Tactical Advice for Turning Screening Calls into Career Opportunities
When you are preparing for a product management interview, you first face a screening interview by a recruiter.
The recruiter is trained to reject or approve Product Managers, but they are not Product Managers. So, you need a different set of skills to answer their questions. You are faced with screening questions around compensation, timeline, or interests. You answer these questions once in a few years, but the recruiter asks them 10 times daily. Guess who is better at them?
How do you excel in such a power imbalance environment?
Below, we'll share some examples and tips to help you ace recruiter screening interviews to get into a Product Manager role.
This guide will cover:
Importance of scheduling your recruiter interviews and how to do it.
Acing questions about your match with the job description.
Preparing for the role and the company.
Tips to answer recruiter questions.
Examples of questions you will be asked.
Questions you should ask the recruiter.
More articles to improve your interviewing skills are here:
Objectives Of Recruiter Interviews
Recruiters have looked at your resume and see you as a good fit for interviews. They are interested in speaking with you to solidify their initial impression. Recruiters advance 60% of candidates they screen to the next stage of the interview process.
The recruiter may not know all the details about your job, like product management, but they're good at comparing your answers to the job description.
If you meet most of the job requirements that the hiring manager has listed, the recruiter will advance you to the next interview.
3 Steps To Prepare For A Recruiter Screen Interview
Schedule the call. See the next section on this.
Prepare stories that align with the job description requirements.
Review your expected salary and the timelines of any other interviews you may have.
For more tips on interview preparation, read Effective Mock Interview Practices.
Tips For Scheduling Recruiter Screening Interviews
We have described 2 situations and tips here.
Situation 1 - You get an email from a recruiter at a company you don't remember. You check the company's career page but see many product manager positions, or none at all. You're clueless about which role the recruiter wants to screen you for.
What should you do?
Our advice is to confirm (or ask) the job details with the recruiter. Only offer times for a scheduled interview call after you have this information. Here’s a sample email response.
"Could you please share the job details with me? I want to make sure I'm fully prepared. I will review the job details before our call so that I can discuss my relevant experiences."
Situation 2 - An unknown number calls you. You answer, and a recruiter begins interviewing you. You couldn’t catch the company's name amid the background noise, but you are answering questions for the next 30 minutes about a role at some company.
What to do for next time?
We suggest not answering calls from unknown numbers when applying for jobs.
This next step may not work in Europe, but it's effective in the US and India. Use an app like Truecaller to identify unknown callers. Avoid picking up unscheduled or unknown calls.
If a recruiter calls and you miss it, they'll likely leave a voicemail or send an email. Use this to identify the correct company and role, then schedule the call when you're ready to prepare.
Preparing For The Role And Company
Here are some questions you want to prepare answers for. We will write further guides to help you prepare for these.
3 reasons you want to join this company, this product, this role.
3 reasons you are a cultural fit with this company.
A time in the past you accomplished a job requirement listed on the JD, for each bullet point. If you have a high score from the Product Management resume checker, you can be confident of acing this.
Answering Recruiter Screening Questions On Job Requirements
Tip 1 -
Recruiters aim to match your responses with the job description. Your goal should be to answer every question in the affirmative.
For instance, if asked, "Have you led a product from concept to launch?"
Avoid a hesitant response:
"Not exactly. Sort of. While I haven't led a full product from concept to launch, I've managed a small feature from concept to launch. I've gone through all the stages of the product management cycle, but for different independent products. For example, I conceptualized one, launched another, and project managed the engineering for another product, depending on the timing of my role at that company."
Instead, provide an affirmative answer anchored to ‘yes’:
"Yes, I have led products from concept to launch. For example, I conceptualized a feature by gathering customer insights jand analyzing data, collaborated with the engineering and design teams to create the right solution, and launched it with the marketing team, which led to a 7% reduction in support costs. Happy to share more about this experience."
Tip 2 -
Anchor your answers to your strengths. Mention these strengths early on, for instance, in your introduction. Even if not prompted, offer a brief overview of your experiences:
"I would also like to share a summary of my background before I answer that question."
This might be a repeat from the guide on behavioral questions. Read more on behavioral questions here.
Answering Recruiter Screening Questions
Compensation
We advise you to defer sharing your compensation expectation until you have an offer for several reasons:
Real-world interviews serve as the best interview practice for you.
Having an offer can strengthen your position for other roles.
Interviews are opportunities for you to make a lasting impression on the interviewers, creating champions for your professional advancement.
If you are asked for compensation expectations and cannot skip answering it, do not give a range, give a number. When you give a range, the recruiter only cares about the minimum, whereas you think you’ve conveyed the middle point.
Ask the recruiter for the compensation set for this role.
Competing Timelines
When a recruiter inquires about your timeline, they're gauging your demand in the job market. You want to convey you are in demand. Explain you are in the pipeline with multiple companies, yet highlight why their company is among your top choices, citing specific reasons.
“I am in the pipeline with a few other companies, but I do not have a deadline for the interview completion. X role at Y company is one of my top choices because of A, B, and C.”
If you need urgency in the interviews because you are expecting an offer or have a pending offer, be upfront about these competing timelines.
“I am in the pipeline with a few other companies and need to complete my interview rounds with company Y by date D. X role at Y company is one of my top choices because of A, B, and C.”
Recruiter Screening Interview Questions
Here are a few examples.
Why do you want to join our company?
Walk me through your resume. Or, describe your career experiences.
What motivates your job change now?
(If not previously in this function) Why do you aspire to be a Product Manager?
Where do you live? Are you comfortable commuting to X?
What are your compensation expectations?
(based on the JD) The responsibilities for this role include X, Y, and Z. Have you done those before? Tell me about it.
When are you available to start?
What are your biggest strengths?
Why are you interested in this specific role over others on our careers page?
(If the interview is for multiple roles) What functional areas of our product or company do you want to work in?
(if you are a recent graduate or a student) Tell me more about your internship project. What was the work? What was the outcome?
Do you have end-to-end Product Management experience? Describe that experience.
We can help you prepare for these and more at PM Job Hunt Coaching.
Questions To Ask Your Recruiter
Recruitment is a two-way process. The company is evaluating you, but you are also evaluating the company. You give answers, but you should also ask questions.
Every interview call is also a step for you to know how to do well in your next interview with that company. When you talk to a recruiter, it's a chance to prepare for your next interview with them. So, how should you handle the recruiter's call for success?
Consider what the recruiter wants. They want to turn an interviewee into a new hire. Their goals are to maximize the number of applicants to a job description, but to minimize the number of interviews conducted by the PM team before finalizing a candidate above their quality bar.
Here are the questions we recommend asking:
Can you outline the interview process? Or, What's the timeline for the hiring process?
(If you don’t already have it) Where can I find the job description?
How can I make the hiring process smoother?
What is the office culture like? Or, Do you work at the company X’s office? In your X months/years at this company, how has your experience been?
You would've seen many candidates in your recruitment experience over the last X years across companies, how would you suggest I put my best foot forward? Or, Based on your last X years at this company, how can I stand out in the interview?
What is this role about? As I understand it is …
Do you work at [company] office? I noticed you've recently moved to [company] and would love to hear about your experience in the culture so far.
Is there anything else that stumped you about recruiter screen interviews?
If you have any questions or need more tips on acing your next big interview, feel free to reach out to us at PM Job Hunt Coaching.