It’s hard not to love an interviewing guide that starts off like this:

A motley gang of anarchists, free-love advocates, and banana-rights agitators have hijacked The Love Boat out of Puerto Vallarta and are threatening to sink it in 7 days with all 616 passengers and 327 crew members unless their demands are met.

Julie, Gopher, Doc and the hardest working bartender in the business, Issac are going down with the ship unless we do something about it. Do we have people on our team that can really perform? If we haven’t taken our hiring seriously, the chances of rescuing our beloved crew (and the passengers) from these free-love/banana-rights people is slim.

Everyone says they take their hiring seriously, but do they really? Joel on Software’s Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing, version 3 puts forth some solid strategies for selecting technical candidates that possess two all important qualities: They are smart and get things done. The technology will change, quickly, are these people going to be able to learn and adapt? If your candidates can learn and adapt, you just might have a chance at getting the Love Boat back to Puerto Vallarta.