“Hiring young people was part of an evolutionary process,” says Schapiro. “I’ve always preferred training people right out of school. I’m most successful with those types of employees.”
Also part of Condor’s success, he says, is that he’s hired the right young people. The firm finds promising students at nearby schools and offers them what essentially becomes a part-time job. Many of the staff start working at the firm as interns before they graduate.
“Hiring is never easy,” says Michael Walliser, the firm’s chief operations officer, “so we do our best to hire smart, young people and give them exposure to real work. If our interns aren’t calling clients or talking to them on the phone, they’re at least in the back office, but the work they’re doing is real client work.”
Interns are never asked to do cold-calling, to make photocopies or to fetch coffee, says Walliser. They’re instead placed in hands-on positions.
Schapiro gives some of his interns a niche within Condor in which to develop their skills and their career. “I had one intern who was in technology as an entry level employee, and now he manages our whole IT department,” he says.
That intern, Prateek Malhotra, currently serves as the firm’s vice president of information technology. He started as an intern at Condor Capital in November 2007, joining the firm full time in January 2012 after graduating from Rutgers.
Another Rutger’s grad and former intern, Hiren Shah, 29, joined the firm full time as a portfolio manager. “Young people want to be challenged,” Schapiro says. “They’re not afraid to work hard, but they also need to see the fruits of their work. They also need an environment that rewards their efforts.”
In turn, Schapiro and his staff can train young people in Condor’s ways of doing business and don’t have to worry about the staff learning bad habits at other places. To make sure they fit into Condor’s culture, potential new hires are required to undergo a personality test and the “Wonderlic Test,” a timed examination of intelligence.
“We’re really looking for people who want to find ways to do things better,” says Schapiro.
Two of his greatest hiring coups are Michael and Tanya Walliser. Michael, 37, joined Condor in 2003 after graduating from Rutgers in nearby New Brunswick.