Screening: The Phone Interview

Don’t waste valuable time meeting with every candidate. Use the steps below to screen out red flag candidates before sitting down for a full interview.

You’d be surprised at what people will tell you during a screening interview. I was used to interviewing sales people, who are incentivized to close me, but as I started interviewing for other positions I was incredibly surprised by the disasterous answers I received. Follow the model and screen out candidates that raise red flags.

Questions to ask:

What do you expect to gain from working at a startup?

Working at a startup is a bit more chaotic then thinking through a career. Hierarchies are all over the place in the beginning and chaos reigns supreme. Finding out why they would choose to work in an area where you get paid less, work longer hours, and are more stressed, gives you insight into what they are looking for from the experience and if they are culturally a good fit for you.

What are your most significant accomplishments? What do you enjoy doing professionally?

In reality, you’re asking someone about their strengths without them knowing it. You need to dive deep here and get anywhere from 8–10 strengths depending on their experience. I let them wander a bit here to see where they will take you. They always have the first one prepared when you ask this. When you start digging deep is when you will be able to sort the A’s from the B’s and C’s. It will also create for you a better picture of them professionally and allow you to figure out where they might shine.

What are you not interested in doing professionally, or not good at?

When you ask someone about their greatest weakness, you will always get a cookie cutter answer. Here we try to disarm them, albeit slightly, to get them to reveal their weaknesses.

If you are still not getting anything from them, use this question — If you move onto the next rounds, we will be asking you to help to set up references with peers, previous employers, and co-workers. What do you think they would say you are not good at or not interested in doing?

ProTip: Keep in mind that A-players will discuss their weaknesses and then talk about how they are addressing them. It is preferable to have someone know what their weaknesses and work on them than someone who either doesn’t know or isn’t addressing them.

Who were your last five bosses and how would they rate you from a scale of 1–10 when I call them?

The threat of calling an old boss is usually enough at this stage to get them to tell you the truth. The use of “when” instead of “if” gets you the real answers. Your goal here is to look for 8+ with 7 representing neutral, and 6 and below representing red flags. When they give you the rating, make sure to dive deep and understand why they have given you this number.

What, How, & Tell Me More

One of the reasons that sales is so important is that it is used in every facet of life. When a candidate gives you an answer here, start probing. What do you mean by that? How did that make you feel? Tell me more about that particular situation.

You can spend as much time or as little time during this process with the candidates. I would suggest quickly getting off the phone with people who have raised red flags immediately, but for those that have done well, I’d encourage you to continue to dive in-depth until you are satisfied enough to bring them in for the next step, a Top-Down interview.

Lucas is the founder of Spark xyz, platform management software for incubators, accelerators, Angel groups, and VC’s.