If you pass screening rounds but not on-site, you may need to work on how you present yourself. On-site interviews are just as much about how much they like you and want to work with you as it is about acing the technical screening side.

Some red flags for on-sites:

- if you do not attempt to develop rapport before, during, or after the interview

- if you are any of the following: conflict-insensitive, overly-quiet, don't explain yourself or your decisions well, only show answers and not the thought process, take no initiative / force the other party to initiate all conversation topics, etc.

- a sub-par communicator technically or otherwise. This usually means that you don't respond in the correct way to cues that people give out. As an example, if a person asks an open ended question, they likely want to put the ball in your court and have you sell yourself or confidently take the topic and run with it. If you answer tersely with very little knowledge shared, that's probably a failed communication interaction. Too many of those can lead to a no hire decision.

I think this problem is magnified with older candidates because the expectation for being a great communicator is higher the older you are.

Usually star candidates communicate very well and have the technical chops to back it up, not the other way around. Plenty of technically strong people are hindered in their effectiveness in an org by their sub-par communication abilities.