Many companies do a lousy job of deciding what they want in an employee, do not screen applicants appropriately, and are clueless when it comes to interviewing. They advertise for every skill under the sun, plus a sunny personality at just above minimum wage salary. Perfectly good resumes go into the bozo bin when a non-technical HR rep attempts to "screen" resumes by literally just looking for certain words or phrases. Then the candidate is assessed based on how similiar they are to the interviewer.

Employers need to wise up to what set of skills a candidate should reasonably have. If the employer does not have that wherewithal, then they should hire a consultant to help in that area. Resumes should be passes straight from HR onto someone with sufficient technical skills to actually screen the candidates. Valid interviews should consist of open-ended questions, during which the interviewer should be quiet and listen to the responses. The objective is to determine just how much the candidate knows and to gauge how the candidate approaches certain scenarios. Getting that sort of information cannot happen if the interviewer is busy talking about himself. It is also a really good idea to have a couple of employees whose opinions are respected give their opinions of the candidate. Avoid silly games, like staging a "challenge" for the candidate. If you want to see how the candidate deals with difficult customers, then take them into the call center and have them take a couple of calls. Right there, on the spot.

Employers need to be competent hirers, just as job seekers need to be competent candidates. Both sides need to put forth effort.