The 15 Questions That Decide Your Fate on a Screening Call
Every one is designed to eliminate you. Here's how to prepare for each.
Inside this issue:
The 5 categories of screening questions and what each one is designed to eliminate
Why your preliminary fate is decided in the first 5 minutes, not the last 5
🔒 An amazing AI prompt that generates a customized 8 page prep sheet in under 3 minutes
I see it every week: a qualified executive blows a screening call because they prepared for the wrong thing.
They reviewed their resume. They rehearsed their “tell me about yourself.” They looked up the company’s website.
None of that is what a screening call tests.
A screening call is not an interview. It is a filter.
The search consultant has a mandate from the client with specific requirements: function, level, scope, industry, location, and compensation range. The screening call checks your answers against that list.
I’m not evaluating your leadership philosophy. I’m not assessing cultural fit. I’m asking 10 to 15 questions to determine one thing: do you advance to the next round, or do I stop here?
The entire call takes 15 to 20 minutes. My preliminary decision happens in the first 5.
The 5 Categories That Decide Your Fate
Every screening question falls into one of 5 categories. Each category screens for a different disqualifier. Miss one, and you’re out.
Category 1: Fit and Motivation
“Why this company, and why this role?”
This eliminates candidates who treat the opportunity as interchangeable. The right answer shows you understand where the company is right now. Not its mission statement. Its strategic reality. Revenue trajectory, competitive threats, recent leadership changes, market headwinds.
The red flag: Generic enthusiasm. “I admire the company’s innovation culture and want to be part of its growth.” That sentence works for 500 companies. It convinces no recruiter.
The fix: Reference a specific challenge the company faces. Show you understand the role exists to solve a problem, not to maintain a function.
Category 2: Experience Validation
“Walk me through your experience in [specific domain]. Have you led a [specific type of initiative]? Give me the details.”
This is where vague answers end the conversation. I need specifics: the brand, the market, the scope, and the commercial result. Not what “the team” achieved. What you drove.
The red flag: Describing a workstream you contributed to rather than a strategy you owned. Saying “We launched X successfully” without quantifying what “successful” means in revenue, share, or growth.
Every answer in this category needs a number attached to it.
Category 3: Scope and Scale
“What is the size of the organization you lead today? Headcount, geographic scope, and budget?”
VP and C-level roles come with specific scale expectations. If the role manages 80 people and a EUR 50M budget, and your current scope is 8 people with no budget accountability, we have a gap. The recruiter needs to confirm you have operated at the level the role requires.
The red flag: Inflating scope. Or managing a large team with no P&L connection, which signals people management without commercial ownership.
Category 4: Results and Impact
“Give me the trajectory for the business you are most proud of. Starting point, ending point, your timeframe, and what you did to drive the result.”
The defining category. This is where the recruiter separates executives who move numbers from executives who build decks.
The answer I want to hear: “The business was at EUR 40M when I took over. I restructured the commercial team, repositioned our pricing strategy, and launched into two adjacent segments. We hit EUR 72M in 24 months.”
The answer that eliminates you: Describing your work in terms of activities, campaigns, or initiatives without connecting them to a measurable business outcome.
Category 5: Compensation and Logistics
“What is your current total compensation, and what are your expectations? Break it down: base, bonus, long-term incentive (LTI), and any other components.”
This is a deal-breaker check. The search consultant needs to confirm alignment with the client’s compensation range before investing more time.
The red flag: Refusing to share any number. Quoting a package 40% above your current level without a rationale. Not understanding structural differences if the role involves relocating to a different country.
Also in this category: notice period, non-compete clauses, and relocation flexibility. Know your contractual terms before the call. Saying “I’d need to check” on your own notice period signals a lack of seriousness.
What to Have Ready Before Every Call
A screening call is a checklist exercise. The recruiter has 15 boxes to tick. Your job is to tick them with speed and specificity. No rambling. No context-setting. No “let me give you some background.”
Answer the question. Provide the number. Move on.
Here’s what to have ready:
3 numbers memorized: your business’s revenue or market share trajectory (start, end, timeframe), your budget, and your team size with geographic scope
2 stories rehearsed at 90 seconds each: one about a launch or growth initiative with measurable results, one about defending or growing a business under competitive pressure
1 question for the recruiter that demonstrates you understand the company’s current strategic challenge, not a question about “culture” or “team dynamics”
The AI Prompt That Builds Your Prep Sheet
I built a prompt that generates a complete screening call prep sheet for any role at any company. You provide three inputs: the company name, the job title, and the industry. The AI researches the company and generates all 15 screening questions a search consultant would ask, explains why each one is asked, and lists the red flags for each.
It also generates a 60-second opener template, a cheat sheet with your 3 numbers, 2 stories, and 1 question, and a “phrases to avoid” section with specific replacements.
Here’s what the output looks like for a made-up example, VP of Marketing at Novo Nordisk:
Every question, red flag, and replacement phrase is specific to the company, role, and industry. No generic filler.
⭐️ The Screening Call Prep Prompt:
