Telephone interview - what should I expect?

[Bear1984]

I got an email asking if I could do a telephone interview for a job I've applied for recently. What should I expect? Will it be like a typical interview? I don't feel prepared at all to be able to answer questions lol, but obviously don't want to leave it too long before I do it (googling practice questions at the moment as well!) Any advice would be appreciated :)

My DH had to do one of these recently, it turned out to be a sort of pre-interview screening interview. He was interviewed by the company's HR person rather than by his prospective manager, and they asked him fairly generic HR-type interview questions (describe your strengths and weaknesses, describe a time when you... etc) and went through the details of his CV with him. Once they were happy he was invited back for a face-to-face interview with his now boss.

He had some advice from a careers person at his old university who practiced with him on the phone. He gave one big top tip which was "don't ramble" - very easy to go on and on and on when you're just on the phone and not sitting in front of the guy. If you can, get someone to ask you a couple of questions over the phone so you can practice, DH said it really helped him to be more concise.

HTH and good luck!