Your Ideal Candidate

For those owners out there that are looking to add professional staff, what characteristics would meet your definition of the ‘ideal’ candidate? What personality would they have, specific skill sets, contacts, existing book, age/stage in career, etc. Just try to imagine you have a clean slate and could get anything you wanted!

I know it will obviously differ depending on what type of position you are looking at and how you operate, but just trying to get ideas because it’s not talked about as much as I think it should. This could be one of the reasons a lot of the people getting into the industry seem to be clueless to what small business owner planners want. Or perhaps planners just haven’t figured out what they want and how to communicate it to prospective employees/team members?

Thoughts?

Caleb, I share you interest, but cannot offer any useful sugestions. If fact, I may exemplify the antithesis on this topic. After hiring and training many planners and staffers in the industry over the years, I have regrettably come to agree with those who define "employee" as a "paid enemy". The typical pattern was that just a person acquired the skills necessary, through my invested efforts, to be worth more than I was paying, and therefore putting me in a position to recoup the investment made, they left to join a larger firm, usually taking a handful of clients with them. I came to conclude that staffing just wasn't my skill and that I should outsource everything.