This sounds like a reasonable approach and that is why software interviews remain broken. I'm sure it works for your organization, not saying you are bad at hiring or anything but it still smacks of the kind of hoop-jumping that turned me off so much from the process last time I was interviewing. This included on-the-spot coding exercises, massive take-home projects that required many hours of undifferentiated grunt work, totally useless whiteboard sketching and pseudo-code sessions, obscure Google-like quiz questions.
The interview process for the job I have now was a massive breath of fresh air.
The application asked for code samples and a cv. It was a small company and the CEO, CTO and direct co-workers all drove the interview process. The process was entirely conversational. First an intro phone call with the CTO and then a questionnaire via email in which I answered about 30 questions on various topics that were all very practical daily software development type stuff. It was painless to respond to each with about a paragraph in detail. Then a call with a direct co-worker about the questionnaire and this was my opportunity to ask questions of him about the company. Before getting the interview they actually read my code samples and reviewed my Github account. In the interview there was a ton of discussion about the company, its culture and all the of the above discussions. Following this was compensation negotiation with the CEO.
Everything about the hiring process said to me yes this is the place, they get it!
Many people would consider a 30 question take home project massive. You discuss your second experience as if it is some novel Utopian experience but when I read it sounds like an experience that was well suited to your strengths but wouldn't be suited to mine.
It definitely favored verbal skills, I am assuming that was a feature not a bug in the hiring process. The questions were not a project but a conversation in the context of my experience With a specific tech stack such as... “How do you keep a server from getting hacked”, “how do you handle conflicting dependencies”, “how do you know your code is ready to deploy to production”
The interview process for the job I have now was a massive breath of fresh air.
The application asked for code samples and a cv. It was a small company and the CEO, CTO and direct co-workers all drove the interview process. The process was entirely conversational. First an intro phone call with the CTO and then a questionnaire via email in which I answered about 30 questions on various topics that were all very practical daily software development type stuff. It was painless to respond to each with about a paragraph in detail. Then a call with a direct co-worker about the questionnaire and this was my opportunity to ask questions of him about the company. Before getting the interview they actually read my code samples and reviewed my Github account. In the interview there was a ton of discussion about the company, its culture and all the of the above discussions. Following this was compensation negotiation with the CEO.
Everything about the hiring process said to me yes this is the place, they get it!