Communication is a job skill, not a personality trait
Why the students who get callbacks aren't the loudest — they're the clearest.
There's a myth that good communicators are born, not made. The evidence for this is that some people, at 15, are already comfortable in a room full of adults. The evidence against it is that most of them learned it from one specific adult who kept correcting them until they got tired of being corrected.
Communication is a skill. It's teachable. And in early-career work, it's the one that most reliably separates the students who get callbacks from the ones who don't.
What we mean by communication
Not charisma. Not stage presence. Not the ability to make small talk. We mean: can you make your point in one sentence. Can you write a status update that a busy person can read in ten seconds. Can you ask a question that shows you did the reading.
The three drills that move the needle
Every cohort drills these until they stop being awkward.
- The one-sentence update: 'Here's where we are, here's the blocker, here's what I need.' No preamble.
- The good question: read the doc, name the specific line, ask the question that couldn't be Googled.
- The two-minute recap: after a meeting, summarize what was decided, in writing, without editorializing.
Why the loud kid isn't the winner
In middle school, the loud kid gets the airtime. In real work, the person who writes the clearest Slack message gets the promotion. Those aren't the same person. Sometimes they are. Usually they aren't.
If your student is quiet, they're not at a disadvantage. They just need the drills.