I wasn't talking about holding on to a bad dev for 5 years... I was talking about the possibility of hiring a "bad" dev and seeing how they do in a real work si

I wasn't talking about holding on to a bad dev for 5 years... I was talking about the possibility of hiring a "bad" dev and seeing how they do in a real work situation for a couple of months maybe. Typically it should become very clear pretty damn quickly, in a matter of weeks. If you cannot afford that to happen then you have no business opening a dev position and you are VERY likely better off with trying to make it with the devs you currently have available. I seriously doubt those almost-Stasi methods will ultimately get you a 100% sure pick - so you will ALWAYS have to deal with the possibility of having picked a bad one, but those methods will very likely drive the real good ones away because they couldn't care less and usually they have TONS of other options available. Do you really expect a potential employee to implement a customer-requested feature you are getting paid for for free, just for the mercy of being allowed to apply at your small 2-men shop? Really? You expect your employees to be productive and billable from the first hour they work for you? Sorry, good devs would never ever work for you... they have way better and more rewarding and realistic options available. Nobody worth your time or money works for free - or do you give your customers a "freebie" without ANY strings attached?