[crdb]

I think what Alain is saying is you don't know how somebody is until you have worked a significant period of time with them, including stressful times where things went wrong (my own benchmark of whether someone is trustworthy is pretty much how they behave in such times - agreeing with your experience).

Going with a stranger might still be a good option if e.g. your previous company had bad quality staff, or if you were a business person and never had any contact with any technical people, but it's still akin to playing roulette.