7 ms·

"Start with a phone screen interview" I have to disagree with this point. Phone and screen interviews are awkwardly paced and some individuals simply don't com

"Start with a phone screen interview" I have to disagree with this point. Phone and screen interviews are awkwardly paced and some individuals simply don't come across well in this type of setting. If the qualifications on their resume fit your requirements, just bring them in!

notyourwork 8y ago
Interviewing is an expensive process so you try to introduce multiple steps which filter a large candidate pool down to a hire. If every candidate with a resume that indicated they were qualified was brought in the process expense would increase drastically. Furthermore, phone screen allows ability to get perspective on soft skills. At least in my field, technical people need to communicate and therefore a phone screen allows ability to review this attribute of candidate which isn't conveyed on a resume.
ravenstine 8y ago
I hate phone screenings. And that's not because I hate the interview itself, but having the interview over the telecom system. Most recruiters are using a cell phone, and cell-to-cell audio quality is pitiful in today's age. No wonder so many people in my generation don't bother calling anymore! If my ears are straining to make sure I'm hearing the fuzzy-sounding person on the other end of the line, that makes the screening a lot less pleasant. As much as I agree that companies should be more willing to just have people come in for a quick chat, I'd like for recruiters to reach out through email or text and then setup a Hangouts chat or such. A video call would be sufficient in my book. EDIT: One of the things that sucks about phone screenings, IMO, is when the interviewer is clearly asking a prewritten set of questions and taking notes as I speak. What I'd like instead is for the interviewer to record the conversation so they don't have to take notes, thus freeing their minds up to having a chill conversation and perhaps getting a better sense of who I am.
- GhostVII 8y ago
  Also I have a pay as you go phone, since I never call anyone, so a phone screening can quickly cost me $20 if it goes for more than half an hour.
  - reificator 8y ago
    https://voice.google.com https://voice.google.com and a PC headset will get you free calls over the internet.
  - Sean1708 8y ago
    They're making you ring them?! That's ridiculous! Personally I would just flat out refuse, there is absolutely no excuse for them to put the cost on you unless they can't afford to hire you anyway.
    - GhostVII 8y ago
      No, they call me, but I get charged for incoming calls apparently. I thought I didn't, but then I ran out of balance half way through a phone interview.
    - fencepost 8y ago
      In the US you're generally charged for every minute of a call on the phone regardless of whether it was incoming or outgoing. Most postpaid plans now include unlimited minutes, but prepaid are limited. I believe European carriers were traditionally caller pays, not sure if that's still the case.
- hocuspocus 8y ago
  I always insist on using VoIP or videochat. Nowadays most companies use Zoom, Google Meet or the like. But even then, and with a gigabit wired connection on my end, it's usually not perfect. :/
  - walshemj 8y ago
    That's because both ends are not using proper equipment - real sound cards real microphones.
- scarface74 8y ago
  As an interviewer, I’m not interested in having a “chill conversation”. I’m interested in knowing whether you have the minimum set of qualifications to know whether it’s worth the time to go through the trouble of setting up the in person interview, reserving a room, setting up the computer with my code interview, scheduling a block of time with other developers, etc.
  - webdood90 8y ago
    Then you and your company are probably not a good fit for this particular interviewee. It goes both ways.
  - xkcd-sucks 8y ago
    Couldn't you just do that in email though?
    - twblalock 8y ago
      People would cheat by looking up the answers.
      - gaius 8y ago
        They do this on phone screens too. You can hear the keys then their intonation changes as if they are reading text out loud...
        idfoinbvc 8y ago
        If someone can google exact answer in 15 seconds (to be sure they are saying things correctly), in some situations it's also great. This fact-checking instinct is good.
        gaius 8y ago
        There is that, but in an interview fluent familiarity is a proxy for experience and regular usage, if someone can just rattle something off it’s a good indicator that they really have been doing it alot.
- plasticchris 8y ago
  I get how annoying being asked a preselected set of questions is, but if it's being done right it's called structured interviewing and one of the more predictive methods. For example this is how Triplebyte does it.
- walshemj 8y ago
  Or there are 3 people huddled round some lap top with a pos mic.
wgerard 8y ago
> If the qualifications on their resume fit your requirements, just bring them in! It's not uncommon for there to be a huge mismatch between what the resume says and how the candidate interviews. Especially since it's well-known that resumes are programmatically screened nowadays, candidates feel pressured to play buzzword bingo with their resumes. A quick phone screen or take-home is far more humane than bringing them on-site for 6 hours and having them flail miserably in the interview because of the resume problem. I also don't see how they could nail an on-site interview but fail a phone screen. It seems like the skillset there is roughly equivalent, regardless of whether you agree with that skillset being indicative of on-the-job performance.
scarface74 8y ago
I love phone screens. It tells me early on whether I need to waste my time taking off work, going across town etc. On the interviewing side, I have had 6 phone screens with different companies in one day -I was able to “work from home” to do it. On the interviewer’s side. I was able to screen 6 people in one day and bring in only two. A “resume fit” means nothing. People say all sorts of things on their resume but they fall apart when you actually talk to them.
