Surprise phone interviews! (work, hearing, get)

[shocktop]

Does anyone find this annoying? I was caught off guard by this interviewer and the person on the other line was hard to hear. I thought she was going to schedule an interview but rather that, she didn't give me a chance to say anything and asked me about myself.

I know I didn't get that job for sure but I felt it was pretty unprofessional What do you guys think? Or was I wrong for not memorizing my pitch and not having their listing in front of me?

[seain dublin]

Well to be honest when someone is looking for work they can't be "caught off guard". Now if you answer the phone and you're on line at the supermarket I think it is OK to say the interviewer "I'm at the store would it be possible for me to call you back in a half hour".

Any reasonable person would understand that. If they didn't, you probably don't want to work there.

But when your phone rings you have to be ready to carry on a conversation and always answer the phone with the right tone of voice.

If you want to avoid getting a call while you're shopping or driving, then let it go to VM. But if you answer the phone you need to ready to have an intelligent conversation.

And it's also OK to say "excuse me I'm having a hard time hearing you". They may have you on a speaker phone or a bad connection with their cell phone, but you have to tell them that.