[smt88]

That's a really big obstacle, but it's not insurmountable. My companies often ask if the candidate is willing to be a contractor for a couple of weeks. If they're not currently working, it gives them some income to continue the job search, and it allows us to see what it's like working with them.

I can usually tell that someone is unacceptably bad within a few days of working with them, so it makes sense to do those few days before hiring (if possible).

[sklogic]

Imagine you have one position, and 15 people were screened for an interview. What would you do with 15 contractors? Even if you run a Microsoft department it would not make much sense.

Trivial problems are a good filter, as long as you manage to maintain a non-stressful interview environment. Whiteboard coding is a good thing, because it shows that one really understands things, not just memorised keystrokes.

Doing about 80% of my work on a piece of paper, I cannot really comprehend all the moaning about whiteboard being "detached" from anything practical.