Thank you for the great post!

I would add the mistake of believing the level of skills they place on their job posting (onlinejobs). This is especially true with English. I have found so many people who put show "advanced" in writing and speaking, and in my opinion can't communicate. Of course I'm not talking about grammatical errors, but just don't understand general questions.

I have started quizzing the people who respond back to my initial email to get more details about the skills they have listed. This gives me a better idea of their english as well as skills.

I think I am spoiled by my first hire. He understand english well and has been above average in most things I've asked him to do. Also, he is working at a very reasonable rate.