Phone interviews are fun to me but the bane of others' existences. For the company I ended up working for, I had three phone interviews and they were long ones - some with behavioral questions but others just assessing my character by letting the two of us have a very natural conversation. Whatever the case may be, I wanted to share some tips that have helped me throughout the past four years when dealing with this in between phase in interview land.
1. Have your interview someplace comfortable and with enough time. I always try to do it in my room if possible (Sorry, KW - you are literally the best roommate ever.) and I choose a time when I have at least an hour to talk. I find that if I know I have no place to be and I am somewhere comfortable, I can relax before the call has even started.
2. Make sure you open the website, pull up any notes you have taken on the company or the person if you can find them on LinkedIn and grab a snack and drink. I always try to eat before but if you haven't, seeing that snack can make you feel less irritable. Make sure to drink something during your interview from time to time because a dry throat sounds funny on the other side of the line.
3. Relax. Talk to the recruiter how you would talk to a favorite professor or for me my grandma. I am still a little goofy, I bring up my personal experiences from school and books I've read recently that refer to the conversation and let your true personality shine. You are an awesome person. They are trying to recruit you to work for them but they want to know the true you, not the fake you because if you meet in person and you are different, that will shock them a lot.
Hopefully, you kill it and they pass you to the next round! I have a post on that coming up later this week - stay tuned.