5 rounds of interviews (including the inevitable HR screen) and a 4 hour take home is kinda absurd. I just self-selected out of a process of similar length that lacked a task that some executive decided should take 4 hours to complete. I'm not interested in jumping through that many hoops.
Expecting STAR nonsense from software developers is also pretty naive.
You optimize for what you measure. You're measuring self promotion and willingness to tolerate a glacially slow high effort process, which smells a lot like desperation.
I'd argue that the sort of person you REALLY want to hire for this role doesn't actually want to work for you. They are doing something else, and you need to convince THEM to come work for you. It's probably not going to happen. So the closest you're going to get is make the process as fast and easy as possible.
Remove anyone who doesn't code from the pipeline. As a developer I don't want to "have a chat" with the CEO. I don't want to talk to another HR person who thinks a resume that says "workstation" instead of "computer" isn't a match for a job that requires using computers. (true story, it happened) Put the candidate in front of other developers and let them chat, do they want to work with that person? Does that person know how to code? Great. Make them an offer. If it doesn't work out, then it doesn't work out. Try again. Your problems are NOT that unique and special. There are MORE than 7 developers in the world that can write the back end for your widget store.
Expecting STAR nonsense from software developers is also pretty naive.
You optimize for what you measure. You're measuring self promotion and willingness to tolerate a glacially slow high effort process, which smells a lot like desperation.
I'd argue that the sort of person you REALLY want to hire for this role doesn't actually want to work for you. They are doing something else, and you need to convince THEM to come work for you. It's probably not going to happen. So the closest you're going to get is make the process as fast and easy as possible.
Remove anyone who doesn't code from the pipeline. As a developer I don't want to "have a chat" with the CEO. I don't want to talk to another HR person who thinks a resume that says "workstation" instead of "computer" isn't a match for a job that requires using computers. (true story, it happened) Put the candidate in front of other developers and let them chat, do they want to work with that person? Does that person know how to code? Great. Make them an offer. If it doesn't work out, then it doesn't work out. Try again. Your problems are NOT that unique and special. There are MORE than 7 developers in the world that can write the back end for your widget store.