Posts

Job Placement Disasters; Why I Love DISC (Personality) Tests

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SKI BUM DISASTER JOB In 1985, I applied for a job at Copper Mountain Ski Resort in Colorado b/c I wanted to be a ski bum – and to ski for free, you had to have a job on the mountain. I applied to be a waiter b/c I just wanted to wait tables, ski, […]Read More

Why Hiring Recent College Grads In The Digital Age Is SO Necessary And Valuable

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We have a large “Technology Committee” that meets every Friday to review and discuss all of our tech issues, opportunities, and solutions.  During last Friday’s meeting, two of our newer team members went on at length about some new thingies they were looking at that would not only improve many of our old thingies but […]Read More

JVM’s Hiring – The Most Talented People in The World :)

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We are often asked how we so consistently foster such great client experiences. And while it is partly a result of our training, systems and culture, it is mostly b/c we hire extraordinarily talented people. And right now, b/c we are growing so quickly, we are aggressively looking for additional qualified candidates. Our current compensation […]Read More

How To Spot “Grit” When Interviewing, and Why It Is SO Necessary

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A few years ago we hired an extraordinarily talented team member right after she graduated from a top university. She was exceptionally smart, articulate, fun, engaging, charming, etc., and her writing skills were excellent. As soon as we threw her into the line of fire, however, she resigned. She simply couldn’t handle the pressure of […]Read More

Hire “Brains and Character” Over Experience; Avoid “Crisis Hiring”

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Today we welcome three new hires to the JVM team! We preach this often, but always think it bears repeating. We have discovered over much trial and error that it is almost always better to hire “brains and character” over experience. By using a strong screening process and our training program, we figured out how […]Read More

Why We Hire Brains & Character Over Experience

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Last I week I blogged about our office manager who embezzled $200,000, and how she was a result of a “panic hire.” We needed help so badly that we hired the first person we found with experience. As we started to grow, we frequently turned to applicants with experience to fill slots even when we […]Read More

How To Hire Great People; Horror Story

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It was June of 2011 when Heejin noticed one of our deposits was smaller than it was supposed to be. So Heejin dug a little deeper and found a bunch of accounting irregularities. She then got very worried, continued to dig and discovered over $200,000 had been embezzled from our accounts. Our officer manager was […]Read More

Why We (& Everyone Should) Pay Employees Above Market Wages

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In another excellent James Altucher Podcast, the founder of WordPress (Matt Mullenweg) told some great stories about compensation. First, when Matt was only 19, he got a job in San Francisco that paid more than his father’s, even though his father had worked for the same company for 27 years. Making matters worse, his father […]Read More

College vs. No College; Hiring & Interviewing Tips; “Give A Damn & Empathy”

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James Altucher recently had Ryan Deiss (the young founder of a huge digital marketing firm) on an excellent podcast. They both strongly advocated not going to college, despite the fact that both are highly educated college grads themselves. They think college is far too expensive and too vague for young people with no clue what […]Read More

Kung Fu Panda Organization For Freedom And Growth

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Eric Weinstein is a PhD in mathematical physics from Harvard, and a managing director at Thiel Capital. Eric is one of the smartest guys in Silicon Valley working for the smartest VC in Silicon Valley. He was on Tim Ferriss’ podcast recently talking about Kung Fu Panda. He publicly cried at the end of the […]Read More

The Girl In The Front Row

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When I was an econ major in college, there was a girl who was in almost every one of my econ classes and I don’t think we ever exchanged more than three words. She sat in the front, and I sat in the back. She was prim, proper, polite, social and energetic and she participated […]Read More

Hire An Assistant Please

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A good friend of ours who runs a large mortgage bank recently wasted an afternoon doing all of his own travel arrangements. When Heejin found out, she told one of her assistants to make fun of him (for wasting so much time) before running out to meet with a valuable referral partner, and then coming […]Read More

Why and How to Hire “Nice” Over Talent; “Nice” is Essential

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I worked for an investment bank in the late 1980s and the “Analyst” staff was dominated by an extremely talented young guy who also happened to be a bombastic jerk. The company put up with him b/c his quantitative and software skills were unmatched. But the company was unaware of the damage he was doing […]Read More

The Importance of Hiring “Smart”

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Here are some of our tougher deals that fell out at other lenders: 1) A purchase involving comingled gift funds that cannot be sourced. The entire down payment of “gift funds” is sprinkled among a myriad of accounts. 2) A purchase involving a huge employment gap that cannot be explained. 3) A purchase involving a […]Read More

Attitude, Hustle, Congeniality, Diligence > Experience or IQ

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Wells Fargo hired me out of law school and made a comically huge mistake, as I was a horrible employee. It is comical b/c it seems so obvious in hindsight. I had a stellar resume and I did really well on all the assessment tests, BUT I was not a team-player, I was constantly distracted, […]Read More

When The Smartest Employee Is Your Worst Employee? Wrong DISC

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We rely heavily on “DISC” Personality tests for hiring. D = Decisiveness; I = Interactive; S = Stabilizing; C = Cautious. The tests weight employees’ personalities in the different categories. We had a super smart employee who was sky-high “D” and “I,” but his “S” and “C” were in the cellar. He could not have […]Read More

Hire “Brains and Character” Over Experience; Avoid “Crisis Hiring”

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We have discovered over much trial and error that it is almost always better to hire “brains and character” over experience. By using a strong screening process and our training program, we figured out how to find associates who can use their aptitude and discipline to quickly pass up (in a matter of months) even […]Read More