Advice - Unemployed

Dear Ian,
I have a job interview next week and I really really want the job! What can I do
to prepare for this? How can I present myself well over the phone? How can I
make myself stand out from the other applicants when I have very little actual
experience?
-Hopelessly Unemployed

Dear Hopeless,
A lot of people will prattle on about how the phone is so great because you can be dressed in a bathrobe to take a call from the president. Granted this is true and fantastic, but if you had a phone call from someone important (me, for instance) it would be difficult to think of anything besides the fact that: hey, I'm in a bathrobe talking to someone important. So my first piece of advice would be feel great and look great. Shower, dress in comfortable clothes, eat properly that morning and in every way be psychologically ready for that phone interview as if you were meeting the person. You don't need to put on a business suit and tie, but if you're hanging out in sweats with a stain down your front and feeling gross you're probably going to betray yourself in the interview as someone who sounds like they hang out in sweats all day.
My next big piece of advice is take an interest in the interviewer. Yes, you're going to have all of your notes down in front of you. You will have (I assume) read as much as you can about the company online, copied out little tid-bits to drop in the conversation to prove how well-informed you are but sometimes it doesn't hurt to connect with the person on the other line. Asking how they got into the career field at the end of an interview is a nice way to connect with them, hear them at ease, and get advice for how you can find your place. Perhaps the conversation will allow you to show yourself as someone they would get along with--the perfect leg up if all other things are equal.
Lastly, I work three jobs. Obviously I work three jobs because financially I need to work three jobs. So if I were really that great at interviews I may have gotten somewhere by now. What it comes down to sometimes is plain and simple luck. Do they like the way you sound? Does something on your resume pop for them? Do you have something no one else has? Be yourself, be friendly, be informed and don't be worried. If it's a right fit that's their decision. Worry will only make you sound unconfident and heavy breathing will make you sound like a street-walker.

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