"Length of service shows loyalty."

I totally disagreed with this. What year is this ? You spent 10 years with a company, first of all, all you had was the experience in that company, you did not expose to the outside world.  Your company's technology may not be the most recent.  Second, over the 10 years in the company, what had this person done ? The same thing - backup, restore, install SQL Server, implement developement to production.  I met a DBA working in a company for 10 years, he could not even write a decent DTS package and stored procedure. That's the resume you wanted to put on the top of the pile.  Besides these days people changes job every 2 to 3 years is a norm.  Actually those people I found had more business and technical experience.  Especially if you are a contractor, you work in a company for six months and then another one for six months, it does not mean that person is not good.

Certification - maybe you think is important.  I did it once.  All I did was reading the book in and out and I passed the exam and got the cert.  Did it mean I knew more? I don't think so. I used to work at Xerox, all their repair engineers required to get a MCSE, all of them got it.  Half of them did not even know how to turn on the computer.

The company I used to work with and the company I work right now both said it is very hard to find a good SQL server DBA and SQL Server developer.

My last company after months of search they hired a bimbo for DBA.  The first day of I contacted her, I found out I knew SQL server more than she did.  Nothing what, it was the impression the manager had on that person, some people can spot a good candidate, some can always find loser.  I remembered years ago, my manager hired four people, none of them could do anything, six months later, they all got fired, including my manager. Ha Ha!!!

Another important thing is making sure that person can fit into the department and the company culture.  Otherwise you may  have to go thru the interview in a few months.