Always do these 16 things when you're taking screening calls with recruiters

When doing a screening call with a recruiter ALWAYS have these 16 down:

1 - have shared your updated resume before the call

• include portfolio page, GitHub, + LinkedIn profile on resume
• few things slows it down like no updated resume

• offer to share pdf and word doc

• the word doc is often appreciated by the recruiter to prepare before sending to the client

2 - be able to quickly in < 2 min. preferably tell:

a. what you're excited about doing
b. share your story
c. share the number of years or months you have with each of the three main required skill

• sharing years before them (be proactive because they will ask)
• show passion to learn

3 - prepare to tell what are you currently doing in < 1 min. preferably

• what you do like you're telling a 6 year old
• avoid using company or industry jargon

No experience?

Place a high priority on gaining experience by networking and making "intern" experience, e.g. offering to build an app

4 - look up the company's web presence and prepare to tell why you want to work there

keys to focus on:

• company website (what do they do?)
• what's the mission of the company in your own words
• view social media accounts to see what they value
• view reviews like Glassdoor and/or talk with current employees if possible

5 - prepare your 1-3 most polished and most recent projects in a public repo and on a deployed url and have them ready to share when requested

Stallers here:

• projects only in private repos (no public code)
• code older than a year
• public repos don't represent your current ability

6 - glance at the job description before chatting with the recruiter or interviewer

• if you don't have it before the call then request it via email or LinkedIn (I wouldn't schedule the call without it)
• note the tech and soft skills
• find out what the top 3 must haves are

7 - be prepared and be on-time

• get sleep the night before
• have energy for the call
• have a clean, quiet distraction-free workspace for the call from desktop preferably
• if you've not got these 3, then reschedule
• arrive at least a couple of minutes before time

8 - seek to get to know the recruiter's story

• where are they from?
• what cause them to become a recruiter?
• how many people have they place at this company and other companies in the past year?

Most recruiters are never asked this and appreciate it when they are.

9 - seek to know what sort of rapport the recruiter has with not just the company but the hiring manager

• if not much then ask if they have a company with similar needs that they would
• ask them if their senior's in their company have rapport at the company

10 - ask what the interview process is like

This gives you heads up if:

• the process is one-off or it's a 5-step process
• the next step will happen in a week or tomorrow
• it's a technical or cultural interview

11 - know your availability for the next week

• have your calendar bookmarked
• be ready to tell them a few best times
• understand if the scheduled time is a zoom call invite or a phone screen
• accept the calendar invite
• create a reminder if one is not sent to you

12 - ask what is the specific team that you're going to work on and the size

• it makes a difference if you'll be working on a front-facing app for customers or the internal app for the employees
• is your team all remote and made up of 10-15 people or is it a small team < 5 devs?

13 - seek to understand the scenario that you'll be walking into

• has the role been open for 6 months or was it just available today?
• was someone fired or is it a brand-new team?
• are there colleagues from the team who've been with the company a long time?
• is it agile?

14 - know the salary range that you would need to take the sort of role that they're asking you to fill

• if you're uncomfortable to answer then ask some questions and tell them you'll return to answering when you've gotten some answers
• ask if contract-hire or direct
• ask them what's the total compensation package
• how have comparable candidates been paid (also gives you an idea if they've placed devs in the team)
• if contract to hire will they submit a conversion salary
• if contract do you get full health benefits and PTO

15 - seek to understand what the hesitations would be with you as a candidate and seek to know how you would mitigate those and ask again at the end of the call whether they have hesitations

• the best scenario is that they have zero hesitation
• if they have hang-ups, address it without being defensive or hurting your prospects
• do sell your strengths and your passion
• tell them that you want the role

16 - seek to know all the tips and advice that the recruiters have to share

• ask and you shall receive
• good recruiters explode with every bit of information that they've got to help you succeed
• bad recruiters will have not gotten this far with you and moved to the next quota

That's it. That's all the nuggets I have. Trust me, the more time you spend putting focus here, the better your odds will be of landing a great role that you enjoy. I'm rooting for you to get the role. Now go seize your next role.