The "IT Managers Journal" has an article on "How to hire the best
people, and quickly".
Some highlights from that article:
"If you are hiring a developer, the best information is a direct test of
their ability to work on software. I hire developers for distributed
development teams, so it is relatively easy to put them into a trial. I
just send some passwords, some documentation, and a trial task. I learn
an enormous amount in just a few days by taking their (email) questions
and seeing the results of their work. What surprises me is how efficient
the trial is and how irrelevant everything else is. I save a lot of time
and some money by giving all my qualified candidates a paid trial, even
though I am paying for their time before I have screened them."
"The best test of a candidate is his/her performance in the job
environment for which you are hiring them. The other stuff is distraction."
"This type of trial is something that open source projects have been
doing for many years. An open source project often has very strict rules
about the developers who get "commit privileges." If you have commit
privileges, you are part of the core team that can modify the code
directly, without screening by a project leader. To earn commit
privileges, you need to participate in the development project and
submit a series of modifications that pass review."
"So, our 'inspired by open source' development process can give us the
answer to a critical business question -- how to hire the best, quickly."
You may find the full article at:
http://management.itmanagersjournal.com/article.pl?sid=05/06/20/2119255
