Thursday, February 11, 2010  
Making Your Mark: Five Unusual Ways to Impress Finance Recruiters
By Alina Dizik

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Whether you're pursuing an investment banking role or a corporate finance position, impressing a recruiter can be especially difficult during times of high unemployment in the finance industry. But if you're currently searching for a job, it's worth the effort; staying on a recruiter's radar can mean you'll be in the know about new job openings.

There are plenty of unusual ways to impress recruiters. Peter Deragon, financial services practice leader for North America at Stanton Chase International, an international executive search consultant firm, says he likes keeping up with candidates through blog posts or e-newsletters they create. "In displaying their niche expertise, they exhibit their educated perceptions of the equity or fixed income markets, the economy, and their ability to 'predict' or anticipate trends," Deragon says. And it's not always necessary to write about industry-related news -- just keeping recruiters engaged is important. "Financial services people tend to be active, athletic, and travel well -- so [writing about] adventure is always appealing whether it be running marathons, kayaking, climbing, ski or snowboarding, they relate," he says.

Here, we've asked recruiters in the finance and accounting industries for more unusual ways that candidates have used to get their attention and stay on their radar:

Prepare an Accomplishment or Deal Sheet
Instead of a resume Andrew Reina, a regional director for Ajilon Finance Solutions in New York, says some job seekers bring in specific handouts that detail their skills and accomplishments during an initial meeting. Focusing on accomplishments provides more detail than a traditional resume and helps you convey why you could be a good fit for a particular position. Use the sheet to list key metrics that are function-specific, he says. "Financial services folks will want to bring a deal sheet which will list out the types of deals they worked on," says Reina.

Help the Competition
Making introductions between recruiters and fellow job seekers or letting others know about open positions where you're not a fit can help you come across as a valuable resource for recruiters, says Amy Dresser, a partner at Homrich, Klein & Associates, an Atlanta-based executive search firm that works with accounting and finance professionals. "I have also had candidates that were willing to meet with another candidate about setting up a business," she says. If you're looking for a senior-level accounting position, show recruiters that you're not afraid to connect them with other CPAs in your network -- even if they can be competitors for jobs.

Come With Specific Interests
Being generic about what company and position you're aiming for can irritate recruiters -- not make you seem more easygoing. For example, show interest in liquidity or cash management versus simply stating that you're looking for a treasury role. Since recruiters are looking for the best possible fit on behalf of the companies they represent it's really important that they are able to assess what you excel at right away, says Liz Harder, president of the American Association of Finance and Accounting. "It's especially helpful when candidates have done their homework and have targeted specific companies that they are interested in pursuing," Harder says, who also founded Austin-based Harder Consulting, an accounting, finance and banking recruiting firm.

Keep in Touch the Old-Fashioned Way
Since many recruiters are often deluged with emails, varying how you stay in contact can help you standout when it comes to building a relationship and showoff communication skills. One thoughtful way Ajilon's Reina says a candidate can stay on his radar is by dashing off a note. "For me it's more of a personal touch when you get a handwritten note."

Another option is following up with a phone call, which can also be more personal than an email, he says. Reina says he's impressed when finance candidates call to share any updates about their job search or to ask about foreseeable opportunities. A phone call also lets you sneak in personal details about your life that can help build your relationship.

It's not enough to just connect on LinkedIn, adds Derek DeWinter, a partner at San Jose-based DeWinter Associates, which focuses on recruitment for senior level finance and accounting positions. "Social networking world has masked the very obvious -- we work with people we know, we like, and whom we have solid and deep relationships with."

Let Your Guard Down
Candidates who are honest and genuine about their skills during a meeting with a recruiter are most impressive to Dolly Dawson Thomas, co-founder of Houston-based DDI Recruiting, a placement firm for finance professionals. As a recruiter, Dawson Thomas wants candidates to be down-to-earth even if they've ascended the corporate ladder throughout their finance career. Candidates who are "not over-confident" are easier to work with and place in new roles, she says.

