My team has finally found a successful routine. Here is how we do it:

* Our corporate recruiters are picky and yet hyper aggressive about finding/reaching people that seem qualified. It’s how they found me. I am not sure what their process is for finding people.

* Next they send me the resumes that pass their filter to see if I am willing to interview them. I am generally willing to interview anyone.

* The interview with me is a filter. I see if the candidate is qualified based upon experience alone. I do not bother with technical questions unless I am trying to see if they lied in their resume. So many people lie on their resume. Instead I mostly dive into their problem solving ability, their interpretation of technology, and general communication capabilities. You only need three things to be good at software: writing skills, an understanding of the platform/syntax, and people skills.

* The next interview is more technical and determines if the candidate is hired.

As a background I work for a defense contractor. People tend to skew much older, more experienced, and more mature. The work tends to be more predictable and polished compared to my prior software career writing JavaScript. People are expected to exercise initiative and figure things out instead hoping something like React, jquery, or AI will save their job. These sorts of pretenders are the people I try to filter out. I know I wouldn’t go back to that world where most people are under qualified and hyper insecure. I suspect that’s why people in this line of work tend to be older and why people tend to seek this work out when they could make more elsewhere.