Screening technicians and trades with real technical follow-ups

A tick-box screen misses what matters

Asking an electrician "do you have experience?" tells you nothing. A lead engineer would ask what they wired, on what kind of site, and what they would check first. Most first screens never get that far.

The people who can ask those questions are usually out on jobs themselves, so the first call falls to someone without the technical background, and good candidates get screened out, or weak ones get through.

What a trades screen checks

• The certifications and tickets they hold.
• The tools and equipment they use every day.
• Recent jobs, and their part in them.
• Whether they can travel, or work on call.
• When they could start.

Questions the agent can ask

• “Which certifications do you hold, and when do they need renewing?”
• “Tell me about a recent job. What was your part in it?”
• “A system you installed has stopped working. What do you check first?”
• “Could you travel between sites, or be on call some weekends?”

How Scout handles it

In Agent Studio you describe the screen the way your lead engineer runs it, out loud, and Scout builds the agent from that. On the call the agent asks the follow-ups you described, and it takes each role’s requirements from the job description, so one agent can cover many openings.

The scored notes show what each candidate said about their work, linked to the moment in the transcript. Your engineers decide who to meet.

What your team gets after each call

• Scored notes against each of your questions, so you can sort a long list in minutes.
• Answers your rules flagged for review, so a missing must-have is never buried.
• The full transcript, with every note linked to the moment it came from.
• The same questions asked of every candidate, so the comparison is fair.

Setting it up

• Connect your ATS so your open jobs, and their descriptions, sync in.
• Start from a ready-made agent, or describe your own screen in Agent Studio by talking it through.
• Pick the call language, or let the agent detect the candidate’s language on its own.
• Talk to the agent yourself in the browser first, and publish it only when it sounds right.

Tips for a good trades screen

• Have your lead engineer build the agent in Agent Studio. Their follow-ups are the valuable part.
• Ask one “what would you do” question. It separates hands-on experience from a good CV.
• List the tickets each role needs in the job description, so the agent asks about the right ones.
• Read the transcript for the technical answer itself, not just the score.

Conclusion

Good technical screening needs the right follow-up questions. An agent that asks them on every call gives your engineers a shortlist worth their time.