I'm not a Slack recruiter but I spent 10 years in agency recruiting and now do in-house at a similar-sized company, and the Slack recruiter phone screen structure is pretty well known in recruiting circles. Here's what it looks like and how to not blow it.
The screen is 30 minutes. No coding. It covers:
1. Why Slack / why now. They want a real answer. "It's a great company" is a red flag. Tie it to something about their product direction, their engineering culture blog posts, or a specific team if you know which one you're interviewing for.
2. Career story. Walk me through your resume in 2-3 minutes. They're listening for a coherent narrative, not a recitation. Practice this out loud before your call.
3. Compensation alignment. They will ask your expected range. This is early-stage and they use it to prevent mismatch later. Don't refuse to answer. Look at current market data and give a range, not a specific number. For senior SWE in SF in 2026 the going range at Slack is roughly $250-310k TC depending on level.
4. Logistics. Visa status, start date, remote vs. hybrid, location. These aren't gotchas, they just need to know before kicking off a 5-round loop.
5. Your questions. Ask something real. The recruiter is a human and they notice when candidates ask genuine questions vs. just completing the "any questions for me?" checkbox.
The screen ends with a rough timeline. Slack's recruiter-to-onsite pipeline is typically 7-14 days after the screen. If you don't hear back in a week, following up once is completely fine.
One thing to avoid: bad-mouthing your current or former employer. I have literally never seen that help and I've seen it tank candidates who had everything else going for them.