---
id: B-004
type: barrier
title: "Recruiter Screening Call"
lang: en
registry: 2026.08.2
canonical: https://hoba.work/barriers/B-004
json: https://hoba.work/api/v1/barriers/B-004.json
---

# Recruiter Screening Call

Initial conversational interview evaluating salary expectations, timeline, communication, English fluency, and high-level role alignment.

> **On the canonical path** — [Terms compared before anyone spends time](https://hoba.work/process#WF-003-terms-check)
>
> Band, level, location, notice period and start date are put side by side in the first conversation, before any assessment is scheduled. Either side can stop here at no cost to the other.
>
> This entry is one of the ways that commitment stops being kept.

## At a glance

- Stage: Recruiter
- Step in the funnel: #6
- Evidence: established

## Passing condition

Recruiter and candidate align on core parameters and candidate is submitted to hiring team.

## What it looks like

Composite excerpts, written to be typical rather than copied. No particular message, company or person is quoted here.

**What this gate actually asks** · a 30-minute call, condensed — *reconstruction*

```
> 03:10 Recruiter  What are your compensation expectations?
  08:45 Recruiter  What is your notice period and earliest start?
  12:02 Recruiter  Where are you based, and are you authorised to work there?
  16:30 Recruiter  Give me the two-minute version of your last project.
  24:15 Recruiter  Any other processes running that we should know about?
```

*What to notice* Four of the five questions are logistics and one is technical. This gate mostly filters on parameters, which is why it can end a process before any engineering is discussed.

## From each side

The same entry from inside each position that meets it: what reaches them, what it means from there, and what happens next given what they control.

### Candidate

- **What reaches them:** A thirty-minute call in which four questions are logistics and one is about the work.
- **What it means from there:** The compensation question arrives before the level, the rubric or the band are stated, so a number has to be given against an unknown.
- **What happens next:** Names a figure or a range, and answers the timeline and location questions that can end the process at this gate.

### Recruiter

- **What reaches them:** The parameters this gate is scored on: expectations, notice period, location and authorisation, and one account of recent work.
- **What it means from there:** A figure outside the approved band ends the process here, whether or not the band is among the fields available at the call.
- **What happens next:** Asks the parameter questions first and submits the candidates who align. What may be said about the band at this call is set elsewhere.

### Employer policy

- **What reaches them:** The band, the levelling grid, and the rule for what may be said about either. Not the call.
- **What it means from there:** A conversation held inside the band produces a hire that stays consistent and defensible alongside every other hire.
- **What happens next:** Fixes the band and the disclosure rule. Both reach the call as constraints on the recruiter rather than as information the candidate receives.

### Public policy and industry standards

- **What reaches them:** The posting and the text of the disclosure rule. The screening call is not a record that reaches it.
- **What it means from there:** Where a band must be published, the question at this gate is asked against a number both sides can name.
- **What happens next:** Requires the band in the posting and leaves the level a candidate is assessed at outside the rule, because rules are written where they can be measured and enforced.

## Related entries

- precedes — [B-005](https://hoba.work/barriers/B-005) — Technical Screen / Live Assessment

---

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