I was offered a telephone interview for the position above, Lloyds Banking Group (Bank of Scotland). I went to book my slot around 1 hour after receiving my email from the company, however upon logging on I notice it said there were no slots available, so I was told to try again over the next few days. Two days passed and still nothing. I then had a phone call from a blocked number (Lloyds) on Monday 02 September 2013 and spoke to gentleman who asked if I was still interested in the position and if I would like to book a telephone interview slot over the phone, so I agreed as it would have been unprofessional of me to decline. He gave me choice of interview times for the NEXT day. Honestly, I hadn't hardly prepared as I had hoped to book my own slot and be ready. It didn't help that I was working 6pm-midnight and I didn't get off the phone with them until 5pm. I tried doing as much research as possible and writing down all questions I had seen that people had been asked before (from research). My interview was scheduled for 10.45am. Come Tuesday, I sat with all of my notes and telephone from 10.40am, 10.45 passes.... 10.50 passes.... still no phone call. I eventually got a call around 10.56am. The guy on the other end of the phone apologised for the delay in phoning but he seemed out of breathe and rushed. Not exactly the most professional first impression. I honestly cant remember all of the questions I was asked, but the interview only lasted around 20 minutes and for 5 of these I was on hold. So it was very quick. I will mention that everything I had prepared didn't help me in the slightest. I was expecting questions like: Tell me about a time you worked in a team, Tell me about time you had difficulty and how did you prevent it from occurring again? Not to say that they never ask these questions but I was not asked. I had things like the following: What attracted you to this position? Why Lloyds, what can you bring to Lloyds? Time when you have had problem with a customer? How do you feel about working towards sales targets? They do try to drag questions out: for example problem customer - I gave my example, what happened, the issues, how I tacked it, what actions I took (ALL IN ONE GO)... After explaining all of that, they then asked me "So what steps did you take to resolve the situation" even though I had already explained above - so I was basically left repeating myself on numerous occasions. 1) GIVE EXAMPLES with all answers - I have only ever had 1 retail job, so I struggles to come up with examples most of mine were to do with customers I have served on checkouts. But you can use home examples, university examples, life examples. 2) REMAIN CALM, SPEAK SLOWLY (as they type out everything you say). 3) REMEMBER everything you say (as often the ask you to repeat your answers and if your speaking off the top of your head you may forget). After answering all of the questions, I was put on hold for around 5 minutes-10minutes while he completed his "notes" - when he returned I was told right there and then "CONGRATS you have passed this stage of the interview" & then went onto book the next stage which is Assessment Centre.

It was very straightforward, the interviewer really followed a strict process, but they do make you feel comfortable throughout. They type your answers for the first half of the interview and don't ask any follow up questions about what you said, so it's really up to you how thorough you want to be. These would be mostly questions about your background, what certain values mean to you, and an example of how you work. The second half was a roleplay scenario, they just want to see how you naturally talk to people over the phone. Make sure you're really being empathetic during this and not just follow the process of a call.