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Job competition in the financial-services realm is stiff these days and interviews are harder to come by. That's why it's exceedingly important to go into interviews as well-prepared as possible so you can demonstrate to hiring managers that you are not only familiar with the company but also its track record, current deals and balance sheet.

Experts say going into an interview armed with as much knowledge about the company as possible will make you seem like a more serious candidate and can increase your chances of getting a second interview. Knowing the hiring manager's background can also help you build a better rapport in the interview.

Finance is Special
There is added information you'll want to know when interviewing with a financial-services firm. Matt Walden, vice president of Infinity Consulting Solutions, a New York based recruiting firm that specializes in finance, says candidates should know what areas the company is dominant in, new financial products they are introducing and what new markets the company is trying to break into.

Third Party Resources
First see what information you can glean on a company by doing an Internet search. Visit sites like Vault, Glassdoor, and FINS, which profile different companies offering information on everything from salary, business sectors, competitors and facts. Arming yourself with this knowledge can make you seem like an interested, well-prepared candidate.

Vault.com is covers companies across a variety of industries from finance to law. The site also break down finance into its main sectors and provides rankings of companies in fields such as accounting, banking and investment management.

Glassdoor.com has company reviews and salary information from anonymous users. Also helpful is that the site provides real interview questions by industry and by company. You can search the job title and company you have an interview with and get examples of interview questions they tend to ask during the process.

For finance professionals, Fins.com, which is owned by The Wall Street Journal, focuses on firms in financial services. The site has profiles of different finance firms, providing finance-job-search-specific information on a company's subsidiaries, competitors, executives, partners and recruiting practices. (Full disclosure: This article was produced for Fins.com.)

What the Press Says
Look for recent mentions of the company in the news. Using a site like Google News will gather recent news clips that may help you learn of topics the company may not advertise on their site such as layoff or TARP news or even new deals the company is engaging in. Steve Lesser, senior vice president of outplacement firm Right Management, says the Internet can also keep you apprised of government interaction with the company and how that may affect business practices.

What They Say
Be sure to study the company's own Web site to familiarize yourself with the firm's mission statement, areas of business and other information. You'll also want to go back and look at the original job description if posted so you can be more familiar with some of the responsibilities the job calls for and cite in your interview how these responsibilities match up to your specific experience.For publicly traded companies, Lesser suggests listening to or reading transcripts of the company's most recent earnings calls. These calls may be found on the company Web site or through a quick Internet search. "It gives you some texture about what's going on because you have well-informed analysts grilling top management," he says.

Lesser also suggests looking at senior executive profiles and the board of directors on a company Web site to see if you know any of the people shown or have acquaintances in common.

Using Your Network
You'll also want to tap your network for information on the company and hiring manager. Ray Cohen, a career coach with New York City's Five O'Clock Club, suggests that after being granted an interview candidates reach out to their alumni network or industry groups they belong to and try to find current or former employees of the company you're interviewing with. You'll want to ask them questions about their familiarity with the group you're interviewing with; whether there have been big changes to the group such as people voluntarily or involuntarily leaving; whether the group has performed well in comparison to the rest of the company; expectations about the company's stability; and whether they know the person who will be interviewing you, says Cohen.Social networking site LinkedIn is a great way to reach out to current and former employees at a company. Krista Canfield, a career expert for LinkedIn, says the site has a feature where you can pull up a profile of a company that interests you which lists current and former employees. The site will also flag which current and former employees are in your network or are second or third degree relations. At the bottom of the page the top five most searched for people within the company are displayed, and Canfield says 80% of the time one of these people works in human resources. She suggests searching for the hiring manager on LinkedIn and viewing the person's college, prior work experiences and cities they've lived in. "If that person went to the same school as one of your friends or lived a city you lived in, you can start the conversation off with something more personal and be more memorable," she says.

Roaming Out of Network
Cohen says LinkedIn could also help professionals bypass the traditional application process. Recently, an applicant for a foreign bank with a big presence in the United States saw a job posting for a position she was interested in. Rather than go the job board route, this applicant reached out to contacts on LinkedIn that worked for the bank and was able to get the email address of the hiring manager. She then directly emailed the hiring manager who was so impressed with the person's resume that she got the job, says Cohen.

