How to Properly Prepare for a Phone Screen as a Hiring Manager

Tips on how to prepare for a phone interview as a hiring manager

1. Review the candidate’s resume in advance. Set aside 5 minutes to take a close look at the resume and make sure they at least have the minimum skill set needed in order to succeed in the position and to not waste your time or theirs.
2. Prepare questions. While looking over the candidate’s resume, take note of any questions you may have prior to the phone screen. This screening is your time to confirm their skills, baseline personality, and credentials as efficiently as possible, before moving on to the next step.
3. Create a buffer in your schedule. When you schedule an interview, give yourself a 30-minute buffer before and after in order to guarantee the candidate shows up on time.
4. Communicate with the candidate. Make sure they leave the phone screen fully aware of what the next step in the process is and give them feedback if needed. While these candidates are trying to make a good impression on the interviewer, hiring managers should be taking the same approach.

Additional resources

• How to Conduct a Phone Interview
• The Best Behavioral Questions To Ask Candidates
• Best & Worst Interview Questions to Ask Candidates
• What to Look for in a Resume

Transcript

Ricky Baez 0:00
Hello everyone, this is Ricky Baez and you’re listening to the Hire Calling Podcast.

Pete Newsome 0:15
Welcome everyone and thank you for listening to the Hire Calling Podcast, your source for all things hiring, staffing, and recruiting. I’m Pete Newsome. And I’m joined with Ricky Baez, of course. Ricky, how are you today?

Ricky Baez 0:26
I am doing just amazing Pete. Seriously, I’m doing amazing.

Pete Newsome 0:31
You’re setting the bar high.

Ricky Baez 0:32
Yeah, you know what, there’s still time, the day is not over yet. But as of right now, I am doing just amazing.

Pete Newsome 0:40
Excellent, good to hear.

Ricky Baez 0:41
What about you? Come on.

Pete Newsome 0:43
I’m doing well. Today’s Bitcoin day. So, I have my Bitcoin shirt on.

Ricky Baez 0:47
Ah look at that.

Pete Newsome 0:49
I have it on.

Ricky Baez 0:50
Why is it Bitcoin day?

Pete Newsome 0:52
Because today is the day in El Salvador, Bitcoin becomes legal tender, which is a really cool thing and an exciting day in the world of Bitcoin, which I’m a fan as you know. So, it’s a neat day.

Ricky Baez 1:09
Well, you got me to be a fan as well, when you and I started talking about it, I started really doing some research. You got us that book, that great book and that’s when I really started to learn more about it. And I got Bitcoin through my Cash App. And it does a great job of letting me know how it’s gone up, how it’s gone down, and it keeps going up.

Pete Newsome 1:42
Well, I’m glad you like the book. And the book is Layered Money by a guy named Nick Bhatia. And, to me, it was a real eye-opener when I first read it on the history of currency, which I knew very little about, and it’s not necessarily a happy ending.

Ricky Baez 2:01
I’m not there yet. Don’t tell me, I’m not there yet.

Pete Newsome 2:04
But you know, Bitcoin, you know, is hopefully the happy ending. Specifically, for the people of El Salvador right now. We hope that goes well for them. So, in support of that happening today, I’m wearing my Bitcoin shirt.

Ricky Baez 2:17
Roger that. Awesome, awesome.

Pete Newsome 2:19
Well, we will do a podcast on that later, once we, once we put in some more work on the world of staffing. How’s that?

Ricky Baez 2:28
Well, that is awesome Pete, I’ll be the first to volunteer to do the podcast live on location from El Salvador. So, let me know

Pete Newsome 2:34
There you go. They actually have a place down there that they call Bitcoin Beach, which is a little town that operates exclusively, even prior to this coming to fruition today, on Bitcoin. So, we even have a place picked out, so we’ll do it.

Ricky Baez 2:50
Excellent. I’ll hold you to that.

