Comment by rootusrootus

I concede it may just be that I've been lucky, but when interviewing experienced candidates I've never really had any problem judging their competency just from discussing their past work. A little bit of back-and-forth deep dive into the technology has always exposed people who are shallower than their CV would have you believe.

What has burned me, however, cannot be tested adequately in an interview. Bad attitude and laziness. Anyone can behave well in interviews, so we've hired a few people who turned out to have a passive aggressive streak or condescending attitude that interferes with the rest of the team. We've also hired people who are really great developers ... when they work. But they're really lazy and getting them interested enough to do the work is the hard part.

Hiring is hard. I doubt I need to tell you that. There is a reason we gravitate towards hiring people we've worked with in the past, or come recommended by someone we trust.