Yes, my interviewing generally scaled up in difficulty as the interview progressed. I don't like the idea of putting so much stress on nice people, but it's shocking how many people interview for system's level programming jobs with clearly made up resumes.

One young person showed up with a resume listing about 10 programming languages. I simply went through the 10 and asked her how to write a comment for each language. We didn't have to go far before she admitted that she really only knew Pascal very well.

To be fair, there were a lot of people that would have made good employees be didn't happen to quite fit the job we were trying to fill at the moment. The matching process often involved a significant degree of luck and I sure that I missed out on many people I should have hired.

Can't we hate them and also hate the fact that they are necessary?

Yes, that's what I do!

I hate them and I have had to make the call to hire/not hire - what is that supposed to say?

The side of hiring I find interesting is more on the behavioral side - many employers don't find enough ways to screen candidates on those grounds, and it is interesting the ways you find candidates filtering themselves out there if you ask the right questions.