10 min phone interview

[Bill Brasky]

I Last week I applied for a job and got a response requesting a "10 min phone interview." The job is on a commodities trading desk.

Anyone know what types of questions I can expect during the 10 min phone interview? I'm wondering if it will be job specific questions used to quickly weed out people who aren't qualified, or do you think it will be more general "tell us about yourself" type questions.

Replies from anyone with first hand experience will be greatly appreciated. I'm actually a regular poster here, using a new user name for anonymity.

 

[Kent Wang]

Maybe they will ask you about the merger you orchestrated between UNICEF and Smith & Wesson.

 

[globetrotter]

hard to say - typically, what happens is that a recruiting person, either a head hunter or an in house person, identifies a number of candidates that fit the profile of what the hiring manager wants, and then the hiring manager wants to talk to a number - 5 to 10, and meet with 2 or 3. the telephone interview can be with a recruiting person or the hiring manger.

if with the recruiting person, it will usually be to see how closly you fit the list of requirements that the hiring manager has put down on his list, which often isn't well understood by the recruiter - for instance, this could be "experience with sales to 3 differnt markets (using an example from my own experience)" - and the recuiter will simply ask "how many markets do you have experience with?" or GPA, or last years gross earnings.

the other type of phone interview is with the hiring manager - here the person is trying, in 10 minutes, to decide if you are worth spending $1000 bucks on brining you in for a face to face interview. this could be 100% chemistry - "tell me about why I should hire you?" or "what is the most relevant part of your experience for this job?"


you first need to know which of thse this is. pm me if you want to discuss it more.

 

[Matt]

i think in 10 mins it will be short n sharp, 4 or 5 set weed-em-out questions. Not enough time to get too open ended with it. We did something similar late last year when we needed a temp employee to cover a pregnant accountant, a candidate fell through, so basically the very-pregnant-accountant hit the phones with the 'i want a job' pages and went through the absolute essentials for the role... do you speak english? do you have accounting experience? are you willing to work a 4 month contract over a maternity leave time? do you know how to use excel? do you have any experience in a marketing firm? 5-10 mins and they were done. If we got enough 'Yes-es' to those (or 'co' in Vietnamese), then she made a time for me to meet them...it was a pure weeding exercise.

 

[Thomas]

I would say that in 10 minutes, they will likely ask you about background, but really want to know the depth of your preparation and communication skills. (Without coming out and saying, Have you done your homework?) Furthermore, they're likely sizing you up for "fit" in their environment. If you're passive on the phone, but they need aggressive types, then - strike - you're off the list. It's an opportunity to weed out those who can't handle themselves or won't do the legwork, and 10 minutes is a reasonable time for that.

 

[Bill Brasky]

Great responses so far. Interviewing is a big strength of mine, so I'm guessing as well this will be weed out the passive types. My one (major) weakness is not having direct experience on a trading desk. However, all other experience is applicable.

 

[Bill Brasky]

Thanks for the great responses! Just got off the phone with the interviewer, who as it turned out was an HR recruiter and did exactly as Globe and M@t said; rattled off a bunch of qualifier questions followed up by 2-3 open ended "why do you want this job" type questions. I answered all of them and elaborated just a bit to show personality and enthusiasm for the position. After most responses, she would comment "great" in a, "that's exactly what we're looking for" tone. I was awarded a second round, in-person interview after about 10 min.

Anyone here have trading desk experience or can give some advice on what to expect next round?