I don't think there's a science to recruiting, but I do some things differently. The hiring process typically has three elements: the resume, the interview and the reference check. Most managers overvalue the resume and interview and undervalue the reference check. References matter most....
The presumption is that reference checks aren't worth much because people are scared to say anything negative. That's a valid concern, because there have been lawsuits. But the way around it is to dig up people who'll speak candidly. Invariably, they're people you know personally or people you can network to find. You can't simply rely on the names a candidate supplies....
We don't always get this right. For one hire, an outside recruiter that helped with the search had checked some of the references. Ordinarily we try to do this ourselves. The man didn't work out - it was just a bad fit. After he left, I ran into a couple of people I knew: one who had worked for the guy at another company and one who'd done business with him as a banker. I hadn't realized that either of them knew him. They told me exactly what they thought of him - which jibed exactly with our negative experience. Sometimes you don't hear an honest assessment till it's too late.
Sometimes a mistake takes you someplace new - other times it reinforces (with a jolt) what you already know. This story is one of those other times.
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