Applied for a job - they have requested an "introductory call"

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I applied for a job and received a notification that they had viewed my application and then two minutes later I had an email asking to set up an introductory call "to learn more about your job search and ensure this opportunity matches what you are searching for".

Do you think this is a good or bad sign? Is this commonplace? I am changing career directions so not sure what the norm is.

Our resourcing team will always have an initial phone calls with all applicants to talk through the job, check salary expectations, ask about other jobs they’ve applied for etc etc before they would be put onto any shortlist for interview. I’d say it’s a good sign if they called immediately after seeing your application!

It might be an agency wishing to blitz your CV to other clients of no interest to you.

My daughter applied for a job which turned out not to be one, it was some sort of recruitment agency trying to find people to fit an apprenticeship type course, but the job to go alongside wasn't even set up.

The salary quoted wasn't the apprenticeship wage so no good for her as she was in full time employment above NMW.

Additionally, when you looked, they had the adverts all over the country, so she thought she was applying for a job in a medium market town where she could get to it without transport. Turned out the course (the only part of the opportunity actually in situ) was in a city over 90 minutes away from the "advertised" medium market town.

In my previous (small) company I tended to set these up with people to avoid wasting their or our time with a formal interview that would be unlikelyto result in recruitment. As PP said - salary expectations, details of the role etc. I tended to keep these semi-formal. Not sure what the norm is in your industry but I'd prepare to talk about your background and why you want ro work for this specific company. Also have a good answer ready re salary expectations. You don't necesarily need to commit to a specific number but try to give them an idea of whether, you are in the same ballpark. Bringing across your personality and sounding enthusiastic about the role will probably also help. I tended to conduct these myself for roles within the team so I could make sure they spoke to someone knowledgeable.

This said, I know that some companies just use these as 'tickbox' exercises - an HR person with little knowledge ofnthw specific role calls for 5 minutes to check visa status, salary expectations, whether working hours would be acceptable etc. Fairly basic stuff, no discussion of the candidate's experience or details of the job.

Our HR do this with candidates we (hiring managers) approve. It's to avoid wasting our time but it's a very good sign. Basically they are interested in you. At this call we usually ask things like salary expectation because if it's wildly different, that might stop us interviewing you but it's mostly a formality.

Sounds like it’s just part of the process.

Two minutes sounds like it could be something that happens automatically, rather than they've read your application and made any decisions based upon it.

But it sounds like a good idea, to decide whether you're worth short listing and would probably weed out anyone who's got unrealistic expectations about hours or salary, possibly has lied on their application or otherwise maybe unsuitable for the job, it would also give you chance to ask questions or see how they operate.

I’ve had that a few times. Last one was a 5 min call, went on for over an hour as we just ended up chatting about life, the universe and everything.