Aside from increasing your odds of getting a job, researching a company can also help you determine if it's the right fit. There are ways to get candid insight into a company's corporate culture, salary policy and management style ahead of your interview. For example, JobVent.com encourages former and current employees or companies to rate their firm and provide candid feedback anonymously. The site has over 10,000 companies and can give job candidates information about a company's corporate culture, management style, job expectations, strengths and weaknesses before heading into an interview. If some of the reviews raise red flags, they can also help you create questions to ask during the interview.

-- Dana Mattioli

Email Dana about this article here. Please make sure to include the title of the article in the email subject line.

Unemployment-claims data signal job gains are near

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer Christopher S. Rugaber, Ap Economics Writer –  1/07/10

WASHINGTON – A government report Thursday on claims for unemployment aid signaled that layoffs are easing and that the economy could be on the verge of posting the first monthly gain in jobs in two years.

The number of people claiming unemployment benefits for the first time barely rose last week, after falling to its lowest level since July 2008 the previous week. And the four-week average of claims fell for the 18th straight week to 450,250. That figure has reached its lowest point since September 2008, when the financial crisis intensified with the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

The four-week average of first-time claims is nearing the roughly 425,000 that many economists say would be a sign the economy will start creating jobs.

The Labor Department will issue a more comprehensive snapshot of the job market on Friday, when it releases the monthly jobs report for December. Economists forecast that the unemployment rate will rise to 10.1 percent from 10 percent and that employers will have shed 8,000 jobs.

Still, the steady drop in first-time unemployment claims, and other signs of economic improvement, have led some analysts to predict slight job growth for December. If so, it would be the first net increase in jobs in two years.

Separately, retailers reported modest sales gains for the holiday season, prompting some chains to raise their fourth-quarter profit outlooks. December sales rose 2.8 percent compared with a year ago, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.

For the overall holiday season, which combines November and December sales, the index was up 1.8 percent. That figure compares with a 5.8 percent drop a year ago, the weakest holiday season in at least four decades.

The December reading was the strongest for 2009 and the most robust since April 2008 when stores collectively had a 3.3 percent gain, according to the ICSC.

The Labor Department said initial claims for jobless benefits rose by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 434,000 last week. That's lower than the 447,000 that analysts expected, according to Thomson Reuters.

Initial claims are considered a gauge of the pace of layoffs and an indication of companies' willingness to hire new workers. As the economy slowly recovers from the worst recession since the 1930s, more hiring is key to boosting incomes and fueling consumer spending and economic growth.

The "trivial increase" in initial claims "signals that the underlying trend ... is still downwards and may be accelerating," Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a note to clients.

The number of continuing claims dropped 179,000 to 4.8 million, the department said. But that figure doesn't include an additional 5.4 million people who are receiving unemployment under federal emergency programs, as of the week ending Dec. 19.

A total of 10.5 million people were receiving unemployment benefits that week, a drop of about 90,000 from a record high the previous week. The many people receiving emergency benefits is partly a result of a decision by Congress in November to extend benefits for a fourth time since the recession began. Jobless workers can now receive up to 73 weeks of benefits, paid for by the federal government, on top of the 26 weeks customarily provided by the states.

This is happening because even as layoffs are declining, hiring hasn't picked up. That leaves people out of work for longer and longer periods of time.

Initial claims for jobless aid have dropped by 100,000, or 19 percent, since late October.

The stock market dipped in morning trading. The Dow Jones industrial average declined 18 points, and broader indexes also edged down.

Some employers are continuing to lay off workers: Defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. said Wednesday that it is cutting 1,200 workers, or less than 1 percent of its work force, as it combines two electronics systems businesses to save costs. Alcoa Inc. said it will cut 145 jobs at a plant in Indiana.

Among the states, Pennsylvania reported the largest increase in claims, with 9,653, which it attributed to layoffs in the construction, food and transportation industries. Kentucky, Indiana, Kansas and Ohio had the next largest increases. State data lags the initial claims data by one week.

