We know how important it is for you to find the right position fit because we’ve been there too. It is easier to find “a” job, but finding “the” right job can be more challenging. We recruit only for the best financial planning firms and wanted to give you some insight below as to how we determine what firms to represent.

Selecting the Right Positions

Some recruiting firms will take on any opportunity, but we only want to work with firms that offer the best opportunities to our candidates. Some factors we consider when looking at opportunities to recruit for are:

• Location: Typically in larger metro centers like Chicago, Dallas, DC, Boston, Atlanta or virtual. We have found that the talent pool we represent (mostly Gen Y and Z) prefers larger, “cool”, “hip”, “exciting”, and “fun” locations.
• Growth Opportunity: There must be a career path that allows for upward mobility. We want any new hire we place into a firm to be able to work up to become an equity owner if that is their goal. We also look for firms that have promoted and grown their talent from within.
• Personable Team: Since new hires will be spending a lot of time with their co-workers we want to make sure they are good people! When talking to firm owners, we consider if they are people that we would want to work for and/or spend time with out of the office at a social event.
• Firm Growth: Firms have to be growing. This can be measured by many different metrics, but most commonly - AUM, Revenue, Profit, Clients, etc.
• Financial Planning Focused: Financial planning must be the core offering. Firms that are only focused on asset gathering, investment management, or something else aren’t good fits for us since our candidates are seeking salaried financial planning focused positions.  

Selecting the Right Candidates

Contrary to other recruiting firms we don’t necessarily need high levels of experience, 4.0 GPAs, top of the class rankings, etc. to be considered for one of our positions. For us, we are focused on the intangibles. Yes, demonstrated past success, communication abilities, and credentialing do help but it is not everything. Here are a few of the things that we look for in deciding which candidates to interview and present to the client firms we represent.

• Passion for the Profession: Even though some may find out about the profession sooner than others, our clients want to hire people who aren’t considering any other jobs outside of working as a financial planner. 
• Commitment to Career: Demonstrated effort towards pursuing the CFP education and certification, appropriate licensing, and additional softer skills necessary to succeed as a financial planner.
• Initiative/Sense of Urgency: Doing something on your own or taking a suggestion from someone else and running with it to continue to move forward for a client situation or something pertaining to your career. Something internal that causes you immense joy when you can do something for a client quickly and not keep them waiting.

Stay tuned next month for specific examples of these. 

We take finding the right fit for you very seriously and hope this will give you some insight into what goes on behind the scenes as we work through the tedious process of putting you in the right position to have great success.  If you are looking to have success in your career, submit your resume here, or reach out to us at candidate@newplannerrecruiting.com if you have questions or ideas on how we can better serve.