When you are planning to bring a tester on board - as an employee, a contractor, or even temp-to-perm, what criteria do you use?  We interview about 15 people each week, and then send some of those people out to client interviews.   The way companies select testers is all over the map.

Sometimes our candidate calls after the interview and tells us that barely any technical questions were asked.  The hiring manager was mainly interested in personality or cultural fit.  Other times, the technical questions seem random, and not really related to the work at hand.  Rarely, behavioral interviewing techniques are used (tell me about a time when...).  Some interviews are astonishingly short.  Others last most of the day, with practically everyone in the company taking a shot at the candidate.

There just doesn't seem to be much consistency in the processes or selection criteria used.  The best we can do is to know our clients and our consultants and candidates well enough to make informed recommendations.