Pete Newsome 2:51
100,000 followers. If we get 100,000 subscribers Ricky, we’re doing it.

Ricky Baez 2:54
Oh, challenge accepted. Awesome.

Pete Newsome 2:58
We only have, you know, 90,000 more to go.

Ricky Baez 3:06
Yeah, good challenge.

Pete Newsome 3:07
But we’ll get there. But in the meantime, let’s talk about the world of staffing. But we’re going to flip the script a little bit today and talk about something from the hiring manager’s perspective, hopefully, gives some tips that will help those folks who are interviewing specifically, phone screening. We’ve done our last few shows focused on the candidates. But hiring managers need love too.

Ricky Baez 3:35
Yes, they do. They need love, too. Of course, everybody would like to think that the hiring manager is always prepared, is always ready, not that they’re not always, but they also get nervous. They’re human beings as well there Pete. So, when a candidate gets nervous about an interview and how he or she needs to prep, a hiring manager needs to do the same thing that way they’re comfortable in that conversation as well.

Pete Newsome 3:59
Well, let me tell you, you and I were talking about this earlier today. When you look at some of the statistics that are coming out, hiring managers probably should be nervous right now. When you look at the number of jobs right now, the latest report hasn’t come out. There’s one that’s probably due any day.

Pete Newsome 4:17
But the August report from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics showed that there were over 10 million job openings in the US, which is historically off the charts from what we normally have. And so that means its candidates market again, in a huge way.

Ricky Baez 4:35
10 million job openings. I mean, just if I could pause for a second Pete, and just let that sink in. Because I remember at a time not too long ago, where we have a lot more people who were able and willing to work and not enough job openings. And now it is the exact opposite.

Ricky Baez 4:50
It’s a great position to be in if you’re a candidate looking for work, not so great if you are an organization trying to find that rockstar, that person to really take your organization from A to B. You really have to pull out all the bells and whistles, all the stops to make sure we get the right person on board.

Pete Newsome 5:08
Absolutely. And we know in the interview process, the goal is to find a mutually good fit. It’s not just what’s good for the candidate, not just what’s good for the hiring entity. But what’s good for both and right now, candidates have leverage. Candidates can be picky, there are more jobs.

Pete Newsome 5:25
And this is not, you know, there’s a lot of talk, and I think we even talked about this on a recent show, about how there are lots of openings in the foodservice industry and hospitality. But it exists everywhere, finance, marketing, sales, IT, everything that we touch, every department type, every vertical that we run into, there’s a big imbalance out there right now. It’s a little scary.

Ricky Baez 5:54
It’s scary. It’s only scary if you’re not ready for it. Right. And what we’re talking about right now is what business leaders, what hiring authorities need to do, to make sure that you create a great experience for a great candidate experience. That way you’re in a much better position for that candidate to say yes to your offer. Because believe it or not, Pete, well actually, you know this, some people may not know this. It really is a two-way street.

Ricky Baez 6:23
You’re not only interviewing the candidate, but the candidate is actually interviewing you to see how we fit, how the organization fits in that candidate’s career path. And there’s nothing wrong with that, there really isn’t because you don’t want a candidate to accept a job offer, just because nobody else would give them an offer. Right? I mean, you want a candidate to accept the job offer, yes, because he or she is getting paid, they have a really good compensation package, but in my opinion, what’s also as important is what kind of culture the organization has, how can that candidate grow in that environment.

Ricky Baez 6:58
And we as the hiring authority, need to make sure that we create a process for them, an interview process for them, that they feel comfortable, and they get to see what the organization is all about. Because we’re advertising too, throughout the entire interview process and we’re starting right here with the pre-screen.

Pete Newsome 7:16
That initial screen sets the tone. And we talked about how it sets a tone from the hiring entity side, you only get one chance to make a first impression, of course, right. But it goes both ways. So, I think the first thing we want to talk about in terms of the phone screen, is being prepared to go into it.

Ricky Baez 7:41
That’s right.

