There's a good reason many job openings are never posted, and having good connections can lead you to getting a job that doesn't, from the outside, appear to exist. However, not having interviews at all would seem to imply building a very insular company, because you'd need an intimate knowledge of how strong somebody is as an employee. And the only way to get that is either to look at their past work, similar to published papers in academia, or to know that person well. And even in academia, to my knowledge, professor hires still get interviewed, even if they're a nobel prize winner, to make sure they'd be a good cultural fit, and so that they know whether they'd want to work for the interviewer.
not having interviews at all would seem to imply building a very insular company
Why? Job interviews aren't the only way to connect with the outside world. It's a failure of imagination on our part to believe that bureaucratic grotesque is the only way to build up a shared endeavor.
Open source work is one example of people coming together that has nothing to do with job interviews. Other disciplines have other approaches – e.g. auditions. Conferences are a way for people to meet who otherwise might not. There are many avenues.
I say we haven't noticed yet what an inhumane thing the job interview really is. We'd never inflict it on our friends. Why inflict it on prospective colleagues?
Last consulting gig I told I was willing to help them for a few months. I sent them a CV and they saw I meant business. Got an email saying: "you're starting next monday if it's okay for you".
Quite an efficient process ; )
(I don't know which part of my CV they did background check that said)
