Telephonic Conversation

Objective: 

Participants will be able to practice telephonic conversation in a professional setting.

Total Time: 90 Minutes

Material required:

Students should carry their mobile phones

Instructor note:

Most of the employers do prefer a phone call with the candidates before calling them for a personal interview. This session has been specifically designed to give the opportunity of practicing etiquette and phrases that participants should use while talking on the phone in general, and especially while attending a telephonic interview. 

Opening Protocol:

• Greet the participants

• Take attendance

• In pairs, ask participants to share with each other how they are feeling

• Recap the previous session by asking 1-2 participants to share with the class, what they learnt and did in the previous session

5 Minutes

Opening Activity:

• Ask, “What’s the easiest way to communicate these days?”

• Expected response : Call, telephone

• Elicit : In a world where jobs are no longer restricted by political and geographical boundaries, several companies today are conducting phone interviews to shortlist candidates before calling  in for a face-to-face interaction. 

• Ask, “What is a telephonic interview and why is it important to prepare for it?”

• “What are the 2 things that telephonic interviews make easy for you as a candidate and 2 things that can be challenging?”

• Take responses and make them excited to practice telephonic conversations

10 Minutes

Activity: Role Play

• Divide the class in 2 groups

• Ask group 1 to create and perform a role play to demonstrate Do’s of telephonic interview

• Ask group 2 to do a roleplay on Don’ts of telephonic interview

• Give them 10 minutes to plan and 2 minutes each to perform. Tell them that only 2 participants will perform, other have to plan the roleplay script

• After each role play, involve participants in discussion on Do’s and Don’t of telephonic interview

25 Minutes

Activity: Practice

• Divide the class into pairs

• Tell them that 1 person is going to be the interviewer and the other person is going to be the interviewee

• They have to make real phone call to each other to do the activity

• All the pairs will do the activity simultaneously. Wherever possible, pairs should try to record their phone conversation so they can hear the recording later

• If some pairs don’t have mobile phones available then they can talk to each other with their eyes closed, assuming that they are talking on the phone

• Give them 5 minutes to do one interview

• After 5 minutes, randomly choose 1 pair who will come infront to repeat the conversation they just had on phone with each other. Ask other students to give them feedback. And then share your observation and suggestions 

• Now demonstrate doing a telephonic interview first as an interviewer and then as an interviewee. Ask one of the participants to play the role of the other person. Through your demonstration, participants will learn the ideal way of handling a telephonic interview (the trainer should use accurate phrases and etiquette)

• Send the pairs back and now ask them to change the role. The person who was the interviewee earlier will now become interviewer 

• Again give them 5 minutes to do the conversation again

35 Minutes

Debrief:

Ask participants-

• Do you think preparation can help in the interview? Comment on the basis of what you did in the activity.

• What challenges did you face during the exercise? How would you overcome those challenges?

• What are your 5 major takeaways from today’s session?

• What did you enjoy the most?

• Does anyone have any questions before we wrap up for the day?   

10 Minutes

Closing Protocol: 

• Thank the participants for their time

• Announce the next time you will be visiting them

• Share the topic of the next session

• Collect 1-2 most interesting activity sheets/artefacts from students and show to Nodal officer and institution head after session

• Click pictures of the artefacts for documentation

5 Minutes