4. Take people out for a “beer” test as part of interviews.
We would take every candidate to some social outing (typically dinner or beer after work).  In a startup, people work long hours and you want to make sure people fit in and the team and create an even awesomer [1] environment.

Intriguingly, in a “social” environment, the candidate would often show more of their “true colors”. Especially if beer was involved.  This often happened before any beer was drunken – I think it was just a shift to a more social context from a work one that triggered behavioral changes.

A great example is a candidate we rejected post beer test, who was one of the strongest engineers technically that we had ever interviewed.  However, once we made it to the bar he made a lot of really bad off-color jokes that crossed the line and made the team uncomfortable about him.

For many of the people we hired at Viddler we did exactly the same thing. And sometimes with a similar result. First and foremost I want someone I can work hard with. And it is tough to work hard with someone who creeps you out regardless of how good they are.

/via Dick “I’m the CEO at Twitter but really I shouldn’t have let Feedburner die” Costolo.

However, I would add one step to the beginning of the process. Watching that person online. I know it seems kind of stalker-ish but on today’s Web many people Twitter, Facebook, or MySpace what they’re doing and by that you can usually tell if you even want to begin this ‘casual non-interview-like interview process’.

For instance, some people are overwhelmingly negative Twitterers. I’d never hire an overly negative person. Some people Twitter that they love the latest version of Windows – I’d probably never hire them either (kidding, sorta). Others may constantly share the stuff they are working on, or they blog a lot, or they share some of their interests like music, food, or their favorite books. These are the people I’d “interview”.

You get the idea. Become a stalker and you might save some time.