California reported the largest drop in claims, with 23,160, which it attributed to a holiday-shortened work week and fewer layoffs in the construction and service industries. Texas, Georgia, Florida and North Carolina had the next largest decreases.

Acing a Job Interview After Age 50

Filed under: Interview Tips, Career ChangePrint Article

Posted Nov 1st 2009 4:15PM

Hedge Funds Hiring Again, Says Heidrick

Oct 19 2009

Jon Jacobs

Published: Saturday, 10 Oct 2009 | 10:00 AM ET

The New York Times

IT has happened to so many job seekers.

They’ve sent out their dozens — maybe hundreds — of résumés and finally get the call to come in for an interview. They’re asked back for a second round. Sometimes there’s even a third call. They’ve met practically everyone in the company. They don’t have just a foot in the door, they have their whole body.

Or so it seems. Suddenly all goes quiet. In a week or two, or a month or two, they get a message, if they’re lucky, telling them that someone else was picked for the job. If not, it’s just deadly silence.

“I am currently waiting to hear back from two positions,” said Katie Murphy, who has been looking for a job in public relations in New York for almost a year. “One I’ve now interviewed with four times, they’ve offered me a contracted three-month position, but I’ve yet to receive an official offer. And they’ve just asked to do another interview.”

While there is no hard data, recruiters and academics who follow such trends agree that more people are being asked to do more interviews before being offered a position. They also say it has become ever more common to ask prospective employees to work temporarily for a few months, with the possibility of a permanent job at the end.

CNBC.com Slideshows:

“Hiring managers are increasingly prone to shopping,” said Todd Safferstone, managing director of the Corporate Executive Board, a research company. “The perception is that there’s lot of great talent out there, and even if the person across the table is great, there might be someone else even better.”

While the current recession may have intensified the trend, the hiring process had already become more protracted over the last few decades for a number of reasons, said Lawrence Katz, a professor of economics at Harvard University.

Human resource departments have become more professional, he said, and employers now need to diversify and justify their hiring processes to meet affirmative action and civil rights laws. Technology has also made it easier and less expensive for companies to conduct background checks and personality tests, Professor Katz said.

But there is little doubt that the current gloomy economic climate — with job seekers outnumbering openings six to one — makes it more likely that companies will think long and hard before hiring.

“We’re definitely putting people through more paces than ever before,” said Michelle Robinovitz, a recruiter for AGH, a midsize accounting firm in Atlanta. “In better times, we did one or two interviews. Now we really want to make sure someone will fit and we do a minimum of four interviews.”

I hear stories all the time. A friend of mine in publishing was one of 100 people interviewed for a position. She got the job about five months after her first interview. I ran into an acquaintance recently who told me that he had had eight interviews for a position and was still waiting to hear.

Erin Slattery, for instance, is looking for a position as an account executive after leaving her job in Kansas City to move to Arlington, Va., to be with her boyfriend. She said she had been searching for almost a year and interviewed with a public relations firm twice in July. She was waiting to be called back for Round 3 when she heard the post had been filled. She is still hoping another position may open up at the company.

“The hardest part is that it never leaves your mind,” she said of the endless waiting. “Every single morning and every single night, I think: ‘Will I hear from them? Should I call them? Should I wait?’ You don’t want to come off as desperate, but you want to make sure that you’re still on their mind. It’s like dating — do I follow the rules, or am I scaring them away?”

While she looked for something permanent, she decided to do some temporary work, and even that had a more extensive screening process than she expected.

“I had to do two phone interviews and one in-person interview to land my current temp position,” she said.

From the outside, the hiring process can seem arbitrary and even cruel. But it’s important to see where companies are coming from, said Alec Levenson, a research scientist with the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California.

“In an up market, say the late 1990s, the cost of making a bad hiring decision was low,” he said. “The company could be a lot more cavalier about hiring, because if the worker doesn’t fit, the chances are that he’ll move on soon.” But with jobs scarce, an employee is more likely to cling to a job, even if it isn’t the best. So the employer has to take the steps to fire that person, which usually involves a lengthy documentation process, warnings and meetings. It consumes a lot of time and energy, Professor Levenson said.

iStockphoto

Ms. Robinovitz said her company, like most nowadays, was very lean and no longer had the capacity to absorb a new employee who turned out to be mediocre.

