Telephone Interviewing

Day two of our telephone interviews and things seem to be going well.

My colleague Sarah and I are conducting first interviews by phone to see if we can screen candidates more effectively at this stage by using a defined questioning and marking system which leaves little opportunity, if any at all, for subjectivity to creep in. In theory, anyone should be able to conduct these interviews and objectively mark the candidates. It also should save lots of fee earner chargeable time (these interviews were previously done in person by a Manager) and will save the candidates having to make two trips to our offices.

So far, the same old issues are arising (as per my blog about the perfect interview). Candidates are failing to research properly the firm, role and the qualifications they will be taking which is very frustrating. However, the system itself seems to be working because contrary to my fears that we might get lots of candidates with the same marks, a range of scores has been generated.

We’ve made minor modifications to the scoring process as we’ve gone along (which has been retrospectively applied to all candidates) with the aim of ensuring it is completely fair to everyone.

Will keep you updated of our progress. We will sit down to decide on 9 March which candidates will come through to the assessment day stage.