Posted 2020/3/11
Screening Interviews
Screening interviews are usually undertaken by HR / Personnel staff or by third party recruiters like me.
The aim of the screening interview, which can be undertaken by telephone as well as in person, is to check your technical relevance against the job.
By technical relevance, I mean by way of your past experience and training, though in a technical role, such as computer programming, technical relevance is of course meant literally.
The interviewer in this case is looking for the strongest candidates and will therefore be looking for good, solid reasons to take your application forward to the next stage.
This is common in situations where there is lots of competition for a particular role.
You will be asked questions that are geared around your experience and training, though there might be a few questions in there that are designed to catch you out.
A skilled interviewer will be looking for ways to disqualify your application, since their role is to produce a short-list of no more than three or possibly four well-qualified candidates.
Be prepared to explain any gaps in your employment history.
Make sure that your CV is up to date and doesn't have any inconsistencies that could be used to trip you up, or that could throw you into a panic.
Right from the start, your interviewer will be asking probing questions that centre around your salary expectation. If it's outside of their own parameters for the position on offer, expect your application to be down-graded.
If your previous or most recent salary package was or is more than is on offer, you will be quizzed at length. You'll have to be extremely convincing in order to get past a thorough interviewer, since most people, even when currently unemployed, don't like accepting positions that pay less than they are used to.
This means (to the employer), that they are likely to lose you as soon as another position comes along - and recruitment is expensive, so they don't want to get it wrong and risk having to do it all again.
During the screening interview, try to concentrate on your day to day duties.
The more you practice this beforehand, the better. Be expected to be asked what you do each day - and don't, no matter what, ever reply, "well, each day is different really". Your interviewer just heard that one!
Don't get too personal and friendly with the screening interview. You'll need to save your best smile and winning personality for the final interview with the real decision maker, as the chances are that this will be the person you'll be working most closely with.
Remember, screening interviews are simply used as a tool to prepare the most qualified candidates for the job on offer.
