"It's my birthday, I'm wearing a suit, the dog pees on my shoes."
It wasn't the most promising start for a job interview. But Aaron Schaben, now Carson Group's executive vice president, prevailed. Not mentioning what the firm founder's dog had done to his footwear, Schaben went on to impress his interviewer, Ron Carson.
Now Schaben is on the other side of the table. Together with his team, he's designed a set of recruiting rules for potential hires. Their answers to specific questions — and how they complete a particular task — show whether they will fit into Carson Group culture, he says. His team tries not to make exceptions.
“Every time we've broken one of the rules, it's come back to cost us in some way,” says Schaben in this conversation with Financial Planning's editor-in-chief, Chelsea Emery. The questions and the task are easily transferable to other RIAs, he says. In fact, they should be used by other hiring managers.
Schaben shares his insights into this and other pressing topics for RIAs, including the "huge shift" in advisor compensation, succession planning, diversity and finding the next generation of planners.
