Acing a Phone Screen For a Software Engineering Role: Tips from a Technical Recruiter

The interview process for any role within a company typically starts with a phone screen, and that includes technical roles. While technical phone screens share a similar structure to standard phone screens, they differ in several ways that are worth knowing beforehand. These calls will usually cover a discussion of a company's product and future plans, your previous experience, your goals for the next step in your career, and how/why you got into tech. 

The technical screens are usually scored on a standardized rubric, so that first Phone Screen tends to be the stage that can really separate you from other technically qualified applicants before going to meet a team face-to-face. As a technical recruiter who has conducted hundreds of phone screens, I’ve collected some best practices that every technical candidate should take note of. In order to ensure you are scheduling more 2nd and 3rd round interviews, here’s some advice to help you make a strong first impression.

Before the Phone Screen

Before you even get on the phone with a potential employer, there are three things you should make sure you do beforehand to impress the interviewer:

Read the job description in full

While applying for a job, you might just skim the job description to make sure it aligns with your skillset. But going into the interview, you should have a strong idea of what this company will have you work on, so make sure you spend adequate time reading through the job description and contextualizing it with your own skills and experience. This will allow you to relate their requirements to your previous work, which will be discussed further in the next section. 

You will also want to be prepared for one or two technical questions on the technologies mentioned in the “Requirements” section of the job description. Most of the time these will be very simple, but reviewing some basic concepts is always a good idea. 

Thoroughly research the company you’re interviewing for

It seems very simple, but this step can go much deeper than understanding what the company does as a business. In fact, if you dig around a website, you usually can find an “About Our Team” or similar section that explicitly states some of the soft-skills this employer values. Sometimes with larger organizations you get lucky and they’ll send you information packets that lay out exactly what skills they’re looking for, but more often than not, you should do some digging and understand what kind of personality fits the company culture. 

Make sure you have your interview space and relevant information prepared

This is pretty self-explanatory, but still crucial. If you want to pass the screening, make sure you limit the distractions or possible inconveniences that would affect your interview. Most interviewers are understanding when it comes to this, but if you want to come off as professional as possible, take your call in a quiet area where you can be completely focused on the call. 

I also recommend having the “About Our Team” page and job description pulled up on your computer. This helps with making sure you’re focused on the interview and not what’s happening elsewhere, and it gives you a good reference sheet if you find yourself unsure of what to discuss.

Lastly, be sure you are ready to discuss EVERYTHING on your resume. This means you should be familiar with all your GitHub contributes and any sites or projects you may have developed. It can help to also have these tabs open so you can quickly access them if asked about a specific project.

During the Phone Screen

The call will likely start with a brief discussion of the company interviewing you and their product. Your prep will be essential for this portion, as the more prepared you are, the quicker you can move into sharing why you can be a valuable addition to the team. Here are some easy segues to help progress the call to a discussion of your skillset:

• "I was excited to set up this call because I really like the growth your company is going through, and I would love to contribute to that."
• "The fact that your product is so focused on helping users with such a common problem is something I feel I could really be passionate about."
• "I’ve always been interested in learning more about this specific industry, so I’m glad we found time to talk."

Remember, most phone screens are only 30 minutes, so you want to allow as much time as possible to really discuss how you could contribute to the team and company as a member. This call is about answering questions and sharing relevant information about yourself, so you want to make sure that you are discussing your exact responsibilities in previous projects. Far too often, engineers share what their team was working on, without explicitly denoting their individual role. When you're asked about previous responsibilities or projects, be sure to be specific about your role.

Example of an average response:

• "I worked on a team that built a similar product in the same language as your platform is being built in."

Example of a strong response:

• "I specifically worked on improving our app’s data ingestion to allow the application to handle more users."

Explaining your specific duties within the context of your team or group assignment will set you apart and ensure that the company you’re interviewing with knows how easily you’ll be able to jump into the role they have open. Additionally, be aware of how long each of your answers are and don’t spend too much time answering each question. You want an interviewer to be able to ask the questions they need to assess if you would be a fit for the role – so keep your answers concise and specific to your skills. 

As the call begins to wrap up, typically you will be asked to discuss what you are looking for in your career in tech or maybe even why you got started. My advice here is pretty standard, be honest, but don’t leave out details you may think are “trivial.” Many people in tech did not major in Computer Science or Software Engineering, and most have not been building programs and computers since they were eight. You do, however, probably have a unique story that led you to this interview, such as:

• "I studied _______ in college, and have always enjoyed problem solving. I gave coding a try and found that it was something I could easily lose myself in." 
• "I’ve always had a passion for building things, but never really figured out a way to turn that interest into employable skills. Once I found engineering, things just clicked."
• "I had a lot of monotonous tasks at my old job, so I taught myself some basic scripting/coding to make it easier. After digging deeper, I found this could be a great career."

There are thousands of reasons you could have for getting into tech, and the ones that stand out to employers are the ones that display some passion. 

In the final moments of the phone screen, you also want to try and confirm any next steps. This can give you a sense of when you should expect feedback, and more particularly, when you should follow up if you do not hear back. Interviewing can be stressful, so having a concrete timeline allows you to focus on other interviews before you follow up for further feedback. 

After the Phone Screen

Following up from a phone screen can be tricky. It’s a step filled with anticipation and worry, but once you are this far, there are only a few things left in your control. The main one is making sure you write a thank you note that actually reflects your interview. It doesn’t need to be long, but it should include a detail about what you enjoyed about the interview, or something you learned about the company that furthered your interest.

Following the thank you, make sure you follow the timeline discussed in the interview. If someone says feedback will take a week because the VP is on vacation, give them a week. I typically recommend following up around 5-7 days after an interview unless strictly instructed otherwise. 

Finally, learn from each phone screen. Remember the questions that caused you to stumble, and write down those answers you felt you really nailed. Fortunately, most engineering phone screens are similar across different companies, so the more you practice you get, the better you’ll do!