Here's a related question: I'll posit that there is a higher density of "very desirable" top-notch hackers being thrown into the job market than at any other time in my 15-year career. You know the people: the ones that rarely hit the normal job market because with one or two emails, they can line up their next gig in an afternoon throught their network or friends-of-friends. For those of us who are hiring, what stra…
Get out and meet them (and their friends) in person. Nothing beats networking. I personally only work through my network when I'm searching for a job. The other key is to move fast. If you want one of these people, don't waste their time with phone interviews and things like that, just get them scheduled to come in as soon as possible. At my last two companies we would bring people in for an afternoon of interviews a…
I wouldn't worry about skipping the phone screen. But if your phone screener comes away saying "wow, this guy is amazing", bring them in for face-to-face meetings as soon as you can.
It's far more important to make sure that when you bring someone on-site, you make good use of that time. I'll forgive an hour spent on a phone screen far more easily than a day wasted because I flew down to San Francisco for a day of interviews with the wrong people.