[markbnj]

Organizations seek out formulaic ways of qualifying candidates because actually assessing an individual's talent and personality takes time and effort, and is a significant investment. The pressure to streamline the process grows as the company grows and hiring becomes a more frequent thing. It's one of the main reasons I like working for small companies. As a case in point I'll describe the process that led to my current position.

After the application and a brief phone call I was given a take-home project with a one week deadline. The project was directly related to what the company does, and was interesting and fun to do. I submitted a pull request in four days. The pr was reviewed by their engineering team and they all voted to move me forward. The next step was a work along day for which I was paid. These are typically done in person but for various reasons on both sides we did it remotely. The entire engineering team participated in a dedicated slack channel as we walked through my homework project, suggested and implemented changes, joked and in general had a good time. At the end of the day I said my goodbyes and an hour later the recruiter called to tell me they were preparing an offer.

The advantages of this process should be readily apparent. By the time my first day arrived we already knew we'd get along, approached work in compatible ways, etc. The costs of the process should also be readily apparent, and it would probably be really hard for a larger company to do things this way.