Out of some kind of boredom and to shut my rents up a little, and a little out of sheer luck, last week there were a couple of jobs that seemed up my ally (Biodiversity officer up near the lakes...and not one but two Benthic science stuff, one at Plymouth and the other in Lowestoft). Plymouth was a bit out of my league but I applied for the others, thinking that it couldnt hurt and itd be a back up to the work thats coming up at uni, or possibly lining something up for after that in Sept. As such I wasnt really putting much effort into the applications, putting the start date for September even...I didnt expect a reply.

Well, I was wrong. I had a call today to arrange a telephone interview for tomorrow at 8pm (So strange, 8pm on a sat...) Ive had normal interviews and theyre not an issue really, face to face is fine surprisingly...but never a telephone interview so am a little unsure on what to expect...I cant sit still when on the phone and usually end up pacing backwards and forwards and all sorts!

...I was told that itd take about 25 mins and would be to find out about my "teamwork and communication skills", if successful Id be offered a face-to-face interview. I was just wondering if people have had this kind of thing before and what the format is?

I had an email confirming it all and they suggested the usual and obvious...thinking back on challenges and how you overcame them and your past experiences etc. Not a problem really. Its just the format of these things thats thrown me, who the person/people on the other end are (Are they just HR minions getting through the first waves or more important people?)

The absolute worst case scenario would be for it to be some kind of conference call...Id pick up the phone and theyd be "Hello Chris, this is Cefas, youre on the phone with bla bla, bla bla and bla, please tell us about yourself" followed by silence...

...best case itd be one other person with a set of questions. Ive got loads I could say and am confident Ive got the skills and experience theyre looking for, but dont know whether I could string it all together if left up to me how to talk about it :S

Im making a list of different skills/traits/experiences and printing out a copy of the CV I sent so I know what they know, plus have visual reminders of things if I forget to mention something, but any other tips /suggestions for these things?

telephone interviews are piss easy.

for a start theres no judgement by appearence.

Maybe its a bird interviewing you who wants some hot steamy phone sex

as for a conference call....


I was on a server call once - 2am in the morning & was asked to call a number, phoned up & was told
"you are entering a conference call - there are 32 people in the conference"

Was then asked why the server was down/when it would be up, etc. - Basically had 30 people from all over the world firing questions at me.

Tis fairly standard these days - for anything decent that is. Face to face interviews are a big waste of time and resources if theyve not screened the candidates well so they want to use a filter and basically ensure the people they meet in person are worth spending time with. Couple of tips....

1 - use a land line

2- stand up

Aside from that Id say a quick bit of revision of your answers - get a few cards (not crappy bits of papers) and make some bullet points to guide you (not stupid paragraphs so when you read it it sounds scripted). The questions are likely generic and google will find them or similar.

Reasoning for the landline - tis dumb not to if its available. Reasoning for standing up - top sales people do it - keeps you more alert and youre less likely to slouch/mumble/drift off etc... Cards vs paper - you dont want to be shuffling round your crib sheets like a mong. - definitely bullet points too - you cant completely anticipate the questions but some prompts for certain types of questions/topics youre probably going to talk about would be useful + it just sounds more natural.

tbh i wouldnt choose to work for a place that interviewed with scripted questions - they always turn out to be twats - but even if you dont get a face-to-face its a valuable bit of experience. Next time youll be quicker and better with the answers, after a few more youll get the balance between bullsh*t and truth down to a T.

Good luck dude   Was it proper chatting or do you just mean it took longer to get through the questions? The former indicates theyre interested, the latter dont mean a thing.

If you got a contact email it might be worth sending a thankee - use your judgement on that tho, you can pretext with a fact-check or something

Good luck dude   Was it proper chatting or do you just mean it took longer to get through the questions? The former indicates theyre interested, the latter dont mean a thing.

Cheers. It was proper chatting that was initiated through arious examples. Like one thing mentioned ended up bringing up the wettest day of the year last year, and the fact I was out in the middle of a field in the pouring rain soaked through doing some sample collection. Ended up talking about the damage to property in her area. Stuff like that. Even brought up the earth day thing too hehe.

Will have to wait and see. As to the scripted questions and twats, probably. Its a branch of Defra/govt that also deals with marine stuff for the world bank and EU, as my supervisor at uni pointed out, their pay is next to servitude. But from my perspective if I can get a couple of years working for a govt. organisation, on international projects, itd get me in a good place for jobs that are better paying but require 2+ years experience.

FFS will Cefas hurry up and not give me the job?

Just had a phone call from them wanting to know WHEN I could do an interview. Now have a telephone interview with the fecking board on the 2nd of May.

Either they loved me in my last one and on my CV so much they cant pass me by, or no one else wants the job. Im not sure I do now either!

Pants. I think that went well, which in the scheme of things, usually means Ive not done that well...

The "board" ended up being 2 lady scientists (one had a foreign accent, phwoar...) and the HR guy. Managed to answer their questions and didnt seem to have any where they sounded like Id said a load of cobblers. They explained the work, sounds interesting and varied.

Ended the interview by asking a couple of questions, my last was what the area was like as I obviously hant visited yet, that made them laugh and they all enjoyed describing the area, so at least it ended on a good note. Will find out next week then!

Holy crap, they just rang back and Ive got the job!...if I want it!

Damn. I really am not sure. The things that were going for the job were:

Cefas = Centre for Environment, fisheries & Aquaculture Science. Its an Agency of Defra and does work for the EU and world bank etc. So, its good for your CV!
Long term job security
Moving away from the rents!

However, it turns out that its a 3 year contract. So its not a really long term job security post, though obviously if Im any good theyll move me onto something else maybe.

But also the starting pay is a bit rubbish!



I have to decide. Do I take the job and get paid peanuts with the prospect that after 3 years I might be stuck for work, or do I take the short term summer contract at uni, hoping that other contracts turn up over the summer that are longer. The uni work benefits include:

More fun/interesting
Better pay (maybe by £1-2k a year or so)
In the area I know and love

Even though I *wouldnt* have to move out, there would be nothing stopping me from doing so if I stayed down here...?

Am I really looking a gift horse in its mouth here?