Research on the relationship between measures of teacher quality that are observable by both administrators and researchers at the point of hire, such as degrees, credentials, and college reputation, has consistently failed to find positive links between these factors and the performance of classroom teachers. However, most research has failed to measure personal qualities that are observable to administrators in interviews, as well as other measures of potential classroom success such as pedagogical content knowledge, teacher attitudes, or teaching skill. Utilizing rich data on teacher personality, assessed subject-matter knowledge, responses to interview questions, and ratings of a teaching audition collected through an innovative staged hiring process implemented by the District of Columbia Public Schools, this paper addresses the question of what qualities determine teacher hiring. We investigate measures that have always been observable to administrators, if not researchers, such as personality, as well as new measures that have not traditionally been collected at the time of hire. In addition, we also investigate whether qualities that were predictive of hire were also predictive of classroom performance in the years immediately following hire. We utilize multiple regression methods to provide detailed descriptive results about how schools may be assessing candidates, as well as whether more information actually contributes to better hiring decisions. Findings indicate that while more information does improve school hiring decisions, schools may not fully maximize all available information.