Pre Screening Questions For Interviews

Why Is A Pre

Pre-screening Interview Questions for Project Managers | Proven Answers

Pre-screening interviews are important because they provide valuable insights into a candidate’s employable qualities. Here are some additional examples of why pre-screening interviews are important:

Allows you to learn more about a candidate beyond their resume: A candidate’s resume summarizes their educational and professional experiences, and their cover letter offers a more detailed explanation. However, a pre-screening interview gives you the opportunity to ask specific questions about their experiences to gain clarity on their skills and past job duties.
Ensures interviewers invest more time in the right candidates: A pre-screening interview is important because it helps employers verify which candidates have the right personality and skills to contribute to their company. Therefore, by conducting pre-screening interviews over the phone or via video chat, you can narrow your candidate search and only conduct in-person interviews with the ones who impressed you the most.
Helps you gauge a candidate’s enthusiasm for the position and company: Conducting pre-screening interviews also helps you select candidates who display a genuine interest in your company and the job field. You can gauge enthusiasm by asking them questions about company initiatives or industry topics.

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What Do You Do Best

This candidate interview screening question is a more realistic version of the ever-popular question, Whats your superpower? When you ask candidates what they do best, it gives them license to talk about the skills of which theyre most proud, whether personal or professional. You might find they bring up a quality that is valuable in the workplace, and you can ask them to talk more about that trait and how it benefits their work. Screening candidates with this question will also help you quickly determine if the potential employee will be able to use their favorite skills often enough to stay engaged in their work. If the job doesnt entail exercising their best skills on a daily basis, they might be a better fit for another position.

The data supports a strengths-based approach to management. When leaders allow their employees to focus on refining their strengths, employees show signs of higher productivity and engagement. But, the benefits dont stop there. Strengths-based management makes people feel motivated and satisfied with their work, increasing employee retention.

Go deeper: What, if anything, do you struggle with at work?

What’s Your Greatest Weakness

Employers ask this question to gauge the candidate’s ability to take criticism, self-reflect and show humility. The ability to talk about your weakness shows a strong sense of self-awareness and a desire to continually improve. It’s important to give an honest answer to this question, but you can explain it in a way that shows your willingness to develop. Consider choosing a weakness that is not critical to the position and explain how you are working through this weakness with self-improvement.

Example: “I think my biggest weakness is my timidness, which can often cause me to not speak up during large meetings or in situations with new people. I’ve often had difficulty finding a good time to share my idea during a conversation.

“I’m working on improving in this area, and in a meeting where there isn’t an opportunity to interject, I’ve started writing down my thoughts so I can continue focusing on the conversation. I can reference my notes later and share my ideas with the team. I also work to build strong relationships with team members to gain mutual trust and respect, which has helped me greatly in feeling comfortable interjecting my thoughts.”

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What Is Your Perfect Work Environment

This question can be a big part of helping you determine a potential employees culture fit. If you have a thriving remote culture, like Formstack, you probably arent looking for an applicant who says his perfect work environment includes a lot of in-person interaction with coworkers.

On the other hand, if your work environment includes a physical office with an open-concept space and a lot of noisy collaboration, the ideal candidate is probably not someone who says her perfect work environment is a quiet, solitary office.

Adding pre-screening questions to your job application is a great way to expedite hiring at your company. Ready to transform other HR processes? Check out our HR solutions for even more ways to take your HR team to the next level.

Watch Now: The Art of Building Highly Engaged, Productive Teams

What Are Your Salary Expectations

Recruiters might ask this question early in the hiring process, like during a phone interview, to see if the salary you expect aligns with what they have budgeted for the role. It can also help them understand if you are over or perhaps under-qualified for the position. To answer this question, it is best to provide a range to show that you are flexible, but also that you expect to earn a certain amount.

If youre unsure about what salary is appropriate for the position for which youre interviewing, visit Indeed’s Salary Calculator to get a free, personalized pay range based on your location, industry and experience.

Be sure that you are comfortable with making the lowest number in your range because the recruiter will likely try and start with the lowest possible number. Negotiating your salary is an acceptable and normal part of the hiring process that will come later once youve received an offer. For the purposes of your phone interview, they will likely tell you whether or not this position will be acceptable for the range you are given.

Example answer:For this position my ideal salary would fall in the range of $55,000 to $65,000. I feel this is an appropriate amount for my experience level in this position.

