Honestly I just screen these calls as well, call them back immediately if they leave a relevant voicemail, and apologize for not picking up as “the spam and scam calls have got so prevalent that I screen literally every call these days.”
I had a recruiter just today laugh and say “yeah, it’s gotten pretty bad, I do the same thing.” So it’s not like they are going to hold it against you these days.
It trickier when you’re actually expecting a call but you don’t know what number they will call from, like a job recruiter.
Honestly I just screen these calls as well, call them back immediately if they leave a relevant voicemail, and apologize for not picking up as “the spam and scam calls have got so prevalent that I screen literally every call these days.”
I had a recruiter just today laugh and say “yeah, it’s gotten pretty bad, I do the same thing.” So it’s not like they are going to hold it against you these days.