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I didn't mind testing 50+ people to find 1 who scored 98/99. The times when I made exceptions based on my own subjectivity were all mistakes. The guy who knew all about a programming language, all the tricks, because he studied, read, and took classes, but who couldn't touch type, and so was non-productive. The gal who scored low on mechanical comprehension, so couldn't visualize a process that required nested loops, with conditional branches, etc. Drawing it out for her didn't help, so she was stuck doing maintenance programming instead of new code, which made her disgruntled.
By adhering strictly to a testing/interviewing protocol, I was able to eliminate irrelevant, subjective judgments to a high degree. My best hires were people who didn't go to college, loved computers, were self-taught, scored great on the tests, and were working some lousy job. Giving them a "real" programming job, paying them well, and treating them well, was all they needed to flourish.
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