---
title: "Phone screen guide"
source: 18F Guides
source_url: https://github.com/18F/guides
licence: CC0-1.0
domain: engineering
subdomain: 18f-guides
date_added: 2026-04-25
---

The goal of a phone screen is to assess a candidate's rough fit for the position we're hiring, and to evaluate if a candidate should be interviewed for the position.

Phone screens are performed by someone on the 18F Engineering Hiring team, and often the same person performs all phone screens for a given hiring group.

{% include 'eng-hiring/unconscious-bias-warning.html' %}

## Purpose

Broadly, a phone screen accomplishes two purposes:

1. **Make sure the candidate is aware of the unique nature of the job, and is happy to move forward.** Working at 18f presents unique challenges of working in government, remotely, and with external partners. If candidates aren't up for the mission and challenge, we want to find that out quickly! It's also not uncommon for candidates to self-select out after the phone screen.

2. **Screen out candidates who would not be successful.** Candidates who don't share our values, do not match the required skills for the position, or are interested in working on things or in ways which we cannot offer.

Phone screens are a rough filter: it can't be used to really qualify a candidate, but it can be used to disqualify.

**Because phone screens are decided upon by a single individual, phone screeners should be especially wary about their unconscious bias.**

Please remember to take notes and pass them along: they can be very useful to future interviewers.

## Before the call

The candidate will have already received guidance from TTS Talent on what it’s like to interview at TTS and an explainer of payscales and term limits. This guide changes depending on the hiring authority used and the specifics of the role, but here’s an example [candidate guidance for a DHA role](https://docs.google.com/document/d/10n9DnWP07fjsRcM0Yw3z6OlbWi2nHcg0cKUhXIy-3po/edit) and for [a reserved hire role](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ci_PgaJty6esQ_C0yk8DKP_8ySpdaxR9plVbK7AO95o/edit).

Take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the candidate’s resume, copy the notes template, and review what to look for during a phone screen.

[Make a copy](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vMvOODdI_aRMPj6GpzkfY0KxmsUZLKCngun3ub6yJJY/copy) of [the notes template](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vMvOODdI_aRMPj6GpzkfY0KxmsUZLKCngun3ub6yJJY/edit).

## Conversation Outline

### Introduce yourself and set expectations

Begin by introducing yourself by saying this or something similar to it:

> Hello! My name is \_\_\_, my pronouns are \_\_\_, and my role at 18F is \_\_\_. In a nutshell, 18F is a digital consultancy and we work with our clients, who we call our partners, to develop and modernize technologies in service of the American public.
>
> Thank you for taking the time to speak with me today! The purpose of this call is to make sure we’re on the same page about what 18F is and what the Consulting Software Engineer role entails, to ask a few questions to get to know you and your experience better, and to answer any questions that you may have.
>
> I’ll lead the conversation for about 45 minutes, and then hand the conversation off to you to answer any questions that you might have for the remaining 15 minutes.
>
> I’m excited that you’re here — are you ready to get started?

### Discuss the candidate’s career history and path

Give the candidate space to tell their story, so we can hear how they view themselves and where they are heading in their career.

> - "I’ve had the opportunity to take a look at your resume, but I’d love to hear in your own words a brief version of your professional story."
> - "Tell me about a few of your recent projects."
> - "What are you looking for in your next ideal role, and what things are most important for you?"
> - "What got you interested in this position?"

### Describe the role and ask for their experience

Reinforce information from the job post and gauge the candidate’s level of comfort, while learning how their experience applies to these areas.

#### Open source and technical experience

We are an open source organization that prefers working with languages and tools which help avoid locking in to specific vendors or organizations.

> - "If we were to go on to a technical interview, what would be your preferred programming language?"
> - "Can you tell me a bit more about [a project or projects you’ve worked on]? I’m looking to get a sense of the kinds of technology, tools, platforms, and frameworks you used."
> - "Have you ever worked with open source or in public before?"

#### Consulting and coaching

We are a consulting organization, and this role is focused on consulting; that is:

- creating clarity around problems both technical and people-oriented,
- understanding and processing resistance to change,
- and applying your technical expertise to advise how a project will be most successful.

> - "As a result of how we engage with our partners, technical problems aren’t always the hardest problems we face. Can you tell me about a time when you needed to solve a problem that had a non-technical dimension? How did you approach it?"
> - "Can you tell me about a time when you've been on a project with multiple competing stakeholders and how you navigated it?"
> - "Can you tell me about a time when you've taught or coached others and how you went about it?"

#### Cross-functional teams

We work on cross-functional teams. To us, that means teams which are made up of people with skills in product, design, content, strategy, engineering, and management who work as peers with each other.

> - "Can you describe a time or situation in which you saw or noted something that wasn’t working well and advocated for an improvement, especially when you were on a team with non-engineers?"
> - "Did your efforts succeed or fail, and can you explain why?"

#### Values and team contributions

We are a team that values diversity, equity, and inclusion. We want one that is actively welcoming, inclusive, and fosters an environment of belonging. TTS is committed to building a safe, welcoming, harassment-free culture for everyone where we as individuals are free to take risks and challenge each other. We do not merely want a work environment that is free from hostility — we want our team and our workplace culture to reflect and celebrate the diversity of the public we serve, and we work hard to ensure that everyone is treated fairly and respectfully.

