If you ask them to write code on a whiteboard you are testing their ability to work while nervous without their common tools handy... when left with someone sta

If you ask them to write code on a whiteboard you are testing their ability to work while nervous without their common tools handy... when left with someone staring at them silently and expectantly. I have had great success determining the quality of programmers just by talking to them. I've also found that the job (back when I worked for others) that I got where they asked me to write programs for them turned out to be the most crappy, poorly run businesses. But the ones that just talked to me, and determined I was a good programmer from that, turned out to be the best. The very best told me by the end of the interview that they were going to make an offer. (I understand that offers take time to prepare, run by legal or whatever.) The entire industries recruiting system is completely broken and inefficient.