Screening Interview Questions to Ask
Questions for whoever runs the first screening call: how to check motivation and relevant experience, which depth probes fit into half an hour, and how to settle pay, notice period and working pattern before anybody books a longer interview.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Tell me what you're doing now and why you're looking.
Why ask it
Two questions in one, deliberately. The current role gives you context and the reason for leaving gives you the risk profile. Vagueness about why they are looking is the most common early sign of a situation the candidate is not ready to describe.
What made you apply to this job in particular?
Why ask it
The test is whether anything in the answer could not have been said about ten other employers. Someone who cannot name one specific thing applied in bulk, which is worth knowing at this stage rather than discovering at offer.
From the job description, what do you think we actually need?
Why ask it
More useful than asking whether they read it, because it shows what they believe the job is. Many candidates describe something more senior or more hands-off than the role you are filling, and catching that here saves three interviews.
Walk me through the part of your background that's closest to this role.
Why ask it
Asking them to select the relevant part tests judgement rather than memory. A candidate who starts at their first job and works forwards is showing you how they handle prioritising information under mild pressure.
What work from the last year are you proudest of, and what was your part in it?
Why ask it
The one-year limit rules out a career-defining story from a decade ago. The second half is where to listen carefully: watch for the slide from I to we arriving exactly where the specifics should be.
Looking at the responsibilities, which parts have you done before and which would be new?
Why ask it
Splitting the list into known and new produces an honest inventory, because you have made admitting a gap the expected answer. Anyone who claims all of it is familiar has either done the job or has not read it closely.
How big was the team, and who did you report to?
Why ask it
Team size and reporting line put every earlier claim in scale. Running three people at a ten-person company and running three at a large one are different jobs, and this is the cheapest way to learn which one they did.
What did a normal week look like in that job?
Why ask it
A normal week is much harder to dress up than a highlight, and it shows where the hours actually went. Gaps in the account usually mark the work they liked least and hope you will not return to.
Which tools did you use daily, and which did you set up or administer yourself?
Why ask it
The distinction between using something and owning it separates real depth from a line on a CV. It works for almost any stack or system and is one of the few technical checks that fits inside a screening call.
Tell me about something that went badly and what you did next.
Why ask it
The value is entirely in the second half. Four minutes on whose fault it was and thirty seconds on the repair is a reliable preview of how this person behaves during your next bad week.
When did you last disagree with your manager, and how did it go?
Why ask it
Disagreement is ordinary, so a candidate who says it has never happened is either managing you or has spent years keeping quiet. Either way the hiring manager should know before the next stage.
What are you looking for on salary?
Why ask it
Ask this in the first call, not the last. If the number sits well outside the band, everything after it wastes two diaries, and most candidates would much rather hear that now than after four rounds.
What's your notice period, and when could you realistically start?
Why ask it
Notice, booked holidays and visa timelines all surface here. Screening exists partly to catch a start date that cannot work before a team builds a plan around someone who cannot arrive until autumn.
This role is [days in office, hours, any on-call]. How does that sit with you?
Why ask it
State the pattern out loud rather than asking in the abstract. Agreement with a schedule you never described is worthless, and hesitation at this point is information rather than a problem.
Are you talking to other companies, and how far along are those conversations?
Why ask it
This sets your timeline more reliably than any internal deadline. Someone at final stage elsewhere means your process either compresses or loses, and that is a decision to make today rather than next month.
Is there anything in the role as described that gives you pause?
Why ask it
Inviting the objection is how you find the doubt that would otherwise show up as a quiet withdrawal. Concerns about scope, pay or reporting line are all easier to address now than after an offer letter.
What would make you turn down an offer from us?
Why ask it
This asks for deal-breakers instead of preferences, and people answer it more honestly. Refusing something feels less presumptuous than asking for it, so the constraints come out plainly.
What do you want from the next two years that your current job can't give you?
Why ask it
Two years is close enough to be concrete and far enough to show direction. If nothing they name exists in your role, expect either a declined offer or a resignation inside the first year.
What questions do you have about the role or the team?
Why ask it
What they ask tells you more than anything they said about themselves. Questions about the work mean they are already picturing the job; questions only about holiday allowance at this stage mean they are picturing a different one.
Is there anything I haven't asked that I should have?
Why ask it
Costs fifteen seconds and regularly surfaces the thing that actually mattered: a gap on the CV, a caring commitment, a competing offer. People volunteer at the end of a call what they would never raise at the start.
Running a Screening Call in Half an Hour
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
How to Spend the Thirty Minutes
Two minutes of framing
Say who you are, how long the call will take, what happens after it, and when they will hear. Candidates who know the shape of the call stop guessing at what you want and start answering.
Ten minutes on background, eight on depth
Background questions establish scale and relevance; the depth probes about a normal week, tools owned and something that went badly are where you learn whether the CV is accurate. Protect that second block, because it is the part that gets cut when a call runs long.
Five minutes on logistics, and never less
Salary, notice, working pattern and other processes. Skipping this to be polite is the single most common reason a hiring process collapses at offer stage.
Five minutes for their questions
Leave a real gap rather than a token one. A screening call is also their screen of you, and someone who never gets to ask anything often withdraws quietly afterwards.
Making Candidates Comparable
- Ask the core questions in the same order for every candidate. Once the order drifts, you are comparing conversations rather than answers.
- Write down numbers and dates verbatim during the call: team size, notice period, salary expectation. These are the facts you will need to defend a decision, and memory rewrites them within hours.
- Score after the call, not during it. Rating while listening biases everything a candidate says after the first two minutes.
- Give every candidate the same depth probes, not just the ones you already like. Extra follow-up for favourites is how a shortlist ends up reflecting rapport instead of evidence.
- Record what you would need to check at the next stage rather than trying to resolve it now. A screen is a filter, not a verdict.
Questions to Keep Out of the Call
Anything about family, health or age
Children, pregnancy, caring arrangements, medical history and age are not screening topics, however friendly the conversation feels. If you need to know whether someone can meet the schedule, describe the schedule and ask about that.
Salary history where it is restricted
Several jurisdictions limit asking what someone currently earns. Asking for expectations, and stating your band, works everywhere and gets you the number you actually need.
Nationality instead of right to work
The lawful question is whether they are authorised to work in the location and whether they will need sponsorship. Where someone is from is not the same question and should not be asked.
Casual chat that becomes assessment
Small talk before the recording starts still shapes your decision. If a topic could not appear in your written notes, keep it out of the call entirely.
What Screeners Get Wrong
Selling before you have listened
A ten-minute pitch about the company teaches the candidate exactly which answers to give. Describe the role briefly, ask your questions, then sell at the end if you want them.
Filling silences
After a question about something that went wrong, the pause is the work. Count to five before rescuing them, because the second half of the answer is usually the honest half.
Screening for polish
Confident phrasing and a smooth story are practice, not competence. Ask for the normal week and the specific tooling, which are hard to perform without having done the work.
Promising a timeline you do not control
Say what you know, including that you do not know. A missed deadline you invented on the call costs you the candidates who had other offers in hand.