Calling It Screening Is Humiliating

Photo by Mithil Girish on Unsplash

I do apologize for the image accompanying this article. The sight of mosquitos to some, will find it an upsetting experience, filling them with dread and upset.

Which is exactly the feeling that some software engineers give hiring managers. That is why they set up screens to stop us from accessing the latter stages of the interview process.

The screen is exactly the same as a physical barrier used to block mosquitos from buzzing into your house on a summer’s night. In the case of mosquitos and software candidates, you simply don’t care about them and need to keep them out of your life. That’s what screens are about.

Words Matter

In English the way we label items changes the way we think about them.

In my company, I’m not only a human resource, but I’m a technical resource and the technical resource team in our feature team (although I’m a single person). I’m not referred to by my name, and when I leave the company, we will have another resource in place so we will not even say goodbye to the old resource (me). I appreciate that some companies value their staff more than this.

Calling a first-stage interview is a subtle way of telling you that you don’t matter too. You aren’t a software developer with years of hard-won experience, innovative ideas, or nuanced problem-solving skills. You’re just another application to be swiped away like a Tinder profile that forgot to include a dog picture.

Doctors use the term screening. Cancer screening for patients. They screen for the cancer and not the patient, because you screen for the bad and let the good pass through. 

Perhaps recruitment teams should go further and name the initial interview stage trash software engineer screening. This would at least be more intellectually honest.

The Screen’s Dirty Secrets

Here’s what hiring managers won’t tell you about the screening process:

Automation Rules Supreme

That carefully crafted résumé you spent hours perfecting? A bot probably tossed it into the virtual trash because you didn’t include the exact phrasing of proficient in CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins in your skills section. 

Your potential doesn’t matter. You need to pass the screen by optimizing your résumé for keywords. We got here years ago, and it’s a terrible place to be for the good of tech as a whole.

Bias in Disguise

Screening is where unconscious (and very conscious) bias thrives. Didn’t go to a FAANG-adjacent school? Didn’t work at a startup with a trendy name? 

Good luck surviving the screen.

Screen for Them, Not You

The process doesn’t care about whether the company is right for you. It’s entirely about reducing their workload, saving their time, and funneling you into the narrowest possible pipeline.

Who cares about the candidate anyway.

What Should It Be Called?

This article appears to be about mosquitos. So maybe I should go with this and call the initial interview stage a welcome mat. This rams home the point that companies should be about opening doors and giving the best impression of themselves they can.

It might discourage companies from ghosting candidates after the first interview, which is exactly what happened to me after a first interview with an energy company a couple of years ago. I’d spoke to the recruiter, they said they’d get back to me but never did (even after I’d emailed “at least tell me the result of the interview” — not gracious from me, but it was a couple of years ago). 

It might even encourage companies to treat potential employees like someone they might have a relationship with, not a one-shot hit with no repercussions from the employer side.

A Screen Is Only as Good as What It Blocks

Filtering out candidates based on algorithms, rigid checklists, and arbitrary criteria means that companies often miss out on exceptional people. 

Some companies say that they want unconventional thinkers. Other companies say they want diversity in thought through career switchers, returners to work and developing talent. Yet all companies appear to be screening out these candidates, which isn’t surprising given the poor hiring practices and lack of HR present in most tech companies.

Fixing the First Step

I’m not naïve. Screening — or whatever we decide to call it — will always exist in some form. Companies need a way to manage the flood of applicants. But we could make it so much better:

Transparency

Tell candidates what you’re looking for upfront. If a particular technology or experience is an absolute deal-breaker, don’t make them guess.

Human Input

Use algorithms sparingly, and make sure real people actually review applications before rejecting them.

Respectful Framing

Stop framing the first stage as a sieve to filter out undesirables. Start framing it as an opportunity to find alignment.

Conclusion

“Screening” is humiliating because it strips candidates of their humanity. It sets the tone for a process that too often prioritizes exclusion over inclusion, efficiency over empathy, and conformity over creativity. Maybe it’s time the hiring process caught up with the idea of tech firms being forward-thinking, innovative, and collaborative.

Sure, it might be trivial to call out the naming of a recruitment stage. But I’m a programmer, and it’s one of the two most difficult problems in computer science — right?