I love it when a candidate has some kind of public presence. The very first question in our online application asks, "Do you code outside of your day-to-day job? If so, what have you built, and how recently did you work on it? Be specific. Provide links if possible." I look for developers who get out into the community to learn and teach new ideas, new approaches. They might attend user groups, present, contribute to open source projects, etc. These kind of activities prove the candidate really lives and breathes this stuff. It's tough to fake passion. We have developers with projects on the side, libraries of Pluralsight courses they've developed, well-read blogs, eBooks on development topics, and some who get invited to speak regularly on podcasts like Hanselminutes and .NET Rocks. We encourage all of the above.

The point about trying to save time from a recruiting perspective are spot on. We really can get buried with candidates, and there isn't enough time in the day to get through them all. We work hard to create a really great place to work and a good reputation so candidates will be willing to do something like take a Codility test.