Best practices to attract the best IT professional fit for a position

I cannot think of a case where an IT position is filled with a just find anybody mentality. More often the phrase find the best fit we can afford is either stated or implied. As in any area of life, there is a lot to be learned from those that do the best job in finding and placing talented individuals. I enjoy working with teams filled with the best fits for that team. Therefore, I want to offer some suggestions for improving the odds at finding that best fit. Better still, suggestions for getting them to accept an offer:

• Know what you need and make that clear: People working in IT have many ways to be contacted. Even worse, anyone with a good reputation will be contacted via all those methods on a regular basis. This makes reading or listening to position descriptions an exercise in determining whether it is worth the time. The candidate may review the posting thoroughly, but will often skim it first. A position description...