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Interviews are less predictive of job performance than work samples, job-knowledge tests, and peer ratings of past job performance. Even a simple intelligence test is dramatically more useful. This is according to Dan and Chip Heath, authors of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. The article can be found in the January issue of Fast Company. (www.fastcompany.com) They cite studies that show that the only thing interviews correlate with is the ability to interview. People who think they are good at judging people in interviews need to think again. A college transcript is based on four years of the cumulative evaluation of 20 to 40 professors. If you think you can do better after an interview, I admire your self-esteem but not your judgment. So what does an administrator do? Simple, watch someone teach. Better yet, get input from people you trust who have seen the person in action. They are more likely to see the real thing as anyone can turn it on when the boss walks through. Listen carefully for indications of teaching talent rather than superficial judgments like those you would gather during an interview.

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