When building small business teams, interviews are cool, but tests rule

Lawyers say picking a jury is the most important part of a trial. I’ve always thought initial interviews were key to building an effective team.

Early on, I was guilty of falling in love with prospects who aced interviews. Then I got smart, adding a custom test before we talked, quickly scanning their results and adjusting the interview length accordingly. We accumulated a thick file of our custom one-page tests and it was enlightening to review the scores years later.

Only one interviewee – a recent college grad – aced our quiz. We hired her immediately. Today, she’s an SVP at Edelman.

– Chris Schroder, The 100 Companies