UNDERSTANDING PHONE SCREENS

Phone screens are all about determining if a candidate has the basic technical knowledge and experience required to work at the company. It’s easy for candidates to inflate their skills and experience to try to make it past the initial résumé screenings. For example, it’s not uncommon for candidates to claim proficiency in every programming language they’ve ever used, even those used only once for a school assignment. Some candidates go beyond exaggeration: they just lie. Inviting someone to on-site technical interviews only to discover that they really don’t have the basic skills needed for the position is a waste of everyone’s time—especially the software engineers conducting the interviews. Phone screens are used to avoid these scenarios.

Phone Screens by Software Engineers

In general, the highest quality phone screens are those given by software engineers. These screens are typically a mix of knowledge...