But software is a team sport and you do need an element of interviewing for personality, goals, and attitude as well as skills and aptitude.
Seriously, you figure that from a 2 hour interview? I fall in love with a girl which I thought/seemed/was told was a very good one. Turns out she's a complete slut. Knew that only after 2 weeks getting out with her.
Get the person to work with you for few weeks or may be a couple of months. Scan his history (blog, projects, education, work history, github...) and figure out if he'll match your team ethics and he really know what he does.
I think there's a business opportunity here, insulating companies from the risks of hiring in order to give them more time to judge the candidate. For example, a recruiter offers the company a skilled, vetted employee, with the promise of paying their salary for the first year. If the company doesn't like them, lay off the worker, risk free. If they like the employee, the pay back the recruiter twice the first year's salary. I think paying twice first year's salary is a pretty good deal for eliminating a huge portion of risk from the hiring process. And you get to learn about the candidate by working with them for a year, instead of asking meaningless questions for a few hours.
Right there is no substitute for a dating period. People should know this, if you think you have the right candidate but have some reservations tell them, give them 2 weeks to prove themselves and you may be surprised at how much talent you where missing. As well, use it with all candidates, remember that person that was a star in the interview but turned out to be a flop? yeah the 2 weeks works for them as well, you can send them packing in the two weeks once you realize your error.
Exactly. Anyone who thinks they're smart enough to know if a candidate will be a perfect fit after a couple of hour-long interviews, a skills tests and even consensus amongst the team has obviously been promoted to their own special level of incompetence where a quick glance at their own job title is enough to reassure them that they are right and everyone else is wrong. I love those people, as they are easily fooled.
Seriously, you figure that from a 2 hour interview? I fall in love with a girl which I thought/seemed/was told was a very good one. Turns out she's a complete slut. Knew that only after 2 weeks getting out with her.
Get the person to work with you for few weeks or may be a couple of months. Scan his history (blog, projects, education, work history, github...) and figure out if he'll match your team ethics and he really know what he does.