Availability and logistics – Any wise employer wants to know if a candidate is someone whom he can expect to be available for both the short and the long term. It’s also to check what your plans are if you’re applying long-distance.

Salary expectations – There are a lot of questions that can come up in a phone interview. One of them is a very important question: “What are your salary expectations?” This is a question that is tough to answer, especially when they don’t want to reveal their own salary expectations.

Understanding of the job – With literally hundreds of applicants for a single job opening, the employer wants to know how much you know about the job. The phone interview helps to identify applicants who have a deeper understanding of the job, and it helps the employer take less time in explaining the details of the job.

Questions about your resume – You sent in a resume that caught the employer’s attention, but there were a few things for which they want clarification. The phone interview is the perfect way for them to get basic questions out of the way, so that if there should be an in-person interview afterward, you can focus on more important details.

The best candidates are those whom employers want to invite for an in-person interview so that they can spend more time getting to know them. The phone interview helps to weed out candidates who are unqualified. However, don’t take the phone interview for granted, because this could be the first step toward getting your next job.