Notes on screening at the speed candidates move.
How automated phone screens work, where they fit in hourly hiring, and what we have learned running thousands of them.
How to ask about availability in a phone screen (and why yes-or-no hides the answer)
How to ask candidates about availability: across 859 real answers, a yes-or-no schedule question got a one-word answer 81% of the time. Open questions surfaced a schedule condition about four times as often.
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Knockout questions: which screening questions actually screen people out
Knockout questions from real data: across 14,598 answered screening questions, 'are you willing' questions almost never screen anyone out, while 'do you currently hold' questions catch more than a third.
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Best AI Interviewers for Hourly Hiring (2026)
Compare 13 AI interviewers for hourly and high-volume hiring on phone interviews, speed, languages, published pricing, integrations and self-serve access.
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How long should a phone screen be? What 2,486 screens say
How long a phone screen should last, from real data: the median screen runs 4.4 minutes, each question adds about 40 seconds, and past three minutes a longer screen barely finds more strong candidates.
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What a phone screen actually costs per hire
How to work out the cost of phone screening candidates per hire, with real numbers from 2,478 AI phone screens: how long a screen really takes, how many you need per opening, and what the per-screen price leaves out.
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AI resume screening: what it is good at, and where it goes wrong
Ranking a stack of résumés against a role is a real use for a model, and a bad one for a keyword filter. What to automate, what to keep human, and the failure modes worth watching for.
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Employment verification vs reference check: what each one actually tells you
They get bundled together and they are not the same job. One confirms facts with an employer, the other collects judgment from a person. Here is what each one answers, who you contact, and why teams that skip one usually skip the wrong one.
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How to verify employment history, and how long each route takes
Four ways to confirm where someone actually worked: the employer's HR line, a verification portal, a paid service, and the candidate's own records. What each one costs you in days, and when each one is the right call.
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Reference check questions that actually tell you something
Most reference calls produce nothing because the questions invite nothing. Here are the questions that get real answers, the ones to drop, and how to handle a reference who will only confirm dates.
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Why reference checks get rushed, and what it costs
Almost half of employers make non-management hires without a reference. Not because they doubt the value, but because the reference is the step with the least resistance when a week gets full. What that trade actually costs, and how to make it stop happening.
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We moved PhoneScreen to OpenAI's GPT-Live-1. Here is what changed on the phone.
GPT-Live-1 is OpenAI's full-duplex voice model: it listens while it talks. We rebuilt our AI phone screener on it in September 2026. What full duplex fixes for a screening call, what it does not give you, and what we had to build ourselves.
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What an AI phone screen actually does (and what it doesn't)
A plain explanation of the automated phone screen: who talks to whom, what gets recorded, what you get back, and the decisions that stay with you.
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Why candidates should call you, not the other way around
Unknown numbers go to voicemail. Flipping the direction of the call fixes reach rates, removes scheduling, and puts the candidate in control of the moment.
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The case for asking every candidate the same questions
Structured screens are more predictive, easier to compare, and fairer. Here is why consistency is the core of PhoneScreen, and how to write questions that hold up.
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From job posting to screening questions in ten seconds
Paste any job posting and PhoneScreen drafts the role: title, location, requirements, and five screening questions you can edit before anyone calls.
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How to read a PhoneScreen scorecard
What the score means, how each answer is rated, what the flags are for, and a five-minute routine for reviewing a day's screens without listening to a single call.
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Screen in the candidate's language, read it in yours
Candidates pick from 34 languages before they call. The interview runs entirely in that language, and the recruiter reads an English transcript and scorecard.
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The first hour after someone applies decides who you hire
In hourly hiring the best candidates are gone within a day. What happens in the first hour, and how to make sure the first conversation happens then.
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Why we charge per completed screen and nothing else
No seats, no monthly minimum, no charge for missed calls or voicemail. What counts as a completed screen, and why the model matches how hiring actually happens.
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Connecting PhoneScreen to your ATS: links, webhooks, and the API
Three ways to plug screening into the tools you already use, from a link in an auto-reply to a full API integration that creates roles and receives scorecards.
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Voicemail, hang-ups, and 'not interested': what happens to the messy calls
Real phone calls are messy. Here is exactly how the interviewer handles voicemail, early hang-ups, candidates who decline, and dead lines, and what each one looks like in your dashboard.
Read →Topics: Hiring · Questions · Buyer's guide · AI interviewing · Basics · Pricing · Resumes · Product · References · Verification · Engineering · Fairness · Integrations · RSS
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