You might certainly have to scale back demands/expectations depending on the job market and how desirable your company is to work for.
I think it goes back to the classic "smart and gets things done". There will often be instances where you will have more evidence for one than the other.
So for example, someone with a good degree probably doesn't need to be asked riddle questions because they have already proved their raw mental aptitude so you're probably more interested in their understand of good programming practises etc.
OTOH, the guy without a degree who has a solid string of practical experience behind him as well as glowing references has proven he can "get things done". However perhaps his past jobs were mainly building CRUD php applications and this position requires some more complex theoretical knowledge that he does not posses.
How can you best test his aptitude for picking up that knowledge quickly if not with something that approximates an IQ test?
I think it goes back to the classic "smart and gets things done". There will often be instances where you will have more evidence for one than the other.
So for example, someone with a good degree probably doesn't need to be asked riddle questions because they have already proved their raw mental aptitude so you're probably more interested in their understand of good programming practises etc.
OTOH, the guy without a degree who has a solid string of practical experience behind him as well as glowing references has proven he can "get things done". However perhaps his past jobs were mainly building CRUD php applications and this position requires some more complex theoretical knowledge that he does not posses.
How can you best test his aptitude for picking up that knowledge quickly if not with something that approximates an IQ test?