with “Yes, I saw your website. Can you tell me more?”
A: : (
Q: I’m sure you took a look at our website to understand our business. Do you have any questions from there?
A: What website?
Â
Q: I’m sure you took a look at our website to understand our business. Do you have any questions from there?
A: Can you spell your company’s name for me, please?
Â
Q: Why did you apply for this job with us?
A: Haha.. I applied for many customer service jobs.
Â
Q: I’m sure you took a look at our website to understand our business. Do you have any questions from there?
A: No.
Â
Q: I’m sure you took a look at our website to understand our business. Do you have any questions from there?
A: I’m sorry but last night my computer was down and I couldn’t look at the website.
Â
Q: You worked in your last job in a hotel for only 5 months. Why do you want to leave now?
A: * Click *
Q: Hullo? You there? Hullo??
Afternote: This candidate was not confident in speaking English from the first minute of the call and gave mostly monosyllabic answers like, “No,” and “Yes”.
Â
Q: Why did you leave your last job?
A: Yes, I have been in administration for the past 3 years and have been handling the preparation of quotation, invoice printing and compilation of reports. Also, I am the receptionist of the company answering phone calls and enquiries and I deal with sending and receiving packages and letters. Yes. I am also my boss’ assistant and my job is to help him make appointments and take his phone calls. Yes. So, it is one salary 3 jobs. I am experienced and stable. Yes.
Q: I’m not too sure I understand. Can you tell me again why you left your last job?
A: Yes, I have been in administration for the past 3 years and have been handling the preparation of quotation, invoice printing and compilation of reports. Also, I am the receptionist of the company answering phone calls and enquiries and I deal with sending and receiving packages and letters. Yes. I am also my boss’ assistant and my job is to help him make appointments and take his phone calls. Yes. So, it is one salary 3 jobs. I am experienced and stable. Yes.
Q: ???!?!?!
No TweetBacks yet. (Be the first to Tweet this post)
| Print article | This entry was posted by Ethan Pang on December 17, 2008 at 3:53 pm, and is filed under Blog. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 1 year ago
I think it is quite interesting when I am reading this post.
However, it is a disaster to a HR officer. HR officers expect the candidates know which company and post they have applied, candidates should at least take a look the company website before sending their resume. I understand every candidate definitely applies many jobs in other companies, but I still can’t imagine that there is an unexpected response to the question “Why did you apply this job?” – “Haha.. I applied for many customer service jobs.”.
You may think of some reasons for this phenomenon…maybe candidates are not familar with interviews, maybe they are not undergraduates, maybe they are not fluent in English, maybe they didn’t attend some interview skills training workshops, maybe they are nervous…And I think NO EXCUSES plz! Even you don’t have a degree, you cannot speak English, you can still try your best to speak with the interviewer. If the interviewer doesn’t understand, he/she will ask you to repeat once again or tell you that you can speak Cantonese.
If you don’t know how to answer some of the questions, please use your common sense and some communication skills to reply the interviewer. It is okay that you don’t know how to answer some tough questions, but I believe you should be courteous to everyone and respond politely.