Great example. I've thought of this many times myself -- how no customer would ever treat a trade contractor in the way that companies treat candidates. My electrician is not going to spend his valuable time letting me grill him on questions about electrical power generation and distribution, RF engineering, or even Ohm's law for that matter. When I think of it, I'm hiring him because 1) he's not a n00b, he's a journeyman, 2) he's been around - has some staying power, and thus has most likely done satisfactory work, 3) the BBB is happy with him, he must not have done any awful work, and 4) if he's on Angie's List at all, most of the people there are happy with his work. If I were to try to cop the attitude of "I'm thinking of hiring you, but you're going to get a good, humiliating hazing first" I'd fully expect to be told to F-off and I'd deserve it too.