Screening
Also called: candidate screening, pre-screening
Most teams either screen too lightly and waste the hiring manager's time, or too hard and reject people they would have hired. The art is in the middle.
What screening actually is
Three things sit under the label, often used together:
- CV review. A 60-second pass over the application looking for two or three must-haves from the job posting. Either the candidate moves to the next stage or gets a rejection email.
- Knockout questions. Built into the application form. “Are you authorized to work in the EU?” or “Do you have 3+ years of B2B sales experience?” — yes/no answers that auto-route candidates who don’t qualify.
- A short screening call. 15-25 minutes, usually with a recruiter, to confirm the basics on paper and check motivation, comp expectations, notice period.
Smaller SMBs often skip the call and run on CV + knockout questions. Teams hiring above ~10 people per year usually need the call.
What good screening looks like
A few principles:
- Screen on must-haves, not nice-to-haves. “5+ years experience in B2B SaaS” is a must-have for some roles, a nice-to-have for others. The job posting decides which.
- No more than three knockout questions per application. More than three and you’re filtering for compliance with your form, not for fit with the role.
- Same criteria for every candidate. Inconsistent screening means you’re losing the candidates who would have been the best hires, because their CV happened to not match a keyword on the day you reviewed it.
What bad screening looks like
- Keyword-matching only. Software that hides candidates because their CV says “manage” instead of “managed.”
- “Cultural fit” as the primary screen. Most teams don’t have a written definition of fit. Without one, screening on fit is screening on similarity.
- Silent reject after screen. Every screen-rejected candidate should get an email. Silence is the most common candidate-experience failure.
Screening vs. interview
Screening checks whether a candidate meets the basic criteria. Interviewing assesses how they would actually do the work. Don’t confuse them: a 25-minute screening call that turns into a behavioral interview wastes time on both sides.
Where Join fits
Join’s application form supports knockout questions with auto-routing, and the rejection email after a knockout fires automatically. See the features page.