Pete Newsome 7:41
And if you’re not, as the hiring manager, HR recruiter, whoever that might be, it’s going to be really obvious to the candidate, don’t you agree?

Ricky Baez 7:52
Yes, it’s blaring, it really is blaring. So, the tip that I have, and actually both you and I have here, it’s to make sure you prep. Just a couple of weeks ago, Pete, we talked about how the candidate should be prepping, for you know, for the interview and getting the resume ready and doing all that research, the hiring authority and/or the recruiter for the pre-screen should be doing the same thing. And one of the things they should be doing is reviewing the resume in advance.

Ricky Baez 8:22
Set 5 or 10 minutes, that is all the hiring authority needs to really get that resume, take a close look at it to make sure that they have at least the minimum skills that we need so that person can be successful. So, review that resume in advance. And that also includes the interview questions, as you’re interviewing that candidate, that should not be the first time that you see the resume or the interview questions, because you should have done that way in advance. Right?

Pete Newsome 8:54
Yeah, absolutely. And first of all, at the most basic level, it’s the courteous thing to do.

Ricky Baez 8:59
Yes.

Pete Newsome 9:00
The professional thing to do, because someone is taking their time and time is the most precious asset any of us have. I’m a huge believer in that. It is more precious than gold, more precious than Bitcoin even. And we could never get it back.

Pete Newsome 9:18
And so, if someone is spending their time with you on either side, show them the courtesy and respect of being prepared for the situation. And it will send a message, you know, good or bad, depending on whether that preparation exists. So, review the resume, no excuse not to, right. I mean, that’s just, you know, as basic as it gets, I think.

Ricky Baez 9:41
It does and that’s the time to really take a look at if there are any gaps, any questions you may have, write those questions off to the side. And that way when the interviewer is in the interview and having that conversation, it sounds just like that, like a conversation and not like an interview. I know that may sound counterintuitive, right? But it’s important for that conversation to go just how a normal two human beings are talking.

Pete Newsome 10:06
Yeah, you want it to be efficient, right, especially on a phone screen, because we actually, wrote a blog article about this. It just was published a couple of weeks ago, I think, that talks about the benefits of a phone interview and why you should do it. And it’s efficient, it’s cost-effective, it’s convenient, it can happen quickly. And there’s a lot of good reasons, it helps you get through a number of candidates quickly because you don’t want to invest a depth of time, you know significant time with candidates who you’re not going to hire. So, you want to create efficiencies, wherever possible. And being prepared going in, is the best way to do this.

Ricky Baez 10:47
That’s right.

Pete Newsome 10:47
And, you know, as you said, pick out the questions that you think are necessary, that complement the questions that you’re going to ask of every candidate. But if something jumps out at you, like a gap on a resume, as you just mentioned, you want to address that early.

Ricky Baez 11:05
That’s right.

Pete Newsome 11:05
Don’t wait till the end, to ask why you were unemployed for five years if you see that gap there. Now there may be a very good reason for that. But if it’s something you’re going to get to, and you know that you’re going to get to it, do it right away.

Ricky Baez 11:20
That’s right. That’s right. And it looks if we expect that from the candidates, it’s only fair that we do the same thing for them. Right, you know, that way, and what a commercial is that Pete. I mean think about it, even if the person doesn’t get the job, they go out because they talk.

Ricky Baez 11:38
Candidates do talk about who’s looking for what, they’re going to be talking about the process like man, we interviewed, I didn’t get that job. But let me tell you, we had a great conversation. This is how an interview should go. That’s the kind of circumstance I want to see out of an interview.

Pete Newsome 11:54
That’s a great point to bring up is that, you know, candidates will talk and in this candidate’s market, but that even that shouldn’t even be the reason. It’s just the right thing to do. But it will penalize you and it happens, I mean, as the third party, if an organization has developed a bad reputation, and it’s one that gets out there, candidates will bring it up to us and say, Oh, I heard this company does XYZ and may not want to interview with them now.

