Sanity check: would you actually change your hiring loop for this?

I’m the founding salesperson at an early stage hiring company and I need a reality check.

We built something that front loads real skill validation before engineers ever get pulled into interviews. In theory, this seems obvious.

Most loops do not actually validate ability until late. Early screens are resume filters. Take homes can be polished with AI. Technical rounds often spend time re validating fundamentals.

By the time someone proves they cannot operate at the level required, you have already burned hours of senior engineer time.

So we built a structured technical simulation that runs before core interviews. It can be live or asynchronous. The environment mirrors the actual role. Candidates can use AI if you allow it. Their reasoning, prompts, and code evolution are captured.

The goal is simple. Validate real ability up front. Only forward candidates who clear the technical and depth bar.

Teams who use it see fewer false positives and cleaner final rounds.

But here is where I need honesty.

Do engineering managers actually care enough about early skill validation to change their loop? Or is the current inefficiency just accepted as part of hiring?

Because from the outside it feels like teams complain about noise, but hesitate to restructure the process.

Would you adopt something that validates real skill before you invest engineer time? Or is that overkill? I genuinely want to know.