Good people are truly the backbone of any good technical company. The proliferation of placement agencies specializing in high tech employment will attest to that.
Problem is that most interviews of high tech people are very poorly done. More often than not, a "technical expert" will test the interviewee's memory by getting them to define terms like "polymorphism" or to draw how something works on a white board.
Though this approach will show you what is in someone's memory (or how long away from University they are), it rarely shows you how good the interviewee is at solving the specific types of problems you will need them to solve.
After 20 years of being interviewed numerous times per year for contracts, as well as having done a lot of interviewing on behalf of clients, I have seen a lot of approaches to technical interviewing. Some have been effective, some downright insulting sending the wrong message to the interviewee with regards to the company and job.
I can help a company in their interviewing process by:
- First interviewing the managers to determine exactly what they need for the position and what the expectations are.
- Looking at other members of the team the candidate will be working with to understand the environment.
- Then, participate in the interview process to help isolate whether the candidate will fit into the environment, and will be able to do the job required. This is done by not testing the candidate's memory, but really getting to understand the candidate's attitude and the way he/she thinks.