If you have a candidate with 15+ years of experience and you can't decide their value by their resume, references and a couple conversations, it speaks volumes

If you have a candidate with 15+ years of experience and you can't decide their value by their resume, references and a couple conversations, it speaks volumes about your company and or your process. I don't consider a person senior until they hit 10 years and even then they are just starting their senior journey. You don't get 15 years in if you can't code. I've got 30 years in a career I love, writing code and architecting solutions. I've been on a bunch of shitty interviews and have done countless interviews myself. It's difficult for everyone. With senior people you are being interviewed as much as you are interviewing them. Tests and take home coding projects work for guys under 15 years, but I hold them for a last resort if I'm on the fence with someone. Senior guys have a lot of options, are looking for the right fit. A one size fits all interview process is the worst thing you can do to attract that level of talent. Once you are past the "is this person a team player, easy to work with" part. Then look at their work experience. That should tell you a lot about their coding chops. Really for senior people it's more about their level of expertise and problem solving abilities. For this I ask probing questions, based on their resume. Starting with easy, general questions. If they nail each question I get recusively, progressively more technical as I drill down into their last answer until they satisfied me or I've identified where their expertise ends. You very quickly see if the person just studied the topic or lived it. There is alot to interviewing people and should only have your best people doing them and you should get them some training if possible. Elon Musk says, he knows if he has a real candidate infront of him if they can talk about the details of their work. The deeper you go, the more detail they can give you because they actually did the work. People who speak ambiguously or can't explain the details didn't do the work. The fact that you are asking the questions proves you know your process might not be working. That is a strong indicator that you are on the right path to fixing it. Remember senior guys have options you have to win them not vet them.