Built a team of over a dozen programmers the past year using a similar strategy. I was able to bring over a couple more experienced developers I had worked with in the past to serve as mentors and get things kick-started. Then filled out the roster with inexperienced but capable developers.
From the very start, we put a lot of effort in our hiring and onboarding process. We treat hiring as the beginning of onboarding.
Oh, and we were too small to have an HR department. When we grew big enough, they definitely got in the way. I had to more or less fight them off over every position we hired for, because they didn't understand anything about coding, IT or creativity, and would just look for relevant experience in a similar field.
Our company is smallish with a startup vibe but recently we hired a VP of HR with a lot of corporate experience and it has started going this direction, too.
And there I think you have the answer to the OP's question: companies cargo-culting their hiring process and strategy and succumbing to that tendency that Daniel Kahneman identifies as the root of all bias: WYSIATI.
From the very start, we put a lot of effort in our hiring and onboarding process. We treat hiring as the beginning of onboarding.
Oh, and we were too small to have an HR department. When we grew big enough, they definitely got in the way. I had to more or less fight them off over every position we hired for, because they didn't understand anything about coding, IT or creativity, and would just look for relevant experience in a similar field.
Our company is smallish with a startup vibe but recently we hired a VP of HR with a lot of corporate experience and it has started going this direction, too.
And there I think you have the answer to the OP's question: companies cargo-culting their hiring process and strategy and succumbing to that tendency that Daniel Kahneman identifies as the root of all bias: WYSIATI.