Telephone Communication Skills
Most likely, your first direct contact with a hiring manager or potential employer will be via the phone. This phone call may be simply an opportunity to establish a time and date for a face-to-face meeting. Or it may be a pre-interview situation where certain questions are asked prior to setting up a face-to-face interview with you. In either case, the strength of your communication and interpersonal skills during this phone exchange will determine where you go from here.

Improving your verbal communication skills is extremely important. Since your caller cannot see your mannerisms or how you physically present yourself when you are speaking to them on the phone (a large part of communication involves body language), you need to give your listener a sense of your attitude, competence and presence by the way you communicate with your voice.

We do not always recognise how our verbal communications are being interpreted by others, evidenced by the fact that we are sometimes surprised to hear the sound of our voice when it has been recorded. It may sound oddly foreign or "funny." Do I really sound like that? Or we may be surprised to realize that in times of stress our voice takes on a different resonance (becoming higher pitched, louder or more rapid).

Practicing speaking out loud, working on pitch, rhythm, tone, and breathing, and removing bad habits such as inappropriate terms ("yea" instead of "yes") and pauses ("um," "huh," "you know") can go a long way in improving how our communications are accepted and reflected back on us.

Good verbal communication means speaking in a clear and audible tone, speaking neither too softly nor too loudly. If your listeners are frequently asking you to repeat something you have just said, you may be speaking more softly than you realize. If friends frequently tease you for speaking too loudly, take this seriously and work on the tone of your voice. A voice that is too loud can appear aggressive rather than confident.

How you position your body can also impact the quality of your speech. For example, you want to keep your chin up when speaking, rather than looking down at your notes (which can muffle the tone of your voice). You want to be comfortably seated or standing, rather than pacing the room (which can make you sound out of breath or nervous).

Good communication skills are dependent on good listening abilities. This means allowing a speaker to finish their statement or question and really listening to what they are saying (rather than assuming where they are headed, finishing sentences for them, or rushing in with a response).

To determine how well you listen, or hear, try "mirroring" back what you believe the speaker is telling you, "As I understand you, this project will demand. . ." and see if what you think you heard is what the speaker was really trying to communicate to you. This form of "mirroring" also allows your speaker to know that they have your interest and attention.

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