[drngdds]

>Interviewers kept on saying things like, "I managed to pick out enough of the right words that he probably answered me, but I wasn't sure."

Did it ever occur to them to ask "Sorry, could you repeat that?"

Sometimes it takes a bit more effort to understand someone, whether it's because of an accent or a speech disorder or whatever. As an interviewer, you're in a position of power, and you have an obligation to put in that effort.

[sfink]

Have you really never been in this situation. I have, several times. Yes, of course i ask the candidate to repeat what they said. And again when i don't get that. And again. Varying my question a little too see if they'll say it differently. I'll go about 5 times before giving up and either moving on to another topic in the desperate hope that it's the specific words that are the problem, or switching to a chat channel or something. I really really don't want to lose the chance to evaluate the candidate in other relevant areas, just in case I'm the only one who can't make out the accent. (Which has never happened so far, since due to my circle of friends I'm well above average at deciphering accents.)

But even if i do successfully communicate with such a candidate enough to evaluate them technically, i will most certainly bring it up during the debrief. To not do so would be dishonest and unprofessional; i cannot make a call that it would be ok to hire this individual under an assumption that all communication will be written or whatever.

Also, it is very probable that i will have only managed to make it through a small fraction of my intended questions in such a situation.

(I have to say that your assumption seems unwarranted that the previous poster was simply not bothering to ask them to repeat themselves.)

[btilly]

This was exactly the experience, but with the twist that it was a group interview, so interviewers would move on hoping that some other interviewer actually understood that answer.