> - "In inclusive work environments, employees feel a sense of belonging within the organization and feel that their voices are heard. How do you foster a culture of belonging? What organizational cultures in workplaces do you admire, and why?"
> - "Can you tell me about a time you’ve worked with or for communities different than your own, and what did you learn?"
> - "How have you played a part, either professionally or personally, in making others feel welcome, included, and empowered?"

#### Agility and agile methods

We are an agile organization. We start new projects by exploring the problem space and performing research to see if we’re solving the right problem. As projects advance, we repeatedly check-in with end users and experts to see if our understanding of the problem and our current proposed solution are correct, and be able to adjust or pivot if we need to change course.

> - "Can you tell me about a time when a project changed and you had to reset expectations for your work?"
> - "Can you tell me about your experience with agile methods and practices and how they affected your work?"

#### Remote and distributed work

We are a remote-first organization. Even if you plan to work in one of our offices, you will be working with project teams which are geographically distributed. When it is safe to do so, you will be asked to travel occasionally (a few times a year) for 2-3 day periods to participate in workshops more often than not to DC, with a day of travel on either end, depending on where you’re coming from. The time spent in transit is considered part of your work day.

> - "How did you overcome any communication challenges and barriers in a remote work environment?"
> - "What do you think are the crucial skills needed to make a remote-first team collaborative?"

### Give the candidate space to interview us

> - "I’ve asked all of the questions on my list, and the rest of the time is yours. What questions can I answer for you?"

## After the call

**Thank you for your focus!** Use your notes to fill out the feedback form linked in the calendar invitation, which will help prepare for [interviews]({{ '../interviews/' | url }}).

## Other job role interview questions

The phone screen questions primarily focus on a consulting engineer role. Below are additional questions for other product development engineering roles.

### Front-end

In this role you will be working with other software engineers to build and maintain products. Day-to-day, this can mean: 
- writing code or peer reviewing your teammate’s code,
- working with designers and researchers to improve the usability of products,
- and applying your technical expertise to advise on how the product will be most successful.

> - "Can you tell me about a time when you had to choose between front-end frameworks, libraries, or build systems on a project, what the outcome was, and how you navigated this?"
> - "You’re tasked with writing a guide for developers about front-end performance. What topics would you cover?"
> - "Would you ever recommend avoiding client-side JavaScript? If so, what would you consider when making this choice? If not, why not?"

### Back-end
In this role you will be working with other software engineers to build and maintain products. Day-to-day, this can mean: 
- writing code or peer reviewing your teammate’s code,
- working with front-end engineers to design APIs and server-rendered views,
- working with designers and researchers to improve the usability of your product,
- and applying your technical expertise to advise on how the product will be most successful.

> - "Tell me about a system you built or operated, or helped to build or operate, on top of an Infrastructure-as-a-Service or Platform-as-a-Service. What is something unexpected you learned about the Infrastructure- or Platform-as-a-Service you used?"
> - "Tell me about an infrastructure problem that you helped solve — for example, slow performance, unexpected downtime, a security breach, etc. What was the problem and how did you solve it?"
> - "Would you ever recommend avoiding server-side code? If so, what would you consider when making this choice? If not, why not?"

### Full-stack
In this role you will be working with other software engineers to build and maintain products. Day-to-day, this can mean: 
- writing code or peer reviewing your teammate’s code,
- working with designers and researchers to improve the usability of products,
- and applying your technical expertise to advise on how the product will be most successful.

> - "Tell me about a system you built or operated, or helped to build or operate, on top of an Infrastructure-as-a-Service or Platform-as-a-Service. What is something unexpected you learned about the Infrastructure- or Platform-as-a-Service you used?"
> - "You’re tasked with writing a guide for developers about front-end performance. What topics would you cover?"
> - "Would you ever recommend avoiding server-side code? If so, what would you consider when making this choice? If not, why not?"

### Infrastructure and DevOps
In this role you will be working with other software engineers to build and maintain products. Day-to-day, this can mean: 
- writing code or peer reviewing your teammate’s code,
- working with front-end, back-end, and full-stack software engineers to ship reliable software systems, 
- performing research on how to enable engineering productivity,
- and applying your technical expertise to advise on how the product will be most successful. 

> - "Tell me about a system you built or operated, or helped to build or operate, on top of an Infrastructure-as-a-Service or Platform-as-a-Service. What is something unexpected you learned about the Infrastructure- or Platform-as-a-Service you used?"
> - "You’re tasked with writing a guide for developers about ensuring high reliability for a web application. What topics would you cover?"
> - "Would you ever recommend avoiding continuous deployment? If so, what would you consider when making this choice? If not, why not?"

### Security and Compliance
In this role you will be working with other software engineers to build and maintain products. Day-to-day, this can mean: 
- writing code or peer reviewing your teammate’s code,
- working with front-end, back-end, and full-stack software engineers to ship reliable software systems, 
- performing research on how to enable engineering productivity,
- and applying your technical expertise to advise on how the product will be most successful.

> - "Tell me about a secure development practice (or tool) you helped introduce to an engineering team. What was the outcome, and what did you learn?"
> - "Tell me about a time when you helped someone from a non-security background learn a security-related topic. What was the topic, and how did you go about it?"
> - "Tell me about a time that you worked with a team to remediate a security issue. What was the fix, and what other approaches did you consider?"
