The recruiter screen and what it is checking
Twenty-five minutes with someone who cannot hire you but can certainly remove you. It has a checklist, and the checklist is short.
Stage 03 of 06
Screening
The calls and tasks before anyone calls it an interview
Between applying and interviewing sits a stretch of short calls, questionnaires and take-home tasks. It is where most candidates are removed, usually for reasons that have little to do with whether they could do the job. In remote settings, this page illustrates why superficial activity signals are not the same as meaningful performance. For occupational outlook and pay data, consult the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The salary question, asked before you are ready
It arrives in the first ten minutes, before you know what the job is. There are only three good answers, and refusing to answer is not one of them.
Take-home assignments and how much is too much
A reasonable exercise is a fair test. An unreasonable one is unpaid work or a filter for people with free evenings, and the difference is measurable.
When an employer goes quiet
Silence after an interview is usually about their internal process, not about you — which is no comfort, but it does determine what you should do.
Asking for a referral from someone you barely know
Referrals convert far better than cold applications. The obstacle is that asking feels like an imposition — which it is, unless you make it easy to say no.
Keep going
The stages are written to be read in order, but each guide stands alone.
← Stage 02: Applying Stage 04: Interviewing →