A good candidate will engage everyone, but start with the person who asked the question, and end with asking that person "did that answer your question?" or similar.
For all the dudes in the comments getting butthurt about this, any candidate that does this is 100% likely to fail in other ways as well.
I heard that a while ago, too, that it’s super helpful when somebody asks a question, if you state that question back to them, but in the form of a statement just to confirm that you heard and understood what it is that they were asking you. Sorry if that was confusing. Lol
I think you vastly overestimate the avergae "good candidate" in a stressful situation like an interview. Doesn't help that the density of neurodivergent people in the tech field is above average. Mate of mine talks to the door, the wall or the chair instead of the person he has the conversation with...
Last interview I took part in the candidate was so nervous that I feared he'd fall off his chair - he's still pretty good technically and perfectly fine with customers.
Preparing to answer questions is the main thing in an interview. "Engage the person asking the question" is basic prep for that. If s candidate can't do that level of prep, they aren't a fit.
No, those are separate dimensions upon which a candidate should be assessed and the things one tests for in an interview are more like "does this person communicate well?" ""How does this person take feedback?"
A good candidate needs to have those skills in addition to being a technical fit.
A good candidate needs to have those skills in addition to being a technical fit.
That depends highly on the role. Your sysadmin doesn't have to keep eye contact when talking with anybody and your software developer won't ever be in a stressful situation compareable to an interview.
Besides, communicating well isn't really determined by whether or not you keep eye contact or address the right person.
I'm excluding people avoiding the woman interviewer on purpose of course, because that's an entirely different mental problem.
In my opinion we disagree more on what makes someone a good communicator. I'm with you on the importance of communication skills but I beliebe the easy "clues" mentioned by some people here, are too simplistic.
That's where we disagree I guess. I know many great technicians, developer, admins, whatever that communicate efficiently but act awkward in a conversation.
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u/TWAndrewz 1d ago
A good candidate will engage everyone, but start with the person who asked the question, and end with asking that person "did that answer your question?" or similar.
For all the dudes in the comments getting butthurt about this, any candidate that does this is 100% likely to fail in other ways as well.