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Conference call interviews are a valuable way for both the applicant and employer to quickly access whether or not they wish to pursue a face to face interview.

To conduct a successful interview, preparation is the key. The applicant isn’t able to pick up on visual cues. If this is their first conference call interview, they may feel intimidated. Speaking with a smiling voice to put the caller at ease will benefit you as well.

Have in front of you the applicant’s resume and attach to it a list of any questions you want to ask.

Clearly communicate details about the position you will be filling.

Explain your hiring process and what the applicant can expect.

Get the feel of how serious the application is about the job position and if interview goes well, be ready to arrange another interview; in person.

Preparation is also the key for applicants.

It is to your advantage to dress as if you going to a face to face interview. You will feel more confident and conduct yourself in a professional manner.

Be seated and ready a few minutes before the scheduled interview begins. Take a few deep breaths to relax yourself.

Have a copy of your resume and the job description in front of you to refer to.

Speak clearly and not in a rapid voice.

Don’t use a cellphone, rather a land-line phone, to be sure of a good connection without background noise.

Be sure you take the conference call in a quiet room of your home. Distractions such as barking dog, will cause you to loose your train of thought.

The interviewer has the advantage of a mute button, which may be used during the call. If you are muted during your call, it doesn’t mean the interview isn’t going well. Sometimes it is merely because the person or persons conducting the interview need to confer with a colleague.

With solid preparation and good communication, both parties can expect a successful conference call interview.

Conference calls are at large, very convenient since you can hold important meetings while doing other work. This way, you don’t have to sit in a board room. However, the biggest downfall with conference calls is usually some kind of awful background noise and you don’t usually know where it’s coming from.

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The most poplar background noise is the buzz. You sometimes here this on podcasts or through chat messenger software like Skype. This buzzing is more than likely due to somebody talking on a cell phone, as cell phones often carry an annoying buzzing sound that can be easily heard on the other line, while the cell phone user isn’t aware of any problem. If you participate in a conference call, it’s best to avoid using a cell phone or a cordless phone with bad reception to call in. You should also be sure wherever you are calling in from is not too noisy, such as a busy area in a building, at home with screaming kids, a busy restaurant, or driving in the car since all everyone will hear is wind.

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Bear in mind that since conference calls are usually recorded, there can be an echoing sound. For this reason, you want to make sure that when you talk, if you hear your own voice, don’t get confused and lose your train of thought. Just pull the ear piece as far away from your ear as possible and just talk normally into the phone.

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Audibility is also a major pet hate of conference calls. Sometimes, the speaker cannot be heard at all because they are talking so low. Always make sure to speak loud and clear so that you don’t frustrate others in the meeting. This also saves time because people don’t have to ask you to repeat what you said.

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Another pet hate regarding conference calls and cell phones is reception can be lost. This happens very frequently, and it is a huge annoyance for the people in the meeting. If they are trying to ask you a question and realize later you are not there, they must wait for you to come back. If you have to call in from a cell phone, try to stay in one quiet spot where you know you’ll have good reception throughout the entire call, and also ensure that your battery has enough life.

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The biggest frustration for people calling into a conference meeting is waiting on hold for the host. If you plan on hosting a conference call, it is very important that you be the first to call in, or at the very least, make sure you call in at the scheduled time. Don’t be late or else everyone that had to wait on hold for you would have lost valuable time out of their busy days and are less likely to want to actively participate in your conference call.

Conference calls are increasingly a normal way to do business of almost any kind, below, are a few tips to help you get noticed for the right reasons.

Let’s begin with the obvious; be prepared. If you call the meeting and will have visual aids or a power point presentation consider sending a copy ahead of time to the participants. You seem marvelously organized and professional. If you are the client or participant and receive the presentation or notes ahead of time, have your questions ready, or you may even be able to submit some feedback before the conference call, getting attention before the call even happens.

It may seem like a cliche, but never underestimate the power of being culturally sensitive. Most born-and-bred Americans have little problem speaking up, however, this is simply not true of many other cultures. In many cultures, Chinese, for example, it is simply rude to interrupt a speaker. A great rule of thumb is to train yourself to pause and ask if there are any questions before changing topics, or visual aids. If your conference call has few people, get noticed for being especially considerate by making these polite, transitional opportunities with asking each person by name if they have any questions, or mind if you move on to the next screen or point.

