As someone who does a lot of hiring, I wish more engineers would do what he suggested. When interviewing candidates, it can be too easy to adjust your expectat

As someone who does a lot of hiring, I wish more engineers would do what he suggested. When interviewing candidates, it can be too easy to adjust your expectations downward after interviewing many unqualified candidates. My hunch is that so many candidates are unqualified because the ones that are actively looking for a job are predominantly the ones that aren't in demand an interview everywhere. If I can mix in qualified candidates that aren't really looking, I can better calibrate my assessment of the market for talent. Plus, with hiring being as difficult as it is, I'll spend the time interviewing to get an opportunity to sell my position and my company to a candidate, whether interested or not. It only takes changing the mind of one excellent developer to make it worthwhile for me. Additionally, networking is everything. Leaving candidates with a positive impression of my company, my team and myself is worth something, even if they don't join. Whenever I extend an offer, I also offer to connect on LinkedIn with the basic message, "I'd like to work together now, but I understand that's not always possible. Even if you take another position or stay at your current job, please feel free to check back in the future or refer any friends who are looking." Most don't accept, but some do. Even if it doesn't help me hire for my open position, there's value in having a network of people who all think they've got it better than I could offer. Whenever I'm searching for a job, my first stop is looking at the current employers of the developers I respect most from my network. Those employers are likely to be doing something exciting and I've got an in to pass my résumé along if I want to apply, even if my relationship with that "in" was only a single interview process.