I guess that's encouraging, kind of. I've always felt like this whole thing was just an extension of "don't trust the IT guy", a viewpoint a one-time employer was happy to articulate loud and often ... in front of the IT guys.
I once had an agent almost freak out over the phone because he'd seen my open-source project and couldn't believe I'd created it myself. "It had to come from somewhere", I told him. "Why shouldn't it be me as much as any other random stranger on the phone?" Seems like even when I presented them with impressive, real-life work, they still didn't want to trust me :)
After entry level...it's usually just an interview and references.
Except it's not, that's the problem. But this is not a matter of incompetence on the part of the employer, but of deliberate and calculated policy.
Just to clarify. I was referring to the non-programming jobs. So for an entry level management job you'll do the assessment center and jump through all sorts of hoops. For your next job it's usually a basic discussion. It'll get more rigid again higher up as there will be a vetting process etc.
But beyond entry level there's usually no skill tests in the domains I know outside of IT. I think that's the main point. Most people could accept all sorts of programming and possibly even logic tests for entry level IT jobs but after you've shipped software it becomes a bit ridiculous in many cases.
Typical office secretary jobs here require a work sample so you'll get a typical task for the job and have to do it on the spot (write a letter to someone, translate a text). My current job (academia) required a somewhat simple test to see if I have a decent understanding of method/statistics and the programming test was answering a couple of questions :P
In logistics you usually have to reason through a couple of typical work situations.
After entry level...it's usually just an interview and references.