Just in general. Communication, comfort speaking, that kind of thing TC not enough
As an EM, if I don't get superb communication from my team, I don't know how they're doing, what can be improved, where their challenges are, etc. And if they can't effectively communicate, then they're not dining a light on the great work our team is doing, so we're losing face or minimally accruing opportunity cost with other teams that we're trying to service or otherwise work with. Soft skills are extremely important to be effective.
You sound like a good manager, but if only the rest were like you. If only the rest could communicate equally well downwards...
Generally speaking, the SDEs who aren’t at least decent at communicating and handle social interactions fine are also not the SDEs who are performing the interviews. The SDEs performing the interviews don’t want to work with people who are super awkward or can’t convey their thoughts and ideas well. So not being able to communicate well will definitely have a negative impact on the feedback your interviewers provide.
It’s critical in big companies where you need to coordinate across so many people and teams to get stuff done
I’d take an average dev who is a good communicator over a rockstar who can’t. Software engineering at a company is a collaborative effort. If one person isn’t pulling in the right direction it can really complicate a project. Not having at least decent communication skills will really stunt your growth potential after you have a job. The most common way to level up is to mentor teammates, lead larger projects (which require teammates) or work with several other teams. All of those require at least decent communication skills. There is one dev on my team who is a great engineer but a horrible public speaker. Even just on a conference call if asked a question he sounds like he’s doubting himself, and doesn’t know what he’s talking about because of how much he pauses and hedges his statements. But talk to him 1:1 and he’s great. I don’t think he’ll be able to pass SDE2 until he works that out.
Extremely important
In what ways? SWEs aren’t exactly known to be the most sociable type, a lot of people probably border on straight up socially repressed
You need to first learn how to not grossly generalize groups of people with your limited experiences. Humility is usually what’s needed