[musicale]

> You have 100 applicants for 1 position. Which one do you provisionally hire?

Sample size of 100 seems like overkill for finding a 6-month contract employee.

How about starting with a sample size of 1:

Sort the applicants (ether randomly or by criteria of your choice, pre-filtering as desired) and hire the first one who meets the minimum qualifications, based on a streamlined interview process of your choice.

You could experiment with a larger sample size if desired (perhaps large enough that you expect to find at least one qualified candidate.)

[tcdent]

Losing two weeks while you try out a candidates fit has way less cost than bringing the wrong person on formally and spending the next year debating wether they were the right choice or not with all of the associated "soft" overhead.

[musicale]

I think so. 6-month contract with 2-week (or however long) vetting period seems like it might work.