By Larry Goldsmith, CWDP, P.E.T.
Your voicemail greeting can make or break your job search. It is essential your greeting be clear and coherent as it may be your first ‘personal’ contact with a potential employer. This is not the time to be cute either. Stay professional. No creative messaging by family members. Don’t have a blue joke, or your 3 year old singing a nursery rhyme or something with a religious theme. The shrill voice of a three year child is as inappropriate or beginning your message with three bars of 100 bottles of beer on the wall is wrong. Same holds true for promoting where you stand politically. You are looking for a job. Employers will be calling. Maintain a professional business correctness during the time you are in your job search mode.
Prepare your greeting by writing it out first. This is not the time to shoot from the hip and ad lib. Read your greeting out loud. Let someone else critique it. Practice your greeting several times before you attempt to create your message. Be brief. Get to the point quickly. Your message should be straight forth and to the point. For example:
Hi, this is Larry Goldsmith. I am not available. Please leave your message. Thank you for calling. I will be back in touch as quickly as I can.
There is not just one voice mail message. Modify your message according to your personality and style. Give you name. Provide a general idea of your status. For example, Out of the office, at a meeting, on another site, on another call but be brief and to the point. Let the caller know when they can expect a return call back. Being on vacation is not good enough. Telling the employer this will probably cost you the interview. They may not wait for you but just move on to another candidate. Better to monitor your calls or have someone do it for you.
Have you ever listened to what you sound like and how you speak? Something as simple as the sound of your voice, words you use or the pattern of your speech may be working against you in the job search. Call your greeting when you are all done. How does it sound to you? Are you professional? Would you bring that candidate into an interview? There is nothing wrong recording a greeting several times until you feel it is right. listen to other messages for ideas when you can someone and have to leave a message. Your message should short, clear, and to the point ending with “leave your message please.” Tape your message and critique it. Ask someone else give you feedback. This holds true for both your voice message and the voice mail message you leave on the employer’s voice mail system. This is the time to use your professional voice.
Be prepared. Keep a mirror by your telephone when answering the phone. Do not pick up your phone without smiling. Equally important too is keep a résumé, a pen and paper next to the phone. Do not answer your telephone if you are not ready for a telephone interview. A baby crying, a child’s birthday party or a barking dog is not the first impression you want to give. Let your machine or voice mail pick up the call. You can make the return call when you are mentally ready and your confidence is shining through. Even set some standard for how your telephone will be answer during your job search. For example, set a rule in effect that, “children cannot pick up the telephone during a job search unless they are trained properly.”
Be ready when your telephone rings. Keep these points in mind. You never know when it might be an employer calling to discuss an job opportunity with you.
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