In the March issue of Business 2.0 there is an article on the topic of interviewing.  I think most folks who have been in the position of interviewing someone would do well to heed the author´s suggestions. The main point-- interviewers spend too much time talking and not enough time listening. She calls it the Babbling Interviewer Disease with the result being lousy hires.

Three suggestions made for eliminating this bad habit are right on the mark. First, query the candidate about specific situations in his or her past to keep the focus off yourself. Second, ask multiple questions at the beginning of the interview and let the candidate answer them uninterrupted, in succession. And third, invite a colleague to sit in on an interview; you will be less likely to ramble on about yourself.

Listening is a skill that is learned, yet companies spend little time training interviewers to be better listeners. Perhaps there is an opportunity to get better hires by focusing on listening to the candidate. Hmmm.....novel thought.