This is why I don&#x27;t really interview my sub-contractors. If I run into someone at a meetup that I think seems smart, I ask them if they&#x27;d be interested in picking up a small project. If they accept, I... give them a small project. No resumes. No demeaning interrogation. Straight to work on something real. And I pay them.[0]<p>If they do well, I give them another one. If they don&#x27;t, I tell them I&#x27;m sorry but I don&#x27;t have any more work for them.<p>Thinking more deeply on the issue, I think I want to know as little about a potential candidate as possible.[1] I don&#x27;t want to bias myself against them. I&#x27;ve had a lot of bad experiences in my career and I&#x27;m sure I&#x27;m not perfect at keeping my prejudices to myself. I want to get people into the chair as soon as possible, get them working, and judge from the work. Once I see work getting done, it&#x27;s really easy to ignore everything else.<p>[0] I don&#x27;t think I <i>can</i> even make someone do an &quot;interview assignment&quot; for free. I&#x27;d be receiving something of value--their labor--but I&#x27;d have no accounting of it for taxes and I have no desire to try to figure out how to keep track of something like that.<p>[1] Yeah, I&#x27;ll say this probably includes whether or not they have any experience with programming. If they can&#x27;t do the job, we&#x27;ll find out soon enough. If they can do the job to a satisfactory degree, why do I need know how long they&#x27;ve been doing it before? Give people a chance to surprise you.