I've been in recruiting for a while and went through the Vercel process myself last quarter when I was exploring a switch to an internal recruiting/people ops role. So I'm looking at this from both the candidate and recruiter side.
The Vercel recruiter screen runs about 30 minutes and is pretty standard calibration, but a few things stood out.
What they cover. The recruiter I spoke with asked for my background story (expected), then moved quickly to why Vercel specifically. And this part had teeth. They followed up on vague answers. I'd been prepping the usual "I love the product and the growth trajectory" and they pushed: "Can you be more specific about what drew you to our edge infrastructure versus what you've seen at other companies?" So have a real answer ready.
They also asked about work style pretty early. Remote-async fluency came up. Are you someone who manages your own time well without a manager checking in daily? Do you communicate blockers proactively? These feel soft but I think they're screening hard here.
Comp came up toward the end. They asked my expectations range rather than stating theirs first. Have a number ready. I said a range and they didn't push back hard on it, just noted it.
Timeline they gave. They told me 1-2 weeks for next steps after the screen. Mine was actually 8 days. They moved me to a take-home and then to the full loop about 3 weeks after that. Total time from first screen to final decision was about 6 weeks, which felt reasonable.
What I'd tell candidates. The recruiter phase is genuinely evaluative, not just a checkbox. Know why you want to work at Vercel specifically. Know roughly what comp you want. Know your own work style honestly because the behavioral filter runs through the whole process.
Also: respond to recruiter emails quickly. It signals something about your async communication skills from day one.