Candidate Signal

A candidate signal is observable evidence from an interview interaction that supports or weakens a job-relevant inference. The signal is the behavior or artifact the interviewer can inspect—not the candidate’s private intention and not a personality impression.

Interview relevance

Examples include clarifying an ambiguous requirement, maintaining a correct invariant while coding, naming a rollback path, separating personal ownership from team outcome, or revising an assumption without becoming defensive.

A single behavior can carry multiple signals, and a single round samples only part of the role. Good interview design defines the competency, elicits relevant evidence, records observations, and calibrates the inference. “Seemed senior” is not a usable signal because another reviewer cannot inspect or challenge it.

Useful test

Rewrite feedback as: “When faced with situation, the candidate did observable behavior, which matters because job-relevant consequence.” If the sentence cannot be completed without guessing motive, the evidence is too weak.