Pete Newsome 12:29
Fortunately, that doesn’t really happen with our clients. But we do hear that about other organizations, and it becomes a real deterrent to candidates who would otherwise want to consider working for that organization.

Ricky Baez 12:41
Absolutely.

Pete Newsome 12:43
You know, one more thing on this topic of being prepared, is not being late for that phone screen. And this is just one on one, but it does happen. I think it should be avoidable, right. I mean, if you know you’re going to have a phone screen with someone, make sure that you’re planning in advance.

Pete Newsome 13:09
Find the right place to conduct that interview, don’t let the candidate know you may be rushed, you may be having a bad day, you may have a million other things on your mind. But don’t let the candidate know that. Right because they need to be the most important thing to you at that moment.

Ricky Baez 13:24
That is a really good point, Pete. The part about feeling rushed, because I have seen situations where a hiring authority, they are running from back-to-back meetings, they just happened to see this resume, they know they have this interview, they haven’t done that research, right after that interview they have another meeting, so they do sound rushed, it’s really important for the interviewer to set the tone of that conversation. So, here’s a pro tip.

Ricky Baez 13:52
And this is for all the HR people, all the HR specialists out there that set up interviews for hiring authorities or hiring authority to do this for themselves. If you have a meeting, whatever meeting at 11 am. Do not and that meeting ends at 12 noon, do not start an interview at 12 noon, give yourself a 30-minute buffer. If you give yourself 30 minutes and that 30 minutes should account for the meeting going over 5-10 minutes, which normally it does, right. Everybody is busy these days, but it normally does go over especially via Zoom and it also gives you an opportunity to review that resume again, just how we said in the last point.

Ricky Baez 14:34
So key pro tip, make sure when you schedule an interview, you give yourself a buffer before and after. That way you can be there on time because even if you’re there if you’re one-two-three minutes late, we have to expect that they look at us the same way we look at them if they’re late to an interview because come on, let’s be honest if somebody is 5-10 minutes late to an interview, we want to hear a good reason as to why you’re late for this meeting where you’re supposed to be putting your best foot forward.

Pete Newsome 15:05
Do we? I mean, do we care? Not really.

Ricky Baez 15:08
So, let’s talk about that real quick. Right, I guess it depends, right? Because if you’re late to an interview, if I know I’m going to be late to an interview, this is just me. And if I have emails, I’m blowing everybody’s phone up. I’m letting them know I am stuck in traffic, I do apologize, or this happened, or that happened.

Ricky Baez 15:28
I want to let them know why I’m going to be late. If I’m on the other side of that table, waiting for the interviewer to show up. I expect something, you know, as soon as they get there. Without me asking, I expect somebody to tell me here’s why I’m late. I do apologize, blah, blah blah. To me, that’s a lot better than just somebody just not acknowledging that they were five minutes late.

Pete Newsome 15:50
Yeah, what I think is inexcusable, is to not give someone a heads up in advance. We all have cell phones, we all have access to communication tools. And it’s not like, I guess, if you didn’t realize you were going to be late until the moment you’re late, then that’s just as bad because it shows you weren’t even planning on this experience, and you weren’t thinking about it in advance. And that’s an awful signal to send to someone.

Ricky Baez 16:24
Either way. Either way, right?

Pete Newsome 16:27
So, you know, if you are that hiring manager and something unavoidable comes up because we know it does happen, especially in a work situation, there’s always something that could take precedence. Or take priority. You need to communicate it as it happens, communicate to the candidate, reschedule if you need to, but do it as early as possible. That’s the point.

Pete Newsome 16:54
And I love your tip of yeah, just create a buffer with your calendar. And that’s just, once again, it’s just being courteous, and that matters. Because if the candidate is weighing their different options, and they’re going to choose your job or another, and at this point, even whether to pursue it towards a second interview, that’s not a good start. It’s not a good start at all.