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Examples Of Good Interview Questions To Ask

What would you expect me to achieve in the first several months?
What is the departments biggest challenge at this time?
In your opinion, what do you see as the greatest challenge to this organisations future growth?
How would you describe the ideal employee?
What type of training does the company provide?
What are the current goals of the department?
How soon are you looking for someone to start?
Im really interested in this job. When can I expect to hear back from you?

New Job Requirements & Responsibilities

Questions about the available position allow employers to gauge your qualifications for, interest in, and plans for your potential new role.

Common questions in this category include:

Are you still interested in this position?
Why do you want this job?
What relevant experience for this position do you have?
What attracts you about this position and our organization?
The requirements for this position include x, y, and z. Briefly describe how you meet each of these requirements.
What is your biggest professional accomplishment, and how do you think it pertains to this position?

Seeking Help From Recruiters

Even small companies sometimes use the services of job recruiters for their open positions. These professionals serve two important roles: to find and then screen potential candidates. Usually conducted by phone, pre-screening interviews give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to potential hires. They allow the managers and executives within the hiring organization to focus on their work and wait for viable candidates before performing actual interviews.

Can You Explain These Gaps In Your Cv

How to Prepare for An Interview – The Best Pre-Interview Strategy | Indeed Career Tips

They’re quite common, but sometimes gaps in a CV can be seen as a red flag. Whether it’s a gap year, a sabbatical or just bad luck, if you have a big gap there’s a high chance you’ll be asked about it so the interviewer can find out how reliable you are as an employee.

The key is to be open, honest and natural with your answer. Talk about the reason behind your career break, what you did with the time and what you learned during it. The most important thing is to show that you made careful decisions and planned ahead, so they trust you won’t suddenly decide to swan off to Thailand for six months on a whim. The good news is that gaps on the CV are very common, and they are just not seen as the red flag they used to be – but prepare your answers anyway.

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What Is A Pre

A pre-screening interview, or pre-employment screening, is a series of questions that lets you learn some basic qualification information about candidates, prior to conducting a more extensive interview.

The pre-screening is typically comprised of surface level questions regarding career goals/aspirations, basic questions on skills/abilities, and any job preferences. Pre-screening questions can also come in the form of a basic skills test that can weed out unqualified candidates before you invest too much time interviewing them.

The pre-screening interview is a great way to screen out candidates that are interesting, but may not be the best fit for the role. Pre-screening also helps recruiters, interviewers and candidates to become familiar with each other prior to meeting in person, increasing candidate comfort levels with the interview process.

Tell Me About Yourself

This is the most common opening question for a prescreening interview. Consider this question an opportunity to give your elevator pitch to the recruiter by explaining your professional strengths and experience. Hiring personnel may also hope to learn about your interests, personality and communication abilities. Provide a short answer with relevant details to give the interviewer an understanding of your professional self.

Example: “I’m a direct sales marketing professional passionate about strategizing new marketing techniques for women’s apparel. With five years of experience managing a marketing team, I lead team members in engaging our customers and elevating their experience with our brand. In my current role, I focus on retail marketing strategies targeted at women ages 35 to 50 using social media, direct sales and product networking. When a college mentor told me I had a talent for pitching sales ideas, I decided to pursue a career in the marketing industry and I’ve loved my journey so far.”

Why Are You Applying For This Position

Another common question, Why are you applying for this position? or What about this job interests you? tells employers whether or not you are serious and have a genuine interest in pursuing the position. To answer this question, use details listed in the job description that made you want to apply. This can be duties listed in the job description, details about the company or something about the job that aligns with your career goals.

Example answer:Ive been working for several years on gaining skills in your industry. I feel I have the knowledge, skills and qualifications youre looking for, along with a unique perspective coming from a different industry. I am passionate about working in the environmental protection space, and it is time for me to make a change. I feel your company is the perfect place for me to do that.

Screening Interview Questions About Candidates Responsibilities

Take a note of the candidates capability to handle the responsibilities associated with the job role theyve applied for. You can assess if the candidate can handle job responsibilities with these screening questions.

Job requirements may vary from company to company for a particular job title. Thats why you should ask the candidate about their roles and responsibilities at their previous organization rather than his/her job title. It is to see if they have the work experience you need from them.

Important phone interview questions for candidates to ask about responsibilities are:

For which type of things were you responsible for carrying out at your previous job?
Have you done any tasks that usually dont fall under someones responsibility in your job role?
What are those roles you needed to perform at the last post that can be beneficial for this position?
What responsibilities do you wish to have with our organization?

