you can have someone who is a whiz at practical and specific solutions, who thinks critically and analytically and just gets an enormous amount done WELL. And empowers those around them to boot!
they have the reverse problem to speaking about other peolle’s work as their own. instead, they speak of their own work as teamwork.
this effects many great people. also women and poc are particularly likely to do this because they have been socialized to not speak too highly of themselves. “model minority” etc.
if you as an interviewer are already skeptical of what someone says, you will increase false negatives with people who you are asking to verbally “prove” their work and yet have cultural memories of being penalized for “bragging”. they’ll describe a solution and downplay it as challenging or hard because women aren’t likes le when they’re the smartest person in the room, etc.
an interview process should seek to understand many skills: practical, implementation, execution, problem solving, design, high level, communication skills.
a varied process that focuses on a few specific skills, one at a time, is likely to convey the most accurate signal.