Ricky Baez 17:26
It’s not. So, so far, Pete, we got review the resume in advance, we have the being on time. What’s the next tip? What do you have?

Pete Newsome 17:36
Well, I think we touched on one that I wanted to talk about coming in, which is preparing questions. So, we, you know, we did touch on that already. You know the only thing that I want to make sure we make the point on with the phone screen because a phone screen is not intended to get to know someone at any great depth. Now, the caveat to that is if the phone screen is the only interview then it’s not really a phone screen at all, it’s just an interview.

Ricky Baez 18:04
Yep.

Pete Newsome 18:04
We’re talking initial pass, let’s find out on the surface if we’re right for each other. Boy, I can’t, it’s hard for me to talk about this without sounding more like a relationship. That’s how I think of it. It really is. And so, if that’s the objective, which is let’s see what happens at first pass, do you as a candidate, if I’m the hiring manager, do you have the skills that we’re looking for? Do you have the baseline personality that we’re looking for, experience, background, credentials?

Pete Newsome 18:42
Are you who you appear to be on your resume, because I’ve already looked at the resume prior to scheduling the phone interview, then I just want to confirm all of that as efficiently as possible, before moving on to the next step. Now, that’s what I wanted to bring up is, make sure you communicate what that step is, and what any future steps may need to be. So, for me, you know, I often have to adjust my thinking when I take the third-party recruiter out of the equation.

Ricky Baez 19:13
Okay.

Pete Newsome 19:14
Because when we’re involved, we always have these conversations upfront with our client, which we communicate to the candidate. But there’s not always a third party involved. And that’s what we’re talking about here, where that phone screen may be the first live interaction between a candidate and the hiring entity.

Pete Newsome 19:33
So, you want to lay that out what’s going to happen, you know that that roadmap, if you will, for the rest of the way, and everyone wins if you do that. And I’ll even go so far as to say if you’re not going to move on, tell the candidate then, don’t let it linger.

Ricky Baez 19:49
Oh, can we talk about that real quick, Pete? I love that topic. I love that topic because I’ve seen way too many candidates, and I’ve been one of them as well, years ago, where I would interview somewhere, and after the interview, I’ll hear nothing. Like two or three months down the road, nothing.

Ricky Baez 20:07
And then later around when that requisition is closed, I get the dreaded email, right, the email that says, thank you very much for your interest, we have a lot of great candidates, but we’ve gone with somebody else at this time, we’ll keep your resume on file for six months. Okay, fine, right.

Ricky Baez 20:25
From my perspective, and I think what I’m about to say it’s a little bit controversial, so follow me here. Right? So, what about to say is, yes, you focus on the candidate, and you focus on the person you want to offer. You have that conversation, we’ll talk about the offer later on in a future episode. Do you have in conversation with people who you did not select, to give them feedback? Is that something that you would or you would not do? You’re thinking, I threw this at you, I mean you weren’t expecting it.

Pete Newsome 20:57
Well, it depends on who the “you” is in the scenario.

Ricky Baez 21:02
Okay.

Pete Newsome 21:02
If it’s us, as 4 Corner Resources, the third-party recruiter, absolutely. We want to talk about the candidate’s objectives and background and skills and desires and career objectives, all those things, prior to telling them about any job in-depth, if it’s the first time we’re interacting with someone, so we may not, oftentimes we will have conversations with candidates and decide that the job that we initially contacted them about is not a good fit, based on comprehending at a deeper level what the candidate wants, right?

Pete Newsome 21:38
So, in that case, yes, of course. In the case of us, you know, letting someone know why they’re not going to be selected for an interview, or passing along feedback from a client, yeah, of course, we’re going to do that too. You know, where we possibly can. Always, or I shouldn’t say specifically where it’s going to help the candidate going forward. If someone wasn’t prepared, if someone you know, and that’s why they were late to the interview, all the things that we’ve already talked about.