One way to make a phenomenal impression during a conference call is by knowing when NOT to talk. For most people time is money and few want to waste either, so be picky about speaking up and avoid repeating yourself or others. Being familiar with the audience in the conference call is an advantage. Knowing that Kathy or Keith tend to run on or get off task is your advantage if you are clever and can find tactful ways to interject and interrupt when necessary to keep the call moving in the right direction.

Finally, being a face-saver is a unique, necessary role to play during some conference calls. Gain positive attention by developing an arsenal of ways to ease tense moments by offering dignity, a sense of humor, and pleasant words to others.

Have you ever given a conference call and received complaints that they were inaudible at times? Are you tired of your participants calling you and asking you to repeat yourself?

If you simply want to improve the quality of your conference calls, while reducing background noise at the same time, here are some simple tips to do just that, and make your calls more productive.

Perhaps the most important is the fact that you should always choose a quiet location whenever making your conference call. Do not call from a room that has televisions on radios on electronic equipment etc. as the telephone can pick up this background noise easily and amplify it more than you actually hear it yourself. A good quiet office space, like the one pictured here, is always an ideal situation.

Although they seem to be very convenient, cell phones and speakerphones are perhaps the worst two choices for you to use. For one, cell phones are based on radio signals and pick up any type of electrical device nearby. The slightest bit of interference with cell phones produces an irritating audible hum in the connection. Speakerphones, on the other hand, actually amplify background noise more and drown whatever you are saying out of the conference call. Naturally, you do not want this to happen.

When you’re giving a conference call, make sure that you are not doing anything else other than giving the conference call. Any sort of typing, filing, opening desks and cabinets will undoubtedly interfere. For some reason, all telephones pick up such noise and amplify it to a greater degree than as you hear it yourself.

Finally, your best option is to use a hands-free headset. The microphones which come with these headsets are not unidirectional, that is, they only pick up the noise that is directly targeted towards the microphone. Most of the background noise is filtered out significantly.

It is always good to remember the participants of your call, and make sure that they always walk away with what you intended, and not any type of interferences that occurred.

The world is at our fingertips! Yes, literally. No longer are we bound by the need to hop on a plane, rent a car or drive cross-country to plan. We can now conduct everything by phone. Or just about! We now have the ability to let our fingers do the ‘Talking’.

Politicians, government officials, heck even the head of the country is aware of the convenience of a conference call. Pick up the phone and gather hundreds of your crucial committee members together in a split second. Those with whom you need to discuss issues of concern.

National disasters have been circumvented within the blink of an eye by simply picking up a phone. Conferencing with crucial executives required to divert or intercept disasters has alleviated time wasted by traveling.

President Bush handled a few national disasters by picking up the phone and conferencing with a few of his top executive.

In a conference call held by President Barack Obama with Jewish leaders on April 14, the president was able to provide details regarding reengaging negotiations over the charter of the United Nations World Conference on Racism.

In January, James Carville held what has been described as the “Most Powerful Call In Politics”. He picked up his phone and called White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel then dials in ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent George Stephanopoulos. Stephanopoulos dials in CNN commentator Paul Begala. And so began the emergence of a call that lasted for several hours.

Even when an agreement may turn into a major disagreement, with conferencing by phone rather than in person, you have the option of just muting the phone. You can relieve the stress and calm yourself with no one being the wiser.

Conference calls are one of the best ideas short of the World Wide Web. For a few of the major reasons why a conference call can be the best way to meet and communicate in politics, consider these reasons and options. Heck you might just find yourself picking up the phone more often:

Conference Calls Save Money

Executive team members come from across the world. Politicians must meet and plan. Members of the team must come together almost daily to discuss issues of concern. In the past, the meetings would have to take place in one city, centrally located. Most team members would have to pack up, leave their family and travel for days at a time. Sometimes the meeting would take place for a few hours. Sometimes even a few days. The trips cost time and money. With today’s ability to conference through phone lines, time and money issues are a thing of the past. An email is sent informing members of the date and time to meet. Everyone gets ready to sit by their phone for a couple of hours. There you have it, a few minutes or even a couple of hours vs. days and even weeks of valuable time and money wasted.

More Time with Family

In the past, politicians knew one of the disadvantages to being in the position was time away from family. Time vested in becoming a politician in addition to the time required to work with members of the team and other politicians. No longer is this a major issue. With the ability to conduct brainstorming meetings by phone, the more time each person has left to enjoy family.