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PROJECT JOB
Job Search Step 4 — Screen
The next stage of your job search will likely be a screening interview with the hiring manager. Here’s how to prepare
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The job search screening process
As a hiring manager, I screen my final few candidates. I’d rather spend half an hour with them now and understand more about them than waste my colleagues’ time later. I set a test and ask one question:
“Please tell me about the past, present, and future you, including why you’re applying for this role.”
It’s a deceptively simple test. Within ten minutes, I can understand whether they can explain something clearly to others and how they construct a narrative. These are critical skills in today’s market, and AI can’t help you.
The perfect candidate takes about 15 minutes to complete the task. They work forward from the first relevant point in their lives to the present, summarising why they are applying and then explaining where they see themselves in five years. I have had several candidates take the full half hour on what they did fifteen years ago, and other candidates complete the task in fewer than five minutes, giving no hooks for further questions.
Taking around half the time gives space for a few questions and then for the candidate to ask a few questions themselves. These questions are just as telling as their life story. Good questions will centre on the role and what I’m looking for in the candidate, allowing them to modify their story to fit.
In each case where the candidate completes the task well, they progress to the full interview. I’m equipped with questions to ask, and they are equipped with the relevant qualities we’re looking for to help shape their interview answers.
Your screening may play differently, but the purpose is the same—"Do I want to spend more time with you, and do I want to pull together a full suite of interviewers for the process when time is at a premium?”
If selected for screening, the advice in the previous step applies, but additionally, ensure that you do your homework on the organization…
