Long story short: Career change, previous one didn't have the need for recruiter phone screens (phone interview with hiring committee). I assume it is mostly behavioral and knowledge about the department, going over my experience/skills/education. Would you typically expect any technical types of questions (I assume these would be easy)?

I looked over many tips on approaching these, but I just want to get misk brahs perspectives.

Thanks!

That's a popular field these days, my brother is going into it.

I would just prepare yourself for any questions, technical or otherwise, write down your answers and practice them.

Summarize your experience and be ready to deliver that.

Prepare a question or two to ask your recruiter, maybe something like asking what it's like to work there.

If you show initiative and contribute an idea then you really stand out as a candidate, that has worked for me in the past.

Lastly, I find that lifting beforehand can get your mind right and take off some stress.

They could give an example of a problem and ask you how to go about solving it. Technical interviews can get tricky if they have a panel with future coworkers interviewing you. Good luck!

Is this an internal interview where you already work or a phone screen with a new company? Not knowing how they work there are a few ways it can go but I usually recommend thinking through (maybe writing down reminders) a few things:

1. Your elevator speech on your career. 1 minute or less....what have you been doing and how did it lead you here? Often times they start with "tell me about yourself"
2. Why you're interviewing....preferably you can transition automatically into that from item 1 without being prompted
3. Situational/behavioral examples. Many interviews are "tell me about a time when"....and there are a few common things to prepare:
- overcoming adversity / drive for results
- dealing with difficult people
- solving challenging problems
- best success/worst failure
there are many more but google will help you find the common ones. I recommend thinking through 5 to 6 examples that can be swung many different ways depending on the exact question. But take the time to recall key projects or contributions so you can easily recall them and not have to think for 30 seconds if they ask. Always answer with situation, your action, and then the results. Be humble and refer to the team (we) when appropriate but it's an interview....don't be shy about taking credit (more "I" statements than in normal business conversation).
4. Lastly, technical questions. Know your **** and be prepared to answer with what you know BUT also be prepared to say I don't know and pivot to state how you would find out how to do something, who you would ask, or in worst case flip it to a question to them on how you figure that out. I have seen interviewers (even screeners) ask impossible questions to see if ppl are bull****ting.

Google "data science" no later than 10 minutes before interview.

Technical questions? Most recruiters can't turn their computer on or off without assistance.

Hah. This is what I was thinking, but asked my software engineering friends and they said they get some technical questions from recruiters.

Thanks to everybody that helped. I'm sure this is obvious to most of you, but I just wanted to see other's insights!

Wife unit was interviewing data scientist this past week.

Panel of three. She was tasked with behavioral questions, other manager was technical, third was random questions, observation.

She hates behavioral questions and asks stuff like, "Do you have an example of a time you had an issue that needed to be solved and how you accomplished it?"

From the few years she has been doing these interviews and having to listen to her tell me about them, it seems the people that are relaxed, confident, have a good work history, or know someone at the company are the ones that get hired. Her and the panel were also impressed by one lady that brought in letters of recommendation and handed them to each panel member and explained who the people were and why they recommended her. Surprisingly, that has only ever happened once. They hired her even though she lacked experience.

No offense OP but just got me thinking

How can a field be considered a science but people with little experience of it fill positions for which they are recruited by others who know nothing of it?

Gonna move into the microbiology space, haven't done it before but got an interview with a recruiter...

IT is 'special'.

It's called a phone screen. I have no idea how the recruiter may judge my as far as ability, but we will see.

I do think it is strange, though, as I wouldn't be surprised if the best candidate often gets filtered out at this stage before meeting with the experts.

Actually I spent 4 years of my life obtaining a Comp Sci degree so I'm attacking myself as much as you lol. As an insider I've found there's lots to grumble about especially when it's practiced in business circles.

Just went through a job search as CS looking at ML/software jobs.

The recruiter phone screen should mostly be talking about your resume, the job, and expectations from both sides (you should have a salary expectation ready). They may speak about the role/company for a decent portion of the call, so you may actually not do a ton of talking.

Know your resume well, know the job posting/company, be ready to answer things like "tell me about yourself," "tell me about a project you worked on," and "what's your experience with skill X" (where you have probably seen X in the job listing). These 3 questions have really compromised the vast majority of what I've had to answer for recruiter phone screenings.

Technical questions and even harder behavioral questions (e.g., "tell me about a time when you disagreed with someone") have been rare ime. If you haven't been given a duration, I'd expect it to last 20 minutes in general, 30 minutes at max.

Every once in a while you run into one that used to do the same thing you are hiring on for and went over to the dark side, but for the overwhelming majority, my first answer is accurate.

By "recruiter" do you mean someone from HR at the company you're hiring at or a third party head hunter? If it's the latter, it's usually pretty laid back. The just want to verify that you meet the requirements and talk to you about the process, and maybe give you some tips for when you do talk to the company. They only get paid if you get hired, so the want to help you out as much as they can.