Initial candidate screening is the most soul-crushing part of hiring. If you're a tech lead or engineering manager, you know the ritual: the same "tell me about yourself" repeated ten times a week, and in eight out of ten cases, it's obvious within five minutes that the person isn't a fit.
I approached this as a pipeline optimization problem. If you have a repetitive process with predictable inputs and known filtering criteria — you automate it. Here's how I did it.
The Problem: Standard Questions Don't Generate Signal
Most screening questions are theater. Candidates prepare for them in advance, the answers are rehearsed, and you get a demo version of the person rather than the real thing.
You need questions that are harder to "solve" through preparation. Ideally — questions where there's no right answer, you can Google.
The Architecture of Questions That Generate Real Signal
Here are five types that give you genuine insight into soft skills:
Type 1: Projective Questions — Bypass the Defense Filter
The principle works like a side-channel attack on socially desirable behavior. Instead of directly asking "why are you leaving your current job", you ask about "other people":
- "What might cause an employee to quit without notice?"
- "Why do some people burn out quickly while others stay effective for years?"
- "What holds people back from taking on more responsibility?"
The person unconsciously projects their own attitudes onto "others". You get their real motivations, not a scripted answer.
Type 2: Bipolar Questions — Test for Ability to Reason
"Give me 3 pros and 3 cons of an authoritarian management style"
This is a quick-check on the ability to think without bias. If someone can't find a single pro in the authoritarian style or a single con in remote work — they have problems with objective analysis. For technical roles where you need to weigh trade-offs, this is critical.
Type 3: Situational Questions — Evaluate Reasoning Under Ambiguity
"A key client is demanding a discount that would make the project unprofitable. What do you do?"
There's no right answer here — there's quality of reasoning. How does the person structure uncertainty? Do they go straight to management, or do they first look for room to maneuver? These are exactly the same skills needed when handling an incident or navigating a product discussion.
Type 4: Behavioral Questions (STAR) — Verify Real Experience
"Tell me about a time when you lacked the skills to solve a problem. How did you handle it?"
A strong engineer will say: "I didn't know X, I looked up Y, asked Z for help, and delivered N". A weak candidate will either fail to find such a case (red flag — doesn't acknowledge gaps) or will tell a story where everyone else is to blame.
Type 5: Comparative Questions — Reveal Real Values
"Who would you rather have on your team: a lone genius with 2× above-average output but toxic, or an average specialist who gets along perfectly with everyone?"
Important: there's no right answer. But the answer reveals cultural fit with your team. If your team is all seniors working independently — the answer is one thing. If you have lots of juniors who need mentorship — it's another.
Implementation: Telegram Bot as the First Stage of the Pipeline
The questions are the specification. Next comes the implementation.
I use @moreformbot — a Telegram bot that lets you create a conversational form right inside the messenger. The candidate answers questions in the chat, shares their contact with one tap, and you receive structured responses without ever getting on a call.
Workflow in 6 steps:
- Init— create a new form in the bot
Click on “Create form” button to create a new form
- Welcome screen — brief context: the role, what the form covers, how much time it takes
Click on “Add welcome page” or select welcome page by clicking plus button and selecting the “Welcome block” type
Configure it
- Question pages — each question on a separate page, one after another
Select “Text” type
Configure it (Write questions from the post)
- Contact capture— automated Telegram contact request as the final page
Click on plus button and select “Contact” type
Select “Telegram” subtype
Configure it
- Success state — thank you message and expected response timeline
Select “Ending block” in plus select
Configure it
- Share the form — Publish and share the form
Click on “Publish” button on top right corner of the form page, and confirm it by clicking it again in dialog
Copy the link and share it with interviewee
What this gives you in numbers: if you used to spend an hour on 10 calls to find 2 relevant candidates — now you spend 10 minutes reading 10 forms and call those two directly.
By the time a candidate's name lands in your inbox — they've already passed a psychological and situational "unit test". The call becomes final validation, not the primary filter.
That's pipeline thinking applied to hiring.
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