Pete Newsome 22:14
Because usually when you get to the interview, it’s the candidates to lose or not based on how they perform in that situation. So, of course, we want to give them tips to do better next time. And we are in a unique position to do that. Sometimes it’s not possible, right? Sometimes it’s as simple as we like, both candidates a lot. We just chose one versus the other based on some subjective things. And that does happen.

Pete Newsome 22:38
And those are, quite frankly, the frustrating times because you always want something to look to improve. And sometimes it’s just not there. Right. And that’s the reality. But if it’s me, the hiring entity. Yeah, I do want to give feedback then too. And, you know, I’ve done that on a regular basis when I’ve interviewed folks internally, where I’ve said, You’re not a good fit, and here’s why. And, and it’s almost always mutual. Right?

Ricky Baez 23:13
Oh, yeah?

Pete Newsome 23:15
And usually, it’s if we’re being honest with each other, right, you’re not a good fit for us, because you’re not going to like what it is we’re offering. Right and that is okay. Not everyone is meant to work with every organization, we know that, and it comes up a lot in our world of being internally, we’re a company under 50 people, and that is vastly different. Working for us, as you know, join us, you know, within the not too distant.

Ricky Baez 23:48
1000s of people.

Pete Newsome 23:49
A little different pace.

Ricky Baez 23:53
A little bit different. Yeah. I’m being sarcastic, folks.

Pete Newsome 23:59
Little different everything. Right. And what’s appealing in one organization is not necessarily appealing in any other and that’s okay. Right. Those differences, it’s great that they do exist, otherwise, it would be a really boring world out there. So, it’s a very long way of answering a yes or no question, but what’s new, right, but I would say yes, you want to give that feedback wherever possible, as soon as possible.

Ricky Baez 24:27
Yes. And the reason I wanted to touch on that, as soon as you mentioned that I wanted to jump on that opportunity, Pete. It’s that to me, what’s really important to me as a senior leader in an organization, I want to make sure that yes, we have a good candidate experience but again, these candidates talk, and I want to make sure that we do everything in our power to make sure that employer brand is alive and well out there because they do talk.

Ricky Baez 24:56
Just for those of you out there listening, that is cringing saying wow Ricky I don’t know about giving feedback, people might get defensive. And they might want to start talking about how they would have answered that question differently. There are ways to really address that in that way, so that situation doesn’t come up. But what it does is could you imagine a situation where somebody did not get that job Pete, but they were so blown away by the whole process, it just makes them that much more motivated to come back with the feedback you gave them.

Ricky Baez 25:29
And they’re going to talk with other people. And they’re going to say, man when I interviewed with 4 Corners, they told me exactly what to expect. I was never left in the dark. I wasn’t ghosted, and I knew exactly where I was in that process. Heck, I want to interview again, and maybe not get it just to go through that process again. I don’t know anybody that would do that. But just imagine the message that sends about how much we care about the onboarding process.

Pete Newsome 25:55
Because to me, Pete, onboarding, to me, this is starting new employee orientation. Onboarding starts as soon as that candidate applies for that position. As soon as they apply for that position, in my book, that is when you need to start, you as a hiring authority and a recruiter, pulling out all the stops to make sure whether you think they’re going to get it or not, you give them the same level of service, and people are going to talk, I guarantee it.

Pete Newsome 26:19
Yeah, and no better time than now to put importance on that in this market. So, I think that’s a great point to make for sure. And, you know, we see this a lot where no one likes to give negative feedback. No one likes to make the call that someone didn’t get the job. It’s a bummer.

Pete Newsome 26:46
It’s kind of one of the worst things, I will say it is the worst thing about the hiring process as a whole because there can only be one winner if there’s only one opening. And that means everyone else is not that winner. Yeah, there’s a lot of rewarding things that come along when the person’s not a great fit for role A, but they’re hired for role B, that that happens pretty regularly. And I think the point that we’re really making here is, you know, treat others as you’d want to be treated.