- flippyhead 8y ago
  Or the reverse: someone might not be good resume writing, but if you suspect this, talking to them can occasionally find some hidden gems.
  - pmiller2 8y ago
    I would guess those people don’t get phone screened, either, because the resume (in the absence of a referral) is what gets the interview.
- lj3 8y ago
  This. Some companies proceed directly to the "build us something" or "take a quiz" portion of the interview process. I always insist on a phone interview (preferably with the hiring manager) before doing anything else. 5 minutes of frank conversation can save you hours of wasted time. Also, you'd be surprised at how different the role they want to fill is from the one they posted.
  - scarface74 8y ago
    Exactly. Just like the company is juggling a lot of candidates, historically, I am usually juggling multiple companies where I am somewhere in the interview process.
- hahamrfunnyguy 8y ago
  Agreed. They're a time saver for all involved. A surprising number of candidates can't answer basic programming questions about access modifiers or the difference between interfaces and abstract classes. Why bring them in if you know they won't meet the criteria?
Quarrelsome 8y ago
I feel like its fine if its just a low technical bar. The purpose of a phone interviews for me is basically: "can they write a function signature without really thinking much?".
ska 8y ago
I have to disagree with this, from the both sides of the table. If I'm hiring, phone screens let me sanity check the candidate resembles what they present on paper. As an candidate the phone screen lets me sanity check that the position/team resembles what they present in the job posting. Both of these before either side has expended significant resources on a proper interview. More that 50% of the most recent interviews I have done have involved getting on an airplane (sort of "amusingly", more than once even for a position in the same city I was located) - no way I'm going to put that sort of time in for most places without talking to them first. On the other foot, it's pretty frustrating as a hiring manager to have interviews and people all lined up and prepped for someone it only took you 10 minutes to know was not going to work out. I should probably add, I mean technical, or at least hiring manager, phone screens. Recruiter can rarely handle this, and if I'm talking to one it's really only to arrange/understand who I really need to be talking to.
- walshemj 8y ago
  Isn't the sanity checking what you pay a recruiter for
  - ska 8y ago
    Recruiters are most typically useful as a filter. If they can reduce an unmanageable number of candidates to a manageable pile without too many false positives, you are doing well. In more niche/difficult to match area, good recruiters can be helpful at finding difficult to source candidates, much more so that evaluating them. Those two skill sets are quite different, most recruiters don't do both well.
kevan 8y ago
I don't know anyone that really enjoys phone screens or tools like HackerRank. But, given the percentage of people with 5+ years of coding skills on their resume that wash out with fizz-buzz questions I think they're a necessary filter to save everyone time.
dylan-m 8y ago
I'm somewhere on the autism spectrum, which isn't a big deal, but it does have the effect that I don't come across well in phone calls. So if that's my first meeting with someone, I am doomed. It's challenging enough navigating a regular social situation, but it gets even worse when I'm down to a single source of information, and that happens to be a tiny little speaker linked to a tiny little microphone over six concrete buildings and a thunderstorm, and the interviewer's voice is oddly muffled but I didn't bring it up at the start of the conversation and now I'm wondering if I should mention it ten minutes in and damn I lost track of my notes. That isn't a comfortable situation for anyone, but I get the impression that people are usually able to fill in the gaps with their own intuition of social norms and protocols. I suspect many of the gut feelings people get doing phone interviews are a matter of luck. I do appreciate the convenience of a phone interview, but it would be incredibly good for my peace of mind if more of them could start off with a simple email conversation to introduce each other. I tried to do that myself for a brief moment where I was interviewing people, and I thought it went quite well. (My boss, wondering how he almost didn't hire me, put me in charge of hiring someone like me, which was surprisingly non-destructive, but I'm grateful I don't need to do it on a regular basis). With that said, I really dislike the jobs where they ask you a bunch of random questions right in their application form. That's way too much work when your answers to those questions probably won't even reach your interviewer anyway.
- josho 8y ago
  A good manager isn’t looking for polished answers in a phone screen. Rather it exists to validate that it is worth my and your time to meet in person. Eg. I’ll provide more context on my needs as the hiring manager (often the recruiter explains the role poorly). Then I’ll ask a few questions related to the role that are pretty basic to validate your background isn’t BS. So if you get screened out here despite nailing the questions then the manager is hiring on the wrong criteria (likability?) and you probably don’t want to work for them anyway.
shshhdhs 8y ago
I have to disagree. I perform a lot of interviews, in-person and over the phone, and I no longer trust resumes. People will put hundreds of words on them but can really only speak to a handful. I’d rather sort that out over the phone first before wasting their time taking PRO and traveling.

