One of the most annoying forms of interview has to be the immediately technical phone screen. I remember talking with startups, and during the initial phone call they'd leap into a canned set of technical screening questions, which themselves are some set of factoids which are supposed to translate to how good of a programmer you are.

I understand the need for startups to screen out absolute idiots before they spend time talking with a candidate; it's easy enough, though, to look the guy up beforehand or send the guy a coding question he could work on in isolation. Just make it a policy to only talk to candidates that have something technical you can verify beforehand.

In our current tech job market, it makes sense for the company to convince you it makes sense to talk to them further; chances are, if you're any good and someone they want, you can and will get multiple offers anyway. Even if the company wastes "talk time" to candidates that wouldn't make the cut, it's worth not driving away the guys who got annoyed by its strong-hand "we need a strong code monkey" interviewing tactics.