In addition, fear of wrongful termination lawsuits makes firms more leery of hiring someone who may not seem perfect.

“There’s been gradual erosion over the past 30 years of pure employment-at-will as more and more people have come under employment protection laws,” Professor Levenson said. “It’s become more and more difficult for companies to cavalierly hire and fire. Even if 100 people are eligible to sue, only one or two might, but that’s all it takes” to scare a company.

That’s one of the reasons hiring people on a three-month trial basis — usually without benefits — has become increasingly popular, he said. It’s a way for both employee and employer to see how things work before committing. Think of it as moving in together rather than marrying.

But more interviews don’t necessarily mean better people are being hired, Mr. Safferstone said. In 2003, his company asked 28,000 new hires across all fields how many interviews they had to get their current job. The researchers then used performance management data and interviews with managers to evaluate the performance of those 28,000 hires.

Controlling for all other factors, it turned out that those who were interviewed four to five times were considered the best workers — better than those who had been interviewed one to three times or six or more times.

That may be because as a company does more and more interviews, the best people drop out, Mr. Safferstone said. “Another theory is that if an organization needs to do six, seven or eight interviews, there might be a large question about that person or about the position.”

Even though economic times have changed since the information was collected, Mr. Safferstone said he believed that the findings would be similar today.

There are other reasons the hiring process may drag on and on. Human resource departments have often been downsized, so there are fewer people available to do all the work involved in getting someone new on board, said Karen Danziger, managing partner at the Howard-Sloan-Koller Group, an executive recruiting company.

Also, the concept of fit — not only must the person be able to do the job but her personality, priorities and work style must complement the workplace — has become more and more important, Ms. Danziger said. Having a potential employee meet as many people in as many departments as possible is a way to try to ensure that the fit is good.

But even if there are substantive reasons for companies to take so long to decide, many job hunters ask why so many employers interview them once, twice or more — and then never get back in touch. And for that question, no one had a good answer.

Rejection, whatever form it comes in, is always hard to take. But those who have successfully navigated the process say that as difficult as it is, you should try not to take it personally. And more important, don’t stop looking for a job until you have that signed contract in hand.

This story originally appeared in the The New York Times

The New Job Search: Lots Of Interviews—And Then Silence

 

 

 

 

Resumes Win Interviews, References Win Job Offers

Inquiring minds want to know, and no minds are more inquiring than those about to hire you. Rest assured, you will be investigated. As a rule of thumb, the better the job and the higher the pay, the tougher the screening process. If you are up for a good job at a visible company, your references and past employers will be checked in great detail. Your list of references is simply the beginning of the investigation a prospective employer will conduct.

When a prospective employer has completed the first round of interviews and you are among the top candidates, its next logical step is to check your references and interview those individuals to whom you reported. Are you certain these individuals will seal the deal for you, or will they blow it away? If you are like most people, you probably haven't given your references much thought. Instead, you have focused on your resume, interviewing skills, networking, and what to wear to the interview. Now the focus shifts.

Your biggest concern should be the quality of your references and recommendations from past employers, because they can make or break your chances. About half of all references that get checked range from mediocre to poor, so it is very possible that the great job you lost out on at the last moment had nothing to do with your skill level. It could have had more to do with what a reference or past employer said about you. So, if you are concerned that someone, somewhere, might be giving you a bum rap, you are probably right. That's a frightening scenario when your livelihood is at stake.

Here is a sampling of the damaging comments HR people and line managers hear when they check references:

• "Our company policy prohibits us saying anything. We can only verify dates of employment and title." Then the reference goes on to say something like, "Check his references very, very carefully."
• "Are you certain he gave my name as a reference?"
• "After we settle our lawsuit..."
• "Let me see what the paperwork says I am able to give out regarding _______."
• "Is he still in this field?"

