>just about everywhere I've ever interviewed, seems to me designed to find reasons to reject candidates
I'm sure that's intentional. Joel Spolsky wrote an influential guide to interviewing in 2000 that lays out this philosophy; the latest version (updated in 2006) is here:
The gist of a large part of the article is that interviewers should have a preference to saying "no hire", because bad hires are toxic and hard to get rid of.
But then he writes this:
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Of course, it’s important to seek out good candidates. But once you’re actually interviewing someone, pretend that you’ve got 900 more people lined up outside the door. Don’t lower your standards no matter how hard it seems to find those great candidates.
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Which is terrible advice if your standards are, in fact, unreasonable.
I'm sure that's intentional. Joel Spolsky wrote an influential guide to interviewing in 2000 that lays out this philosophy; the latest version (updated in 2006) is here:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/GuerrillaInterviewing...
The gist of a large part of the article is that interviewers should have a preference to saying "no hire", because bad hires are toxic and hard to get rid of.
But then he writes this:
----
Of course, it’s important to seek out good candidates. But once you’re actually interviewing someone, pretend that you’ve got 900 more people lined up outside the door. Don’t lower your standards no matter how hard it seems to find those great candidates.
----
Which is terrible advice if your standards are, in fact, unreasonable.