Screening Interviews Are Not Technical Interviews - Here’s Their Real Purpose

Sergey Shimansky
Feb 11
2 min read

Screening interviews… a lot of BAs approach screening calls with recruiters as if it’s a technical interview.

It’s not!

The recruiter’s main job on that call is filtering, not evaluating. They are not trying to deeply assess your Business Analyst skills. Remember, most recruiters are not familiar with the intricacies of business analysis. They are simply deciding whether it makes sense to move you forward at all.

There are a few things they focus on, and you should be ready to clearly answer questions about:

🟪 Your overall Business Analyst experience. More than the actual details, they want to hear that you speak with confidence and communicate clearly.

🟪 The domains you’ve worked in. Especially, if the position clearly requires industry experience, for example banking, travel, healthcare, etc.

🟪 The platforms and tools you’ve used. For example, for many BA roles, Salesforce experience is required. And sometimes it’s not just Salesforce in general, but something very specific, like Salesforce Marketing Cloud. If that’s a hard requirement and you can’t clearly confirm it during the screening call, you may not move forward.

🟪 Your salary expectations and availability. Before any screening interview, you should already know the market range for your BA role and the number you’re comfortable with.

🟪 Your reason for looking and your short-term career direction.

Once again, recruiters are simply trying to qualify you as a valid candidate, not assess your BA skills. So stop trying to impress the recruiter. Instead, make sure you are prepared and intentional in how you communicate your past experience, salary expectations, and career goals.

That’s exactly what screening interviews are designed for.

Does that make sense?

🟣 If you want me to review your CV or get you prepared for a BA interview, just send me a message and I’ll walk you through the next steps.

Most BAs don’t fail job interviews.

They never get invited.

Learn how recruiters and hiring managers actually work, step by step: Sourcing → Screening → Interviewing → Offer