notyourwork 8y ago

Interviewing is an expensive process so you try to introduce multiple steps which filter a large candidate pool down to a hire. If every candidate with a resume that indicated they were qualified was brought in the process expense would increase drastically. Furthermore, phone screen allows ability to get perspective on soft skills. At least in my field, technical people need to communicate and therefore a phone screen allows ability to review this attribute of candidate which isn't conveyed on a resume.

ravenstine 8y ago

I hate phone screenings. And that's not because I hate the interview itself, but having the interview over the telecom system. Most recruiters are using a cell phone, and cell-to-cell audio quality is pitiful in today's age. No wonder so many people in my generation don't bother calling anymore! If my ears are straining to make sure I'm hearing the fuzzy-sounding person on the other end of the line, that makes the screening a lot less pleasant. As much as I agree that companies should be more willing to just have people come in for a quick chat, I'd like for recruiters to reach out through email or text and then setup a Hangouts chat or such. A video call would be sufficient in my book. EDIT: One of the things that sucks about phone screenings, IMO, is when the interviewer is clearly asking a prewritten set of questions and taking notes as I speak. What I'd like instead is for the interviewer to record the conversation so they don't have to take notes, thus freeing their minds up to having a chill conversation and perhaps getting a better sense of who I am.

GhostVII 8y ago
Also I have a pay as you go phone, since I never call anyone, so a phone screening can quickly cost me $20 if it goes for more than half an hour.
- reificator 8y ago
  https://voice.google.com https://voice.google.com and a PC headset will get you free calls over the internet.
- Sean1708 8y ago
  They're making you ring them?! That's ridiculous! Personally I would just flat out refuse, there is absolutely no excuse for them to put the cost on you unless they can't afford to hire you anyway.
  - GhostVII 8y ago
    No, they call me, but I get charged for incoming calls apparently. I thought I didn't, but then I ran out of balance half way through a phone interview.
  - fencepost 8y ago
    In the US you're generally charged for every minute of a call on the phone regardless of whether it was incoming or outgoing. Most postpaid plans now include unlimited minutes, but prepaid are limited. I believe European carriers were traditionally caller pays, not sure if that's still the case.
hocuspocus 8y ago
I always insist on using VoIP or videochat. Nowadays most companies use Zoom, Google Meet or the like. But even then, and with a gigabit wired connection on my end, it's usually not perfect. :/
- walshemj 8y ago
  That's because both ends are not using proper equipment - real sound cards real microphones.
scarface74 8y ago
As an interviewer, I’m not interested in having a “chill conversation”. I’m interested in knowing whether you have the minimum set of qualifications to know whether it’s worth the time to go through the trouble of setting up the in person interview, reserving a room, setting up the computer with my code interview, scheduling a block of time with other developers, etc.
- webdood90 8y ago
  Then you and your company are probably not a good fit for this particular interviewee. It goes both ways.
- xkcd-sucks 8y ago
  Couldn't you just do that in email though?
  - twblalock 8y ago
    People would cheat by looking up the answers.
    - gaius 8y ago
      They do this on phone screens too. You can hear the keys then their intonation changes as if they are reading text out loud...
      - idfoinbvc 8y ago
        If someone can google exact answer in 15 seconds (to be sure they are saying things correctly), in some situations it's also great. This fact-checking instinct is good.
        gaius 8y ago
        There is that, but in an interview fluent familiarity is a proxy for experience and regular usage, if someone can just rattle something off it’s a good indicator that they really have been doing it alot.
plasticchris 8y ago
I get how annoying being asked a preselected set of questions is, but if it's being done right it's called structured interviewing and one of the more predictive methods. For example this is how Triplebyte does it.
walshemj 8y ago
Or there are 3 people huddled round some lap top with a pos mic.

wgerard 8y ago

> If the qualifications on their resume fit your requirements, just bring them in! It's not uncommon for there to be a huge mismatch between what the resume says and how the candidate interviews. Especially since it's well-known that resumes are programmatically screened nowadays, candidates feel pressured to play buzzword bingo with their resumes. A quick phone screen or take-home is far more humane than bringing them on-site for 6 hours and having them flail miserably in the interview because of the resume problem. I also don't see how they could nail an on-site interview but fail a phone screen. It seems like the skillset there is roughly equivalent, regardless of whether you agree with that skillset being indicative of on-the-job performance.

scarface74 8y ago

I love phone screens. It tells me early on whether I need to waste my time taking off work, going across town etc. On the interviewing side, I have had 6 phone screens with different companies in one day -I was able to “work from home” to do it. On the interviewer’s side. I was able to screen 6 people in one day and bring in only two. A “resume fit” means nothing. People say all sorts of things on their resume but they fall apart when you actually talk to them.

