What do we look for in our staff?

I've been asked many times what it is that we seek out when we are hiring new employees for our company. Of course, there are always the obvious things that I can only imagine that most businesses look for - people with a decent job history, an acceptable employment reputation, and seems more than capable of handling whatever task he or she is hired on to perform.  But when I speak to potential candidates, there is one specific trait that I am always watching for as I question that person about their previous experience, their basic life details, etc... I love to find persons that demonstrate passion.  Now passion can be a pretty broad term, after all, just because an individual has passion for, say, the Denver Broncos (which, by the way, is generally considered a plus in my book!), does not necessarily equate into passion for performing security work.  But passion can be translated into so many different forms.  For example - did that potential candidate have enough passion about his or her own image to take the time to dress up properly for an interview?  If anyone comes in for a job interview dressed in the same attire in which he or she would go to the beach in... well, let's just say that it would be a fairly short interview.  Did the potential candidate take enough pride in his/her own image to completely fill out the job application?  I find this to be a generally important factor in our line of work.  If somebody cannot take the extra two minutes necessary to write out the information needed in order to effectively check a person's employment and reference history, what is to say that the same individual would not completely fill out an incident report, or a vehicle maintenance report, or any other important document that is so crucial to our business' success?

But as for myself, the real passion that I so enjoy to see is when I speak with a person about a former job, school history, or even mere life details, and that person sitting across from me show me back that passion that says "hey, I took ________ extremely important.  In fact, very few other things to me were as important as completing that task", or achieving that goal, or gaining another's respect.  To take pride in one's own achievements, and striving to reach for bigger and more difficult life goals says more to me about a potential applicant than any job history, college degree, or gleaming reference ever will.

One of my absolute favorite quote in life (and one I attempt, regardless of how feebly, to live my own life by), is by the incredibly philosophically advanced Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (yes, he really did exist outside of the Gladiator movie!) when he stated "Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretense."  If I am able to see even the slightest glimpse of this real attitude in somebody who is trying to convince me that they should be the next employee of Denver Metro Protective Services, than all else to me seems quite a mute point.  To demonstrate that pride in oneself and passion for life is one's truest character tells me that when that person is out in the field, they will be sharply wearing our uniform and meticulously performing the tasks for which they were hired to do, and exemplifying our company services... for that is the pride and passion built into their true nature.