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The Complete Guide To Applicant Screening Questions

The right screening questions ensure that only the most qualified applicants progress in the hiring process. This allows you to spend less time with unqualified applicants and more time with the applicants best suited for the job. Follow the tips in this guide to get the most out of your screening questions.

Avoiding Bias In Applicant Screening Questions

Theres an unfortunate statistic that suggests that male candidates will apply for a job even if they only meet 60% of the qualifications yet female candidates only apply if they match the qualifications necessary exactly.

You can avoid biasing a job away from women applicants by:

Avoid using terms or descriptions of jobs that are biased or gendered in the way they are described or the verbs used.

Avoiding requirements creep by focusing only on what the bare minimum to do the job effectively requires in the job description and in screening questions.

Remember, screening questions are tools to identify who does not meet the minimum requirements of a position and clearly identifying what those minimum requirements are is critical for reducing bias. Do not use screening questions to see if people have desirable but not necessary skill sets or backgrounds. Do ask screening questions to see whether candidates can immediately perform the minimum necessary to do the core functions and responsibilities of a job, not those which can be trained on the job.

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How Do Recruiters Ask Pre

Recruiters will often call candidates on the phone or use a video call to schedule a pre-screening interview. These calls will usually only last 15-30 minutes. This should be enough time for the interviewer to decide whether to move forward with your application.

First impressions count, so this short conversation should be enough for the recruiter to determine whether to invite you to the next stage of the employment process.

What Type Of Work Environment And Management Style Do You Prefer

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Building off of their motivation, continue to assess the cultural fit by learning about the candidates preferred work environment and management style. Youll gain valuable information about their personality and ability to work with different types of individuals.

Ideally, the candidates preferences will align with the organization and the position. If they prefer working independently but the role is heavily team-based, they wouldnt be the best match.

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Where Do You See Yourself In Five Years’ Time

This is to get an idea of your ambitions and your drive. Your answer needs to be realistic, and it should also reflect something you can do within the company so if it’s UK-based with no plans to globalise, don’t say “I’d love to be living overseas!”

Good ideas to get you started are:

I’d like to be leading a small team.
I want to be taking the lead on major projects.
I hope to be known as the go-to person for my specialism

Who Would You Consider A Role Model And Why

Learning about what types of people inspire your candidates gives leaders a unique insight into the kinds of things they value. Whether its a thought leader in their profession, author, artist, mentor, or family member, those who inspire us have traits we strive to emulate. Listen for the characteristics the candidate mentions to get an idea of what their own expectations might be for themselves.

Turn it up a notch: Tell me about a lesson you learned from a colleague you didnt enjoy working with.

Like it or not, most of us will have unpleasant experiences with a colleague at some point in our careers. A candidate with a willingness to learn from those experiences is one who is professional, resilient, and positive, valuable qualities in a leader. Their characterization of the colleague can also be telling. A red flag to look out for is a candidate who makes personal attacks or who takes little responsibility and blames others.

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Nailing The Dreaded ‘tell Me About Yourself’ Question

“So, tell me about yourself.” It’s a common interview question that tends to come up early, which means it’s a great opportunity to make a good impression. Interviewers use this one to learn about who you are as a person before delving into career questions. Before the interview, spend time getting to know yourself. Not in a deep, meaningful Eat Pray Love kind of way just understand where your strengths lie and how to talk about them.

How Would You Describe Your Accomplishments

If you have qualities that people at your workplace are attracted to, wouldnt you be inspired if they talked about it? So recall the time when your customer or line manager patted your back for meeting deadlines.
However small the appreciation, they can tell a lot about your values to a potential employer and make an impact in your pre screening interview.

A genuine response is one that sounds like your actions were inspired by life events like this employee.
I am a firm believer of consistency. A habit I inherited from my father. He always stressed the importance of work ethics and avoided shortcuts. Each day, I live up to standards that inspire good actions in people around me.

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Questions For The Employer

Finally, phone screenings often conclude with interviewers asking interviewees if they have any questions. As a job applicant, it is imperative you prepare questions for the interviewer about the role and the organization in advance. Declining to ask any questions when afforded the opportunity to do so is a major red flag for employers.

Here are some suggestions for strong questions to ask your interviewer:

About the Job

What does a typical day look like in this position?
What are the short and long term goals for a new hire in this position?

About the Organization

Why do you enjoy working here?
How would you describe the organizational culture?
What are the companies goals, both short and long term?
What have been the most significant recent challenges the organization has faced?

About the Hiring Process

What are the next steps in the hiring process?
When can I expect to hear back about next steps?