Hiring guide
How to Hire a Video Editor
Hire a video editor on evidence: reel review, a paid edit test from your raw footage, story and pacing criteria, red flags and onboarding steps.
The short answer
Hiring a Video Editor comes down to verifying story structure and pacing, clean media management and audio editing and mix preparation before you commit interview time. The process below runs 5 stages, screens on evidence rather than résumé claims, and scores every candidate against the same criteria.
- Watch for: A reel of highlights with no full pieces to show how they handle a whole story
- Watch for: Cannot say which decisions on a reel project were theirs and which were the director's
- Score on: Story found in the raw footage, with a clear opening and no dead stretches
- Score on: Accuracy against the brief: length, audience, platform and brand rules
Paste your Video Editor job description; Cohesyve finds, contacts and tests candidates on the real work and ranks them. Ten candidates free, no card.
Applying for a role like this? Practise the assessment free →If you need to hire a video editor, start by deciding what the edit is for: brand films, ads, social cutdowns, documentary, or long-form episodic work each call for a different editor. A strong reel shows taste, but it hides how much of the result came from the director, the colourist or the motion designer. The reliable way to judge an editor is to hand them your own raw footage and a clear brief, then look at the story they find in it.
Why this role matters
The editor decides what the audience actually sees. Shoot budgets, presenters and scripts all pass through the edit, and a weak cut wastes them: slow openings lose viewers, muddy audio undermines credibility, and missed brand or legal requirements mean re-exports at the worst moment. A good editor also manages the unglamorous parts, such as media organisation, versioning and delivery specs, which decide whether a project ships on time.
Where to find candidates
- Production job boards such as Mandy, ProductionHUB and Staff Me Up, which are used for post-production crew
- Portfolio platforms where editors post full projects, such as Vimeo and Behance, searched by the type of work you make
- Credits on work you admire: brand films, documentaries or series often credit the editor, who can be approached directly
- Members of American Cinema Editors (ACE) or the Motion Picture Editors Guild (IATSE Local 700) for film and TV-grade long-form work
- Freelance marketplaces such as Upwork for short, well-scoped social or corporate edits, with a paid test before any larger commitment
- Referrals from post-production houses, colourists and sound mixers, who see editors' project files and know who hands over clean timelines
Skills to look for
Red flags
- A reel of highlights with no full pieces to show how they handle a whole story
- Cannot say which decisions on a reel project were theirs and which were the director's
- Messy or unlabelled project structure when you ask to see a timeline or bin layout
- Ignores the brief's length or audience to make a cut they personally prefer
- Unclear about music licensing, stock footage rights or who owns the project files
- Defensive response to notes, or reworks the whole cut instead of addressing the specific feedback
The interview process
- 1
Reel and full-piece review
Ask for a reel plus two or three complete pieces close to your format. For each, ask what the brief was, what footage they started with, and which choices were theirs. Shortlist editors whose full pieces hold attention from start to finish.
- 2
Screening call
Confirm their NLE and whether it fits your pipeline, how they organise media and proxies, how they handle review rounds, and their availability for your release cadence. Ask how they would approach a project with poor audio or missing B-roll.
- 3
Paid edit test with your footage
Give a short selection of real raw footage, a written brief with target length, audience and platform, and any brand rules. Ask for a first cut plus a short note explaining the structure they chose. A job simulation of the real edit is one option for running this step consistently across candidates. Judge the opening, pacing, audio continuity and whether the cut answers the brief.
- 4
Feedback round
Send three or four specific notes on their cut, including one that conflicts with their choice. Watch how they respond: whether they ask clarifying questions, apply notes precisely, and push back with reasons where a note would hurt the piece.
- 5
Team interview and references
Have the producer or creative lead they would work with talk through a past project that went wrong. Check references with a director or producer, asking specifically about deadlines, file handover and response to notes.
Cohesyve
Start the Video Editor interviews from a ranked shortlist
Cohesyve takes your Video Editor job description, finds and contacts candidates and tests each one on an AI job simulation of the job, so the stages above start with people who have already done the work. Ten candidates free, no card.
How to evaluate
- Story found in the raw footage, with a clear opening and no dead stretches
- Accuracy against the brief: length, audience, platform and brand rules
- Audio quality: levels, room tone, music edits and clean dialogue cuts
- Precision in applying notes during the feedback round
- Organisation of the project file and exports they hand back
- Ability to explain editorial choices in plain language
Onboarding
- 1Share a brand and delivery spec sheet on day one: fonts, lower-thirds, caption style, loudness target and export presets
- 2Set up the folder structure, naming conventions and archive rules before the first project so every editor's files look the same
- 3Pair the first project with the producer who wrote the brief, and agree how many review rounds are included
- 4Give access to the licensed music and stock libraries you use, with clear rules on what can be used where
- 5Review the first delivered project together, covering what worked and which notes to pre-empt next time
Common questions
Should I hire a freelance video editor or a full-time one?
Freelance suits irregular projects or a specialist style you need occasionally. A full-time editor makes sense when you publish on a steady cadence, need someone who knows your brand and archive, and want faster turnaround on revisions.
Which editing software should I require?
Require the software your team already uses for shared projects and handoffs, since moving timelines between NLEs is lossy. If the editor works alone end to end, judge the output and accept any professional NLE.
Is a paid edit test fair to candidates?
Yes, if it is short, uses footage you supply, and is paid. It shows how they find a story in material they did not shoot, which a reel cannot. Keep the footage confidential and do not use test cuts in your own published work.
Do video editors need certifications?
No certification is required. Vendor credentials such as Adobe Certified Professional, Avid Certified User or Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve certification show tool knowledge, but the edit test tells you far more about editorial judgement.
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