*Note: This blog was originally posted to Medium for re-factor – 3/10/2020
Phone screenings can feel intimidating, especially if you don’t regularly chat on the phone as part of your career. Understanding their purpose, as well as being well prepared from doing your research, does a lot to bolster your confidence as a candidate. Feeling at ease will allow hiring managers to get a sense of who you actually are and what you’ve accomplished, rather than just hearing your nerves personified.
What is the actual purpose of a phone screening?
While there may be some differences from hiring-manger to hiring-manger in regards to exactly what they are screening for, in general, it comes down to:
Does this candidate show a genuine interest in our product/company?
Can this candidate speak in detail about their professional experience and specific accomplishments?
Will that experience be relevant to the position being filled?
Will this candidate be a good fit culturally?
The best ways to make sure you hit all these points on your call with the hiring manager is to do your research, practice your professional “elevator pitch”, and to know what questions to ask. We’ll go over tips for the other elements of a successful phone screening, but today will focus on what information you should know prior to hopping on the call.
Do your research.
Hiring managers can be turned-off pretty quickly if they feel a candidate knows nothing about them, the product, or the company. You can easily avoid this faux-pas by looking into the following topics:
Product
Who are their customers/audience, what is their market fit, what problem are they trying to solve?
Funding
Are they at the pre-seed level of funding, or are they making moves for an IPO on the horizon? How long is the current company funding runway?
Competitors
Once you understand the product, it’s easier to search for who their competitors are in the same space. Bonus points if you know how they differentiate themselves from the pack.
Messaging
How do they describe themselves? The company website and blog are good places to look at.
Office Details
Knowing where the office is (or if they are remote) is a simple detail that can prevent confusion later on when it comes to commute.
Hiring Manager
You can find most hiring managers’ titles and previous work experience via LinkedIn. Try to also find any relevant personal connections. Did you go to the same school, have you volunteered with the same organization, etc?
If there’s an area that you aren’t readily able to learn about the company through your research, that will provide inspiration for questions to ask the hiring manager when the time comes. Giving an earnest shot at doing your own exploration will give you an advantage against similarly experienced candidates who are interviewing for the same role.
One last crucial piece of advice on the research phase of phone screen prep from re-factor Founder, Matt Hoffman:
“Never cram for a phone interview. Get your research done ahead of time and spend the time just before the phone call doing something you like or that gives you energy. Listen to a song you like. Take a walk. Whatever it is you do to get in a good headspace.”
In our next blog, we’ll be highlighting how to create your own professional elevator pitch, which is another essential part of the phone screening process. Have questions about your upcoming phone screening as a software dev? Feel free to reach out to contact@re-factor.co, we’re always happy to help.
Recruiting isn’t rocket science, but it takes common sense and good intentions to do it well. We ‘remake’ engineering recruiting by focusing on Candidate Experience: we vet and test a curated roster of opportunities, coach folks through the interview timeline, offer our candidates tools to make a thoughtful decision on offers, and help negotiate those offers, too!