flippyhead 8y ago
Or the reverse: someone might not be good resume writing, but if you suspect this, talking to them can occasionally find some hidden gems.
- pmiller2 8y ago
  I would guess those people don’t get phone screened, either, because the resume (in the absence of a referral) is what gets the interview.
lj3 8y ago
This. Some companies proceed directly to the "build us something" or "take a quiz" portion of the interview process. I always insist on a phone interview (preferably with the hiring manager) before doing anything else. 5 minutes of frank conversation can save you hours of wasted time. Also, you'd be surprised at how different the role they want to fill is from the one they posted.
- scarface74 8y ago
  Exactly. Just like the company is juggling a lot of candidates, historically, I am usually juggling multiple companies where I am somewhere in the interview process.
hahamrfunnyguy 8y ago
Agreed. They're a time saver for all involved. A surprising number of candidates can't answer basic programming questions about access modifiers or the difference between interfaces and abstract classes. Why bring them in if you know they won't meet the criteria?

Quarrelsome 8y ago

I feel like its fine if its just a low technical bar. The purpose of a phone interviews for me is basically: "can they write a function signature without really thinking much?".

ska 8y ago

I have to disagree with this, from the both sides of the table. If I'm hiring, phone screens let me sanity check the candidate resembles what they present on paper. As an candidate the phone screen lets me sanity check that the position/team resembles what they present in the job posting. Both of these before either side has expended significant resources on a proper interview. More that 50% of the most recent interviews I have done have involved getting on an airplane (sort of "amusingly", more than once even for a position in the same city I was located) - no way I'm going to put that sort of time in for most places without talking to them first. On the other foot, it's pretty frustrating as a hiring manager to have interviews and people all lined up and prepped for someone it only took you 10 minutes to know was not going to work out. I should probably add, I mean technical, or at least hiring manager, phone screens. Recruiter can rarely handle this, and if I'm talking to one it's really only to arrange/understand who I really need to be talking to.

walshemj 8y ago
Isn't the sanity checking what you pay a recruiter for
- ska 8y ago
  Recruiters are most typically useful as a filter. If they can reduce an unmanageable number of candidates to a manageable pile without too many false positives, you are doing well. In more niche/difficult to match area, good recruiters can be helpful at finding difficult to source candidates, much more so that evaluating them. Those two skill sets are quite different, most recruiters don't do both well.

kevan 8y ago

I don't know anyone that really enjoys phone screens or tools like HackerRank. But, given the percentage of people with 5+ years of coding skills on their resume that wash out with fizz-buzz questions I think they're a necessary filter to save everyone time.

dylan-m 8y ago

I'm somewhere on the autism spectrum, which isn't a big deal, but it does have the effect that I don't come across well in phone calls. So if that's my first meeting with someone, I am doomed. It's challenging enough navigating a regular social situation, but it gets even worse when I'm down to a single source of information, and that happens to be a tiny little speaker linked to a tiny little microphone over six concrete buildings and a thunderstorm, and the interviewer's voice is oddly muffled but I didn't bring it up at the start of the conversation and now I'm wondering if I should mention it ten minutes in and damn I lost track of my notes. That isn't a comfortable situation for anyone, but I get the impression that people are usually able to fill in the gaps with their own intuition of social norms and protocols. I suspect many of the gut feelings people get doing phone interviews are a matter of luck. I do appreciate the convenience of a phone interview, but it would be incredibly good for my peace of mind if more of them could start off with a simple email conversation to introduce each other. I tried to do that myself for a brief moment where I was interviewing people, and I thought it went quite well. (My boss, wondering how he almost didn't hire me, put me in charge of hiring someone like me, which was surprisingly non-destructive, but I'm grateful I don't need to do it on a regular basis). With that said, I really dislike the jobs where they ask you a bunch of random questions right in their application form. That's way too much work when your answers to those questions probably won't even reach your interviewer anyway.

josho 8y ago
A good manager isn’t looking for polished answers in a phone screen. Rather it exists to validate that it is worth my and your time to meet in person. Eg. I’ll provide more context on my needs as the hiring manager (often the recruiter explains the role poorly). Then I’ll ask a few questions related to the role that are pretty basic to validate your background isn’t BS. So if you get screened out here despite nailing the questions then the manager is hiring on the wrong criteria (likability?) and you probably don’t want to work for them anyway.

shshhdhs 8y ago

I have to disagree. I perform a lot of interviews, in-person and over the phone, and I no longer trust resumes. People will put hundreds of words on them but can really only speak to a handful. I’d rather sort that out over the phone first before wasting their time taking PRO and traveling.