Why candidates avoid recruiter prep calls

Most candidates treat recruiter calls like a box-checking step. But the candidates who consistently land offers treat recruiters like strategic partners - and use them to get real leverage throughout the process.

In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga and Ben Erez sit down with our repeat guest, Anneli Scopazzi (Boulevard Talent; former recruiting leader across Palantir, Figma, and Notion) to break down what recruiters are actually incentivized by, what they’re looking for in the recruiter screen, and how candidates can use recruiters to prepare more intelligently and avoid preventable missteps.

They cover the difference between internal recruiters and agency recruiters, what gets candidates filtered out early, how to ask for “prep” without sounding insecure, what to do when a company refuses to share details, and how to handle compensation conversations without accidentally anchoring yourself into a worse outcome. They also discuss when to save sensitive questions for the offer stage, and how recruiters influence the process behind the scenes (feedback, debriefs, and closing).

If you’re interviewing in today’s competitive market, especially for product roles, this episode gives you a tactical playbook for turning recruiters into an advantage instead of an afterthought.

All episodes of the podcast are also available on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.

New to the pod? Subscribe below to get the next episode in your inbox 👇

Interviewing at Uber, Figma, Stripe, or DoorDash?

If you’re a PM preparing for interviews at Uber, Figma, Stripe, and DoorDash… we think you’re going to love Insider Loops. You can read about it in Ben’s LI post, Marc’s LI post or check out the site directly below.

In this episode, we covered the following topics:

* (02:25) Why candidates hesitate- fear of looking bad, mistrust, and cultural differences around recruiters

* (06:20) Internal recruiters vs agency recruiters and how incentives differ

* (09:04) Reading the room and adapting to the person, “mirror” without being inauthentic

* (11:15) The biggest recruiter-screen failure mode for PMs

* (14:11) What makes a recruiter champion you? Homework, kindness, calibrated confidence, and being human

* (19:16) The most important high-leverage questions to ask recruiters

* (22:04) Asking about compensation in recruiter screens and when to share your number

* (26:54) “Do you have concerns about me?” question: value + risk, and safer alternative framing

* (33:01) The advantage of pre-onsite “prep call” call with the recruiter

* (44:41) Offer stage strategy, save sensitive questions for when you have leverage; recruiter’s job is to close

* Live Audience Q&A:

* (49:39) Why recruiters view your LinkedIn but don’t reach out + how targeting works

* (51:05) What decides between final candidates: rapport/working relationship + reducing bias where possible

* (53:01) Recruiter “How did it go?” email: why it’s a best practice and a chance to clarify/repair an answer

* (54:30) Risk of hiring manager + IC in parallel: why it happens and when it signals “house on fire”

* (57:38) Market shift: managers moving back to IC roles + how to explain that story credibly

* And more!

Links:

* Our previous episode with Anneli: https://suprainsider.substack.com/p/82-inside-the-new-recruiting-reality

* Anneli Scopazzi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anneliscopazzi/

* Boulevard recruiting: https://www.boulevardrecruiting.com/

* Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbaselga/

* Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benerez/

If you’re a new subscriber, we encourage you to check out some of the recent episodes you might have missed:

To support the podcast, please check out the links below:

* Preparing for Meta-style Product Sense & Analytical Thinking interviews? Check out Ben’s AI Practice Copilot for Meta-Style PM Interviews and top-rated Maven course: Product Sense & Analytical Thinking Bootcamp for Meta-Style PM Interviews (selected by Lenny as a top course in product 🔥). Get 25% off the course with promo code `suprainsider` (auto-applied here).

* Supra has teamed up with Maven to bring you something special – courses that our own community members have personally curated. And because you’re part of the Supra family, you can get up to 35% in some of these handpicked selections with code SUPRAxMAVEN.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suprainsider.substack.com