Ricky Baez 27:15
Yep.

Pete Newsome 27:15
And if you follow that guideline, then you’ll probably do the right thing in any situation. And sometimes it’s, I should say, oftentimes, when it’s bad news, it’s not what you want to hear, but it’s what you need to hear to improve upon. Yeah, and we, you know, what I don’t subscribe to necessarily is giving feedback that has no benefit, right.

Pete Newsome 27:39
You know, if it’s something that a person couldn’t help, you know, something on their background, on their resume that just wasn’t strong enough for that role, you know, we’ll tell them that.

Pete Newsome 27:52
But if it’s something subjective, that you know, is just very, like I said, subjective in nature, yeah, we don’t necessarily, we try to avoid those things, right. We want to give someone tangible feedback that they can, they can turn around and do a positive the next time they interview. So that’s always a goal. But like we said, it’s not always, it’s not always possible.

Ricky Baez 28:19
No, it’s not. But, you know, it’s good for that to be out there. And again, folks, if you’re thinking about this, remember, it can only help your employer brand. Just remember, you know, even if the person didn’t get that job, you want to make that person a walking billboard about your process.

Ricky Baez 28:36
That’s what you want, a walking billboard. It’s just like, any business, right Pete, because even if you give somebody great customer service, the person who on your team, unfortunately, did not give great customer service to, the manager has to get involved. And the manager has to make it right. Why? Because they’re a walking billboard for the organization. And that’s what we always got to be thinking about.

Pete Newsome 28:59
That’s a great way to put it. And I think it’s a great way to end because we were going to be concise, just like a phone screen is supposed to be. It’s long, it’s short for us, I think. So, you want to recap for us?

Ricky Baez 29:11
Yes, I will recap. So, here’s what we’re focusing on folks. Before, we were talking about the candidate and what he or she needs to be doing. Right now, we’re shifting gears, now we’re talking about the hiring authority, the recruiter, what they should be doing in that process. So just like the candidate, how the candidate should be reviewing the company in advance.

Ricky Baez 29:30
The hiring authority needs to review the resume in advance and make sure he or she can really take a look at that resume, know who you’re talking to. Make sure you pull out all the questions you may have, know all the knowledge, skills, and abilities. Make sure that you’re on time for the interview.

Ricky Baez 29:47
The key tip here is to make sure that if you have a meeting, right before the interview, make sure you got at least a 30-minute buffer just to account for any things that go over or you just have to review those questions. Have those questions prepared in advance about the job, make sure what those minimum qualifications are, make sure that you got those questions ready to go.

Ricky Baez 30:10
And let the candidate know what to expect. After the interview, make sure the candidate is fully aware what’s the next step in the process and you give them an accurate picture of where they are in the journey to become an employee for the organization.

Pete Newsome 30:26
That’s it, I think, I think that sums it up enough. And next time, maybe, I think we can just call it right now, let’s talk about the final interview or the in-person interview. Although today, it may not be in person at all. But let’s go a little deeper next time.

Ricky Baez 30:43
That’s right. Yes, sir. So next time we are going to be talking about the, you know, what kind of questions to ask, what specific questions you need to ask from that candidate, that way you’ve got a real-life picture of what their skill set are, but more importantly, how you can use that skill set for your organization. That’ll be next week.

Ricky Baez 31:02
And folks, if you have any questions, any questions at all, or if you have any ideas of different topics, email us hirecalling@4cornerresources.com, that’s hirecalling@4cornerresources.com. Let us know what you think. And also, if you have an iPhone, everybody, almost everybody has an iPhone or an Android, doesn’t matter. Go ahead and find us Hire Calling Podcast, we are on your favorite podcast platform. Give us a download, give us a like, we’d love to hear what you think. Right, Pete?

Pete Newsome 31:33
That’s it. We appreciate that. Thank you for listening today.

Ricky Baez 31:35
Thank you, folks. Have a good one and good night