How to find out if a candidate can actually do the job

You knew by the second week.

The interview went beautifully. Good answers, good questions, easy to talk to. And then the work started, and it was nothing like the conversation.

Interviews measure talking, not working

An interview is a conversation about work. It rewards people who are comfortable talking about themselves. That is a real skill, but for most roles it is not the skill you are paying for.

Build a small piece of the actual job

Take something a person in this role did last week. Strip out anything confidential. Give them thirty to sixty minutes of it.

• For a support role: three real customer emails to answer.
• For an analyst: one messy spreadsheet and one question to answer from it.
• For a marketer: a landing page you already have, and what they would change first.

Score it before you see the names

Write down what a good answer contains before anyone submits. Then grade against that list, with names hidden.

Keep it short, and pay if it is not

An hour is a fair ask. A day is not, unless you pay for it.

What this will not tell you

Whether they will still be here in two years. Whether they will get on with your team. Use the work sample for capability, and use people for the rest.