I used this approach at a company of about 750 folks, bending HR to bypass some of their stuff. E.g., they insisted on collecting resumes, but I generally disca

I used this approach at a company of about 750 folks, bending HR to bypass some of their stuff. E.g., they insisted on collecting resumes, but I generally discarded them. Instead, I did a one-on-one phone call for the purpose of them to ask me questions--not to grill them, and to ask them if they would like go to the next step and do a work sample test. I tailored the work sample test to the role. I did it for the compliance hires and for the project manager. The results were unexpectedly excellent. As a result of this process, and having a solid company culture, there are around ten or twelve folks that have a new career in the security field that would likely not have had another opportunity in the classical hiring scheme. I think the state of the industry with respect to hiring and evaluating folks is broken across the whole spectrum. It is like once someone becomes established in a field, they invent all manner of gatekeeping tests that they didn't pass to get where they are. The whole story of sabermetrics is another example.