> Apparently the approved HN method is to arrange the resumes on a dartboard, throw darts at it, and commit up front to hiring whoever you hit unconditionally f

> Apparently the approved HN method is to arrange the resumes on a dartboard, throw darts at it, and commit up front to hiring whoever you hit unconditionally for at least two years without no possibility of having to fire them. Yes, but to be fair, I am not convinced that such a method would yield drastically worse results than what is already done at many places. I am not totally being facetious about that either! It's a jungle. People get hired or rejected for all kinds of reasons, meritocracy has less to do with it than we would all like. The best approach is to keep one's professional network well-maintained so that when it comes time to change, your reputation precedes you. That's not always possible. Some jobs really are filled from candidates who drop their resume into an anonymous applicant vat on the web and hope for the best. But I think the best-fit jobs are often obtained when you know someone and they know you.