References and past employers won't call and warn you that they are not going to be complimentary. The reference situation is ever changing and therefore very volatile because of shifting company policies (not that many employees choose to follow them anyway), new employees in HR departments, new laws governing references, and company liability for giving references.

You are well advised to take more control of your career momentum by finding out what every potential reference will say about you. If the odds hold, as they will, those references will range from stellar to negative; yet when you know what someone is going to say about you, you can pass on your best references with greater confidence. You will also have the opportunity to stop references from saying things that are not true or inaccurate.

Increasing Your Chances of a Good Reference. Here are some general rules of thumb to maximize the tone and accuracy of your references.

1. Make sure your records are correct. Occasionally an interviewee looks bad because his former HR department did not have the same job date and title information in his file as he did on his resume. Data entry or communications errors are not unusual, so check with your HR department to ensure that their records correspond to yours. Conflicting data will be perceived as a big negative to a prospective employer.

2. Maintain active and positive relationships with your references. Stay in touch over the phone or over coffee. Keep the reference up-to-date about your progress, and make sure you have the most up-to-date information about them. If the reference's title (or name) has changed, or if they've left their position and you've provided old information to the prospective employer, it doesn't look good.

3. Advise a reference about an important opportunity. To avoid burning out your references, you don't need to call about every single job opportunity. However, if a particular position is very important to you, call the reference and give them details about what the company may be looking for.

4. Know reporting relationships. Even though you've given the senior vice president's name as a reference, the prospective employer may resort to calling the director you reported to because she can't reach the senior VP. Even though you have not given that person's name as a reference, it is on the application that you probably filled out. You may want to advise your former boss about the potential for a reference check and explain what the company is looking for.

5. Know your company's policy. Although federal law restricts reference information, some states now allow more extensive disclosure. Know which regulations and policies govern your company. In addition, be aware that some employees will break company policy. Make sure that works in your favor by checking with references to gain an understanding of what they might say.

6. Don't rely on relatives or letters of recommendation. You are well advised not to let Uncle John regale a prospective employer about your antics as a youth. Also, although letters of recommendation can be helpful, information such as titles and even names can change over time. Make sure that the information on your letter of recommendation is correct by contacting the reference periodically.

7. Use a reference-checking service. If you want help in providing good references or if you find that you are losing too many opportunities after several interviews with an organization, you might want to commission a professional reference-checking service. Check to ensure that the service has the professional and legal personnel that can develop a strategic use of your references. Typical service fees range from $59 to $99 per reference checked, depending on level of job position being sought.

Hearing ‘You’re Overqualified’ Again and Again

By John Brownrigg

The New Trouble on the Line

by Sarah E. Needleman
Tuesday, June 2, 2009

provided by

Job seekers, beware the telephone.

For years, the phone interview was a preliminary step that allowed an employer to give a candidate the once-over and schedule an in-person interview. But these days, many recruiters are using the phone interview to pose the kinds of in-depth questions previously reserved for finalists. What's more, job hunters say the bar for getting to the next level has been raised much higher, catching many of them off-guard.

In a recent first interview for a senior marketing job, Robyn Cobb was grilled by a hiring manager for an hour and a half on topics ranging from her work history and marketing philosophy to her knowledge of the company and its industry.

"I thought it was never going to end," says the 45-year-old Ms. Cobb, who lives in Alpharetta, Ga., and was laid off in December from a midsize communications firm.

Until recently, candidates could often breeze through most phone interviews in 10 minutes or less by answering a few softball questions. Little preparation was necessary, and most people could expect to be invited for a "real" interview before hanging up.

These days, job hunters are finding that they need to reserve an hour or more for a phone interview. They may be asked to discuss their full work history, including the exact dates of their experience in various business areas. They may also be expected to cite examples and exact stats that illustrate their strengths and offer details on how they would handle the position.

During a call earlier this year about a director-of-Internet-marketing job, Jaclyn Agy of Wheat Ridge, Colo., says she was asked to describe about 10 different marketing initiatives she's worked on, plus provide metrics resulting from each. "I didn't have those stats off the top of my head," she recalls of the hour-long conversation. "I expected to be asked that in a face-to-face."

