In the US, I’m my experience, you typically have 10 to 15 minute conversation with hr(or separate agency) first. Basically this is for ensuring you will have a chance of fitting in. It’s not to test technical skills or abilities. For example and I had one recently where after basic greetings the rep said the job was local for 3 months and then expected about 95% of the time was international travel, was I ok with traveling that much? Long story short basically no. Meeting ended in about 5 minutes, never even met the hiring manager. I’m another case I met with a rep from an agency for a job, after the conversation he told me I would not be a good fit (basically it was a manual labor job and almost everyone spoke Spanish which I don’t). That said, he then said but I have another position you would fit and I ended up at that company for many years.
They shouldn’t (and don’t in my experience) ask specific details. It’s not like “what is the timing offset on a Ford 438 engine?” or “how do you transform a spreadsheet of financial data to a presentation for management?” those are for the hirering manager. They ask questions like are you legally allowed to work here? Are you ok with travel requirements? Will you be able to communicate with coworkers? It’s short, basic and basically a screen to verify you are worth the manager time for the real interview.
In the US, I’m my experience, you typically have 10 to 15 minute conversation with hr(or separate agency) first. Basically this is for ensuring you will have a chance of fitting in. It’s not to test technical skills or abilities. For example and I had one recently where after basic greetings the rep said the job was local for 3 months and then expected about 95% of the time was international travel, was I ok with traveling that much? Long story short basically no. Meeting ended in about 5 minutes, never even met the hiring manager. I’m another case I met with a rep from an agency for a job, after the conversation he told me I would not be a good fit (basically it was a manual labor job and almost everyone spoke Spanish which I don’t). That said, he then said but I have another position you would fit and I ended up at that company for many years.
They shouldn’t (and don’t in my experience) ask specific details. It’s not like “what is the timing offset on a Ford 438 engine?” or “how do you transform a spreadsheet of financial data to a presentation for management?” those are for the hirering manager. They ask questions like are you legally allowed to work here? Are you ok with travel requirements? Will you be able to communicate with coworkers? It’s short, basic and basically a screen to verify you are worth the manager time for the real interview.