I really like this guide to the use of the telephone for job searching over at Science Careers, if only for this advice:
If you’re like most people, you’ve got at least two phones, a home phone and a cell phone. You may have your own business phone, too, and for reasons I haven’t yet plumbed, some people seem to have more than one cell phone.
Some people use a cell phone as their sole telephony instrument. That’s OK, but it’s not ideal. Business calls are so important (especially in a job search) that you don’t want to drop them—and cell phones do drop calls. Another concern is call quality; as your voice fades out on the other end of the (virtual) line when you’re chatting with that director of research, your chances of getting hired might be fading in much the same way. So it might be worthwhile to spring for a landline or maybe a phone from your cable company. The former is better—landlines are rock solid—but a cable phone is cheaper and usually includes unlimited long distance.I really believe in the power of landlines. I am officially an old fogey.
Or you could use a Google Voice number and take the call on your computer - all the benefits of a cable internet connection with none of the cost.
ReplyDeleteYou can have my landline when you tear the fax machine out of my cold dead hands!
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ReplyDeleteMy dropped call fraction on my cell phone is pretty low, and at $65/month, I have thought a lot about ditching a landline (either changing providers or going to VoIP) - for the number of calls I receive that are not spam (telemarketing/political calls), it is well out of the "worth it" range.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad CJ has pointed out how much better the sound quality is on a landline compared with a mobile. The difference is really significant - the landline is far cleaner, crisper, and more intelligible. In the audio field we have gone backwards recently (Ipod sound is vastly inferior to CD)
ReplyDeleteIt's not that ipod sound quality is worse it's just that Apple purposely includes crappy headphones in order to force you to buy $75 premium headphones, and now also beat$.
DeleteSorry, i-pod sound really is flatter and poorer, due to the compression algorithm used. I've compared it with CD sound on a good loudspeaker, and the difference is flagrant, especially with instruments like acoustic guitar, though less so for electronic instruments.
DeleteI live out in the middle of nowhere - cell reception is marginal at best and when the power goes out to the cell towers you're really screwed. I also live in a tornado zone. With that being said, a landline phone can be a matter of life and death out in the sticks.
ReplyDeleteThe author is either still using his 10 year old Nokia, or shilling for AT&T.
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