I'm not presuming I am one of the candidates you are looking for, but as someone who has been able to afford a bit of choosiness here are some of my thoughts.

I'm not presuming I am one of the candidates you are looking for, but as someone who has been able to afford a bit of choosiness here are some of my thoughts. It isn't about engineers vs. non-engineers. It's about helpful, courteous, and respectful, vs uninformed, detached, and unconcerned. A lot of HR people don't seem very invested in the position whereas the direct manager might be, so maybe that's where the stereotype comes from, but I've had many, many, many contacts from engineers (usually at smaller companies) who weren't so hot on the people skills. On one occasion I worked with HR people. They were sharp and had their stuff together. In meeting them before interviewing with the engineering team, they were well dressed and very professional. They were courteous. At all points I was aware what expectations I should have for notification, what the timelines were, and what the next steps were. In salary negotiations they were very respectful and it didn't feel like they were trying to find my lowest spot (though presumably they were). This was extremely impressive to me. I've worked in plenty of situations where the engineers are good but the organization is poorly led or otherwise dysfunctional. I can talk to the engineers and tell if they know their stuff. That'll come in due time. It's harder to tell, does payroll go out in time? Is this an environment that will treat me like an adult? When I ask for time off, am I going to have to e-mail ten different people for all the projects I'm in (I'm someone that can be useful in multiple areas), or will there be some structure there? These things are harder to tell. Some people might like to be more seat of your pants. I personally expect competence at all levels of an organization, and not knowing these fundamentals is a red flag, and demonstrating them, conversely, is a good sign.