I can attest. I've personally been shut out of two positions because I didn't say the "magic word" that the interviewer was looking for. In one instance, I kept

I can attest. I've personally been shut out of two positions because I didn't say the "magic word" that the interviewer was looking for. In one instance, I kept using laymen's terms to describe an optical engineering process, because I knew they weren't optical engineers (far from it). They wanted me to say the precise technical phrase, but wouldn't explicitly ask that; they just kept asking questions around that phrase. In another job where I was hired, I was tortured for over 10 minutes as one interviewer tried to get me to say the magic word. Fortunately, his manager was present, and shut down the questioning at that point. I never did learn what word the subordinate was trying to get me to say, but I was fully qualified for the job, and hired.