Had a phone screening last week with a small start up. I'm gonna be honest and say that I wasn't that excited about it because the work didn't seem interesting. Company is also seemingly old school, headquartered in the midwest - boomers, all white old men. But I was gonna have an open mind and accepted the request for a phone screening. Previously I've only interviewed with the hiring manager, no recruiter screening, so this was a new experience for me. The process was hella scripted, she might as well just been a bot - it was like talking to a brick wall. She had a predetermined list of questions and she just went through them one at a time. Some of them were design-related. When I asked for clarification on one of them, she said "that's what they wrote down. I don't know." Another question was "do you have internet?" And then she asked some things about coding and I told her that I don't code I just design but am familiar with frontend and design specs blah blah. She says, "Oh so you code or no?" broo wtf I was so over it. She sounded old too like a grandma from the south. Is this normal? I'm not crazy for thinking this isn't a typical phone screening and that they were just incompetent right? Anyway, I didn't make it to the interview stage. I honestly don't think I can go through that again without banging my head against the wall. Question. Was this a normal screening experience? yoe 3 tc 90k
Sounds like it was either a general recruiter or someone else that doesn’t work in that area. They’re probably just collecting info on all their applicants and the HM will decide based on the answers. Based on your insights I think you’ll know what it would be like working there.
I think your instincts here are accurate…crusty boomers typically don’t make for a dynamic environment and the tone and content of the recruiting call reflects a sort of laziness. Good to be open minded but no, you’re not wrong to be annoyed.
I recently had another phone screening with a different start-up. The recruiter took a conversational approach and seemed much more competent. He didn't read from a list and asked good questions. Also gave me a chance to ask questions too.
small startups use 1 recruiter for all roles so there is no way they can understand all roles and skills required for each. they are just there to screen if you check all the boxes. so if the scripted questions were decent, you can expect that the hiring manager at least knows their stuff.
That's unfortunate. I hated that experience. She asked do you like using variables? I started explaining and she said just answer yes or no. So I just said Yes. 😑 Should I expect the majority of these types of calls from smaller startups to go this way? She made it look like I was overexplaining.
the small small ones sure