Recruiter Screening Script (IC Roles)
ATS scorecard: verbatim notes per question, deal-breaker pass/fail, overall recommendation, key strengths and concerns. Hiring manager notification (Slack or email) for advance candidates within 30 minutes of screen. Decline candidates receive email within 24 hours.
Before you start
- Approved job description with hard and soft requirements
- Hiring manager's top 3 must-have criteria confirmed
- Compensation range approved and shareable at screen stage
- Candidate resume and LinkedIn profile
- Job description (title, level, location, skills, compensation)
- Hiring manager brief: deal-breaker criteria and culture signals to probe
The steps
- Prepare candidate brief before call — Resume and LinkedIn: current title and tenure, gaps over three months, whether they are moving IC or into management, and which hard requirements they actually meet. Note contradictions between the two profiles. Write three follow-up questions from what you read.
- Open call and set context — Introduce yourself and the role in one sentence. Say the call is fifteen minutes and structured — your questions first, theirs after. Setting that up front is what prevents a ten-minute answer to question one. Confirm they are still actively looking.
- Ask the 6 standard screen questions — What do you own day to day? What is prompting the search? What does the next role look like? The role-specific must-have. Compensation expectation. Timeline, and whether they are in process elsewhere. Take verbatim notes on the search reason, the ideal role and comp — those three are the diagnostic ones.
- Probe deal-breaker criteria — Ask the hiring manager's three non-negotiables — work authorisation, location, whatever they are. A no on any is an instant decline. Record the answer word for word. Do not soften it in the scorecard; the next reader will act on what you wrote.
- Give candidate time to ask questions — Three or four minutes for their questions, and note which ones they ask — someone asking about equity structure and someone asking about team culture are telling you different things. Answer honestly, within approved talking points, and never name other candidates.
- Close and set expectations — Say when they will hear back — two to three business days — and promise nothing else. If they are a clear decline, do not pad it: say you have a few more conversations to finish and will be in touch either way within three days. Then actually be.
- Complete scorecard and submit to ATS — Within twenty minutes of hanging up, while it is still fresh: verbatim notes per competency, pass or fail on each deal-breaker, an overall call of advance, hold or decline, two or three strengths and one or two concerns. Submit to the ATS. Tell the hiring manager directly if it is a strong advance — do not wait for the weekly summary.
If it goes wrong
Candidate dominates call with long answers — screen runs 35+ minutes
Interrupt politely after 90 seconds per answer: 'That's really helpful — let me ask you about X.' Strict time discipline prevents one candidate monopolizing recruiter time and skewing screen quality.
Hiring manager rejects advanced candidates for criteria not in original scorecard
Run a 15-minute calibration session with hiring manager after first 3 screens. Identify unstated preferences and add them to the scorecard before proceeding.
Candidate withdraws from process 24 hours after screen
Note the reason in ATS ('competitor offer', 'role not right', etc.). If multiple candidates withdraw at screen stage for the same reason, flag to hiring manager — it may indicate a compensation or role-clarity issue.
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