I'm curious what makes you think we are relaxing barriers to entry? The senior engineers I've hired are highly productive. And diverse. My process does not have a low barrier to entry. The goal is to use more accurate signals. Instead of hiring people who are good at talking about algorithms at a white board I want to hire good software engineers.
> some people fail / lose
This comes off as a condescending way of thinking about the hiring process. Even if the candidate is not qualified for the position I want to leave them feeling like I helped them a little in their career or at the very least in their interviewing skills and confidence. You can find a good fit for a role without leaving the other candidates feeling like they failed. And I think that starts to get to the crux of the problem at some companies : the process is meant to boost the ego of the interviewer. Almost every senior dev has a few stories about how the interviewer just wanted to feel superior. We can do far better than that.
> some people fail / lose
This comes off as a condescending way of thinking about the hiring process. Even if the candidate is not qualified for the position I want to leave them feeling like I helped them a little in their career or at the very least in their interviewing skills and confidence. You can find a good fit for a role without leaving the other candidates feeling like they failed. And I think that starts to get to the crux of the problem at some companies : the process is meant to boost the ego of the interviewer. Almost every senior dev has a few stories about how the interviewer just wanted to feel superior. We can do far better than that.