My company is not large enough to have an HR department so I decide who we hire and who we don't, usually with input from others

Even in large companies with a HR department, hiring of programmers should be done primarily at the team level. Being a Saint on Perl Monks is not a free pass. All applicants must be asked to write code and interact with future team members as part of the interview process.

See also: Re: Similarities of Perl and Python? (Interviewing References)

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