Without exception, my experience of hiring in small companies has been that there isn't a "list" of plausible candidates, there's a series of interviews that go on for months, rejecting hundreds of candidates, until you finally find a good one. So I don't really buy into the "sort a list" idea. Maybe the companies I've worked for have all been unusually picky about hiring, it's hard to tell, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to work for a company that wasn't rejecting at this rate.
Maybe the companies I've worked for have all been unusually picky about hiring
...Or their initial screening heuristics are unusually bad and have to interview tons of candidates. Or maybe their recruiting process is really good at generating a high volume of sub-par applicants. Rejecting a lot of candidates after subjecting them (and current employees) to grueling interviews doesn't mean they're making good hiring decisions.
