By dGrammarQueen Stella Uchechi NNODI
As a Recruitment practitioner, I always conduct (and recommend) telephone interviews first, after resumés have been sieved through, before the initial face-to-face interview.
This is because, for me, the quality, cadence and ‘professionalism’ of the voice goes a long way to ascertain if candidate A will be invited over candidate Q. I look for the punch, the verve, the right dose of ‘aggression’, that voice-quality that tells me that this prospective employee knows what s/he wants.
I have conducted telephone interviews and have encountered candidates, who even after the generic introduction and intimation that this was a telephone I-N-T-E-R-V-I-E-W, still maintained the same cadence of voice: some sleepy, some very lazy and sluggish, some very unsure (you could cut through the lack of confidence), some uppity and rude; some dour and lethargic (so, why did you apply?); the worst is encountering those who cannot articulate their thoughts and speech coherently and whose spoken grammar leaves a lot to be desired.
Recruiters are not very patient people, you see!
There should be an alert professionalism in the voice when taking calls, especially for those who have ‘business’ lines. I call it THE COLOUR OF THE VOICE. I also recommend that all calls, ALL CALLS, should be picked with the friendly (smiling) professional voice.
Start with the bright colour(s) and then, after the first 5 seconds you can decide to drop or increase the voice to the appropriate cadence needed for the conversation.
It’s all in the voice. What’s your colour?
dGrammarQueen Stella Uchechi NNODI
Abuja-FCT,
+234(0)8163171944
LinkedIn/Twitter/Facebook/Instagram: @dGrammarQueen
