how to test a content creator.

a showreel is a highlight of someone's best four seconds across every job they have had, often produced by a team where they were one contributor. it tells you almost nothing about whether they can hold your account for a year.

the alternative takes an afternoon to set up and eliminates most of the wrong hires before you commit to anyone.

— 01the test that predicts judgement.

give them raw footage — yours, unedited, slightly awkward — and ask for two different cuts of the same material: one organic, one for paid. same clips, different objectives.

and give them footage that is genuinely imperfect. a candidate handed clean material tells you nothing about how they cope with the shaky, badly lit reality of most business footage.

what you learn is whether they understand that the medium changes the edit. the organic cut should breathe; the paid cut should front-load the claim and survive being watched without sound. a candidate who returns two near-identical files does not yet know the difference.

then ask what they would have shot that you did not. the answer separates someone who executes from someone who thinks — and the second is the whole reason to hire a creator rather than buy an edit.

— 02the test that predicts reliability.

one paid piece, one real deadline, briefed exactly as you would brief a normal week. pay properly for it — a free test attracts people with nothing better to do and insults the ones you want.

plenty of people cut well and cannot hold a date. this is the failure mode that costs most in practice, because a channel depends on continuity rather than on any single piece being excellent.

watch how they handle a missing asset too. the good ones flag it two days out; the rest tell you on the deadline, by which point your week is already gone.

— 03the questions worth asking.

which part of this reel did you actually do — asked while looking at their own portfolio. it is uncomfortable and it resolves the team-credit problem immediately.

what would you need from us to do this well. someone who has run a channel answers with access, approvals and a turnaround expectation. someone who has only worked inside one answers vaguely.

and describe a post that underperformed and why. a candidate who has never had one has not published enough to be useful yet.

— 04what the test cannot tell you.

whether they will still be good in month six. that depends on direction and review, which is why a creator without senior oversight drifts off-brand within a quarter regardless of how well they tested.

and whether they cover the disciplines you actually need. a strong editor who cannot design means you hire twice, so test the weakest of the four skills rather than the strongest.

if running this process is more than you want to take on, that is precisely what a dedicated creator arrangement removes — the vetting is done, and a senior lead reviews the output. or read how to brief properly, which is the other half of getting good work.

— 05what a good candidate asks you.

who approves, how fast, and what happened to the last person doing this. someone who has run a channel knows those three decide whether the job is possible.

if they ask nothing at all, that is the answer. a creator with no questions has not thought about the work, only about getting it.

read next: freelancer, agency, or someone actually yours, hire a dedicated content creator, the cost of a creator, honestly counted.