> You know from the resume whether the person can do the job.

Do you? I remember reading a bunch of articles that asserted most people that come in for programming interviews (even if their resumes look solid) are useless.

I'm a Wintel systems & infra person rather than a programmer, so maybe it's different. But yeah, generally, I can tell from the way the thing is written, from the depth of previous experience, from the types of companies the person has worked at, from the career progression.

It also helps that I live in Melbourne, Australia - the IT world here isn't massive, and if you haven't worked with the person the odds are you know someone who has. :-)

Well the Melbourne part is definitely true. I was the first hire in a 100 person company that didn't know anyone else here.

I absolutely agree with this ,and where I live in the UK has an enormous effect upon hiring.

I have interviewed some people with impressive resumes that still sucked at programming.