College vs. No College; Hiring & Interviewing Tips; 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 they want to do.

They also think young people cultivate skills and direction far faster by simply finding meaningful jobs.

Neither of them require college for their hires; Mr. Deiss’s primary criteria are “Giving a Damn” and “Empathy” (he wants young people who care deeply for the company, customers and teammates).

At JVM, however, we use college as a screening tool b/c we have seen that strong academic skills correlate very strongly to the tasks required at JVM (learning, info retention, research, organization, communication, writing skills, etc.).

With respect to hiring, we also require all applicants to go through two or three rounds of “panel interviews” with two to three staff members each time, and all applicants must fill out a 50 question “exam” of sorts in less than an hour so we can test their diligence and time management.

All panel members then rank every applicant on a scale of 1 to 3 for a variety of criteria, set out below. If applicants score lower than 25 on average, we don’t bring them back. Our system now works extremely well, as we are bringing in truly amazing people.

If you’d like to learn more, let us know.

JVM’s Scoring Criteria for Applicants:
• Integrity (credit, honest resume, etc.)
• Academic skill (GPA, college)
• Brain Power
• Strong Family and Friends Background
• Work Experience (at least one prior job, barring short term stints)
• Ability to work on a team
• Humility/Modesty (not to be confused with insecurity)
• Congeniality
• Grammar (written and spoken)
• Articulate & Polished (new college grads vs. applicants with job experience)

Jay Voorhees
Founder/Broker | JVM Lending
(855) 855-4491 | DRE# 01524255, NMLS# 310167

    Get your instant rate quote.
    • No commitment
    • No impact on your credit score
    • No documents required
    You are less than 60 seconds away from your quote.

    Resume from where you left off. No obligations.