[ryandrake]

Thick accidents and borderline language proficiency is even worse on phone screens, where interviewers always seem to sound like they are talking through a sheet of plastic placed over the phone. I've lost count of the number of times I've had to get someone to repeat their question over and over and over on (not Google) phone screens. Once did a phone screen with an exec who I'm pretty certain was conducting it from his handsfree in an open-top convertible car (clearly heard traffic noise). I've always wondered how many opportunities I've missed out on due to poor audio quality.

[steelframe]

I have a very hard time with accents. I've done a couple of phone interviews where I hardly understood a single thing the candidate said. In those cases I usually write my question verbatim in the shared document and focus on the code the candidate produces. It has probably hurt the chances of at least one or two interviewees.