You screen salary and notice period before contacting a candidate by asking for current CTC, expected CTC, and serving notice in days on a short WhatsApp message or form — after the resume looks like a match, and before you dial. You do it that way because Indian CVs routinely omit salary, round it, or leave a stale figure, and because “immediate” on a PDF is not a serving notice. Learning the mismatch live is how recruiter call time turns into waste. We mapped that waste in How to Reduce Recruiter Call Waste by 40% in Staffing Agencies; this article is the specific CTC and notice play.
The resume is a marketing document. CTC and notice are deal terms. Deal terms belong in a form, not in the first hello.
Why the CV is a weak source for the two numbers that kill submissions
Salary is sensitive, so candidates leave it off, put a range that is really a wish, or copy last year’s job-board field. Notice is worse: people write “negotiable” when they mean 90 days plus a buyout they have not asked for. Parsers and rankers will still score the skills. They cannot invent a number the file never contained. If your process is “call the top twenty matches,” you have volunteered to collect deal terms one conversation at a time.
There is also a politeness trap. Recruiters delay asking CTC because it feels rude. It is ruder to take 15 minutes of an employed person’s day to discover they are 50% above the client band. Put the band in the message when the client allows it. When they do not, ask for current and expected as two fields. You are not negotiating yet. You are checking a gate.
Availability is a mood. Serving notice is a number of days in the current employment contract. Ask that number. Then ask if they will consider a buyout. Keep those as two answers.
One field called “CTC” produces mush. Current is a fact (ask fixed + variable if the role is commission-heavy). Expected is a gate against the client max.
A CTC yes with a location no is still a failed call. Bundle the constraints. Do not collect salary and then discover Pune versus Bangalore on the phone.
A WhatsApp screen, not a debate
Channel matters. Email forms get ignored; a four-line WhatsApp with a unique form link gets answered between meetings. Keep the copy boring and specific: who you are, the role title, city, two CTC fields, notice in days, a yes/no on the location. Do not paste the JD. Do not sell culture. Selling is what the call is for, after the gates pass. If you need the legal and spam framing for using WhatsApp at all, use Can WhatsApp Be Used for Candidate Screening in India? — the short version is: relevant messages to people you have a reason to contact, not a blast.
Hi, this is [Name] at [Agency]. We have a [Role] in [City], band [X–Y LPA] if you can share it. Could you reply: (1) current CTC, (2) expected CTC, (3) serving notice in days, (4) okay with this location? If it is not a fit, a “no” is perfect.
This is the same motion as Phase 2 screening: confirm constraints while the profile is still cheap to hold, then unlock or call. Sequence and rationale live in What Is Phase 2 Screening and Why Does It Matter Before Unlocking a Profile?. Salary and notice are simply the two fields that cause the most expensive false starts.
When a call is still the right first move
Almost never, if you are trying to cut waste. Exceptions are real but narrow: the candidate applied to this exact JD an hour ago and already typed CTC on the application; the client interview is this afternoon and they are already in process; the person is a known silver-medalist from last month and you are only checking that notice has not reset. Even then, send the four questions in the calendar invite so the call is not a data-entry session.
If you need numbers, say you are hiring for a live role. Pretending to “research salaries” to extract CTC is how you train candidates to lie to the next recruiter — including you.
Log the answers on the job, not in a chat archive. The next recruiter should not re-ask expected CTC because you left it in a personal WhatsApp. If the candidate later shifts expected by a wide margin, that is a new data point, not a reason to distrust the whole method. People update. The file should too.
The three questions behind the play
Why can’t I trust CTC and notice on the resume?
Because they are often missing, rounded, or leftover from an old job-board save. Live answers beat parsed guesses.
What is the fastest collection method?
A short WhatsApp or form that asks current CTC, expected CTC, and serving notice in days, with the role and city named in line one.
When do I call without those answers?
Only when time or a prior application already gave you the facts. Default is: no numbers, no dial.
Get CTC and notice before the first hello
SafalHires runs a structured screen on WhatsApp so recruiters spend talk time on people whose salary and notice already fit the client — not on discovering the miss live.
See SafalHires