Ms. Agy, 30, says she assumed she'd need only to describe two or three past accomplishments in general terms. "I was taken back by how specific [the interviewer] was getting," she says. Ms. Agy was better prepared for a follow-up phone interview. She was later invited to meet with eight members of the hiring company in its Denver office, though she didn't land the position.

Employers say they've raised the phone-interview stakes in part because they're attracting more candidates who meet their basic qualifications. They're digging deep to identify the best ones, and in some cases adding second-round rigor to phone screens as one way to accomplish that.

"You can be pickier," says Joyce A. Foster, vice president of human resources at Hilex Poly Co. LLC in Hartsville, S.C. Salaried job openings at the company's 10 U.S. locations have been attracting up to three times as many qualified applicants -- including more candidates with experience in Hilex's niche, plastic film and bag manufacturing and recycling -- than during more robust economic times, she says.

"Before, if a person had only recycling experience in paper, we might have said OK," Ms. Foster says. "Today we can be more specific. I'm going to find someone who's an even better fit."

Recruiters are also seeking to weed out those who seem likely to change jobs as soon as the economy turns around. "We're trying to determine whether what we're offering truly meets their long-term objectives," says Paul Newman, assistant vice president of human resources at OppenheimerFunds. And when it comes to candidates who were laid off, recruiters for the New York-based asset-management firm want to know the circumstances behind what happened. "Was this person a high-performance, talented individual who was let go because of the economics of the business," he says, "or an average employee let go in the first round" of layoffs?

For many firms, evaluating candidates over the phone also serves as a way to save on recruiting costs. "In this economy, you can't afford to fly every person out for an interview," says Jeff Cousens, vice president of organizational development at Patrick Energy Services Inc. in Lisle, Ill. After joining the energy concern in January, he instructed recruiters to complete up to four comprehensive phone interviews with candidates before inviting finalists in. Previously, they made just one brief call, mainly to schedule in-person interviews. "When a candidate comes in to meet the hiring manager, recruiters have already gone through every detail to make sure they're a fit," says Mr. Cousens.

Job seekers should prepare for a phone interview as seriously as they do for an in-person one. When asked about your qualifications, for example, you can craft a better answer by asking what the company wants and why, says J.T. O'Donnell, a career strategist in North Hampton, N.H.

If you're asked how many years of experience you have with a program you have used extensively, but not for years, you could reply by asking how much is required and at what level, says Ms. O'Donnell. Maybe the company chose a number based on how much experience the last person in the position had, and you might have just as much, but in a condensed time frame. You can then provide a convincing reason as to why you should be considered for the job even if your answer doesn't match exactly what the recruiter is looking for.

You should also prepare to answer more complex and detailed questions in phone interviews by creating a list of key statistics and abbreviated answers to commonly asked questions, says Bill McGowan, founder of communications-coaching firm Clarity Media Group Inc. Some examples: What do you know about the company? Why do you want the job? What are your greatest strengths? What are your career goals? How do you see yourself fitting in?

"What traps a lot of people is they think and talk at the same time. They make up answers on the fly," says Mr. McGowan. "It's better if you know your conversational path."

Don't expect to defer answering questions to your first meeting with a hiring manager, says Maureen Crawford Hentz, a talent-acquisition manager at Danvers, Mass.-based lighting manufacturer Osram Sylvania Inc. That may have been the case in the past, but not now. "People think if you're talking to someone in HR, this isn't a real interview," she says. But these days, it might be your only shot.

Be sure to brush up on your phone etiquette, too. Ms. Crawford Hentz says candidates have put her on hold while they answered another call or tended to their children. Once she could tell a candidate was visiting a drive-through restaurant during a call because she heard a loudspeaker requesting the person's lunch order.

Finally, be mindful of common faux pas, such as giving long-winded answers that go off topic. "Sometimes the longer you talk, the more it sounds like you're trying to explain your way through something," says Mr. McGowan. "The most confident people don't need to drone on." Another common flub: answering recruiters' questions before they've finished speaking. Not only does that show disrespect, but it "makes it seem like you have stocked, canned answers," he says.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com