If during your phone interview you’re juggling two small children, the dog is crying to go out into the yard, and Billy Mays can audibly be heard pitching the mini-burger pan on TV, then you’re doing it wrong. Really wrong.

When you schedule a phone interview with a company you need to take it as seriously as you would a face-to-face interview. Why? Because the company does. Phone interviews have replaced the first face-to-face interview because it’s more efficient and saves the company time and money. Not to mention it saves you time and money, so it’s a winning proposition for everyone.  So what’s the best way to handle it?

You’ll need a quiet workspace. Someplace where there will be no distractions where you can sit at a table or desk. Why a table or desk? Well, you’d be surprised how much you can detect about a person over the phone. Experienced people can tell if they’re talking to someone laying down, pacing, huddled in the corner, all manner of things. You want to sound like you’re relaxed and attentive, and the best way to do that is to sit at a desk.

Print out your resume, cover letter and references. Don’t read them off of the computer. Even navigating multiple windows can make you sound distracted on the phone. You want to be completely focused on the interviewer. You may need dates from your resume, and phone numbers of your references, but if you have them printed out in front of you then it’ll just sound better. Some may say that you should look up the company’s Web site while on the phone, but that too will cause you to sound distracted and distant. You want to stay on task, which is the interview. Keep a notepad nearby to scribble notes so you can look things up online later.

All distractions need to be eliminated. All of them. If your children won’t leave you alone in your quiet space without banging on the door, then get a sitter. Send them to your mother’s. Last resort, send them to your mother-in-law’s. But that’s a very, very last resort – no one wants to owe their mother-in-law a favor. The dog? Tie up out back with his favorite toy. Billy Mays? Well, the best thing you can do with him is turn him off, and that goes for anytime of the day, not just when you’re phone interviewing.

To secure that second face-to-face interview you want to nail the phone interview. Treat it like you would any interview, and you’ll be golden.

Internet employment Web site Power Applications has been redesigned from the ground up following its acquisition by Three Stars last year. The site will now serve as a traditional job board. The site’s new design and functionality debuted in December to great success.

Users can now simply navigate to the Power Applications Web site, www.powerapplications.com, browse hundreds of open positions, and then apply for the openings that interest them directly through the site.

The revamp better aligns the site with the company’s core mission to connect able job seekers with open positions in their area. A team of employer services specialists assist businesses list their available positions on the site, and then the company’s media buyers work to expand the visibility of that listing to reach as many qualified applicants as possible.

These services are free to both job seekers and employers since all revenue is collected through third party advertising.

I was reading some advice blogs about looking for a job. With the economy the way it is, they have been unusually active. One comment asked the blog’s author what kind of paper would best impress the employer. Apparently, the place this person was applying specifically requested no fax, no email — paper resumes only.

This question has yet to receive an answer. Probably because no one currently looking for a job uses paper resumes. They served their purpose well once upon a time, but the world has moved past them.

If your business is still requesting paper applications, then you are creating extra work for yourself. Whereas I could school you on the environment and the unnecessary waste paper creates when you have a perfectly good electronic alternative, I won’t. I prefer to point out that requesting hard copies of resumes creates a huge stack that is unwieldy and difficult to organize.

One of the niceties of using computers is the quick, efficient organization of documents. After perusing the file on your computer, you can easily shift the unqualified candidates to one folder on your desktop, the maybes to another, and the definites to a third. Whereas this may seem like no big advantage compared to doing the same with paper applications, consider the state of the economy one more time. Your one job listing will produce triple the response you received one year ago. The stacks of paper will get quite huge.

So, even if you don’t care about the environment, going paperless is still the best idea.