The people you are looking for will never come in for an interview, unless it's a major position like lead engineer or your compensation is off the charts. I am a fairly new programmer and have had numerous job offers without an interview. I would say I get two or three job offers a month, usually from fellow coders I am working with.
If I were hiring, I would skip the coding challenges (unless it's for an entry job and you have 100 applicants).
In the end, what you really want to know is:
Are you humble?
How fast do you learn?
Would you fit our culture?
Why do you want to work here? (or how long)
Unfortunately, it's hard to know you are getting an honest answer. What you really need is a recommendation from other programmers in your office.
Thanks for sharing, that's a really good point. Regardless of the size of the company and the basic screening on skill/team fit/culture, we've been recently talking about sharing some of our work process to see if the candidate is a fit in that aspect too. Other programmer recommendation is definitely key.
You say you're a fairly new programmer, so why do you even believe your own opinion, when there are plenty of people with lots more experience than you that insist on giving a technical interview?
The point of view I hear, whenever I read old grouchy people insisting on a technical interview, is that if you don't have one, you'll end up hiring somebody that can sound smart when talking in a conversation but can't actually do the job. I've never actually encountered an old developer of respectable ability that is in favor of omitting technical interviews.
You say you want to know how fast a candidate learns. If somebody can't solve trivial programming problems, what does that say about how well they learn?
The people you are looking for will never come in for an interview, unless it's a major position like lead engineer or your compensation is off the charts. I am a fairly new programmer and have had numerous job offers without an interview. I would say I get two or three job offers a month, usually from fellow coders I am working with.
If I were hiring, I would skip the coding challenges (unless it's for an entry job and you have 100 applicants).
In the end, what you really want to know is:
Are you humble? How fast do you learn? Would you fit our culture? Why do you want to work here? (or how long)
Unfortunately, it's hard to know you are getting an honest answer. What you really need is a recommendation from other programmers in your office.