What are the stages of a screening interview?

There are three general stages of screening interviews that you may conduct as a hiring manager. You may conduct all three or just one or two. They include:

• Prescreening interview: The first phone interview is quick and serves to let you know a little more about the potential candidates before the true interviewing process begins. During the prescreening process, you’ll likely identify promising candidates who meet your minimum requirements.
• Screening interview: The screening interview is more detailed than the prescreening interview and dives deeper into whether a candidate is qualified. During this part of the phone interview process, you may ask questions to assess a person’s relevant knowledge and will likely spend more time getting to know the candidate. It’s during this part of the screening process that you’ll begin to analyze whether the applicant’s personalities, mindset, values and work ethic are right for your company.
• Post-screening interview: During this final phone screening, you can reverify an applicant’s interest and provide them with additional information about the position they’re applying for. After this, potential candidates will be interviewed in person and given a chance to meet their possible future teammates.

At all stages of screening interviews, it helps to develop a standardized script to assess potential candidates. Scripts should be tailored to your company’s needs and, at later stages, the specific positions candidates are applying for. In the sections below, we’ve listed excellent questions you can use to develop your company’s own personalized script.

Prescreening interview script

All great prescreening interviews should begin with introductions and include a breakdown of the process. Consider implementing some variations of the following scripts when reaching out to a candidate and include some of the questions below.

Introduction

Hi, [Candidate Name]. This is Sid Jones, Hiring Manager for Shipshape International. I’m calling for your phone interview. I’m excited to speak with you about your interest in the position and I have some questions for us to go over. If anything seems unclear or if you have questions of your own, don’t hesitate to ask.

Prescreening interview questions

Why do you believe you’re a great fit for this role?

This question gives applicants a chance to highlight the skills, experiences or personality traits they feel are most important to the role. This can give you insight into what candidates most value in their careers.

Can you briefly walk me through your resume?

Having a potential employee walk you through their resume will give you a better idea of their background and industry experience. It also helps you get an idea of how well they communicate.

What type of work environment do you prefer? Do you work better alone or on a team?

Understanding a person’s preferred work environment can help you decide whether they’re a good fit for your organization. Whether they work better alone or on a team depends on the type of position they’re applying for, but it’s generally preferable if someone works well in both situations.

What kind of availability do you have for your work week? Are there any times when you’d be unable to work?

How this question should ideally be answered depends on your organization’s needs. While you should be flexible with potential candidates’ schedules whenever possible, you’ll also want to ensure someone can work the required hours.

Phone interview script questions for the screening interview

What are your salary expectations for this position?

This question allows the candidate to let you know how much they expect to be paid for the role. It provides the candidate and you an opportunity to discuss and potentially negotiate salary, as well as benefits. It can also serve to ensure that everybody is on the same page before going into more in-depth interviews..

Why are you interested in this position?

There’s no right or wrong answer to this question. However, it can provide additional insight into a person’s career goals, personality and values.

What motivated you to pursue this career path?

Here, you’ll be able to assess the amount of joy and excitement a person has in their career. How a person answers this question can also help you figure out what their career goals look like.

Have you ever been in a situation where you failed to meet a deadline? Why did you fail to meet the deadline and what did you learn from your experience?

This question can provide you, as a hiring manager, with further insight into a potential candidate. You want to find someone who owns up to their mistakes and uses them as learning opportunities. The answer to this question also helps illustrate how someone handles stress and timelines, which is crucial for success in any role.

Besides the questions above, you’ll also want to ask questions pertaining to relevant skills. For example, if you’re hiring someone in cybersecurity, you’d want to ask questions about software, viruses and data breaches to assess their knowledge on the topic. If you’re hiring a marketer, you’d want to ask about PPC, social media, email and SEO, among other relevant topics. These skill assessment questions often take up the bulk of the screening interview, particularly if you’re looking to hire someone with experience.

Recruiter phone screen script questions for the post-screening interview

Are you still interested in this position?

The primary purpose of a post-screening interview is to reconfirm that the candidates you’ve short-listed are still interested in the position.

When would you be able to attend an in-person interview?

Once a short-listed candidate has answered this question, you can schedule their interview and move forward in the process.

Phone screening interviews are useful tools you can use to filter out unqualified candidates before in-person interviews begin. Using a standardized phone interview script can make the process simpler and help you better assess which candidate is the best fit for your company’s open position.

End of call

Thank you for your time, [Candidate Name]. This was a great conversation and I appreciate your availability for this. I’ll take the time to review your answers and my notes, and let you know when a decision has been made.