Interview Components

I've boiled it down to 3 main things that I want an interviewer to do:

1. Know about me. Who am I? What am I interested in? What have I done? Can I talk the talk?

2. "Validate" me. Find out if I've got the technical chops required. Can I walk the walk?

3. Convince me why I want to work at your company. Give me time to ask questions. I'm potentially giving up a big portion of my life to work with you. Let me find out about you and the company.

If you have failed to do any of these, your interview skills have room to improve.

The Ideal Interviewer

I've had a couple interviews that I would describe as ideal. They went something like this. A respected acquaintance referred me as candidate. I came in highly recommended. Said interviewer took the time to find out about me. (I think my resume makes this quite easy, it points to my blog, which has an "about me" section, which describes work I've done including samples.)...