Hire for skills or character?

Character 100%. You can teach proper skills, but it is almost impossible to correct bad character.

I always say give me someone that has the right attitude and I can do far more with that person than the one who is more than qualified and has the skills and knowledge but has a bad attitude. Remember a person with heart and good character you can trust. That one with poor character will keep you up at night as you try and doze off. That guy or gal that ask if he may print some personal documents because his/her printer is broke. The one that comes to you and says I broke this or that on the job. And doesn’t try and hide it or blame others. Stuff happens he trips false breaks a prism. But admitted it before without someone asking. Sign them up all day. That’s the one I want. But you have to be willing to get them the mentoring and training to get the skills under to keep the lights on. 

The old adage 'hire for character, train for skills' has merit. My focus in hiring is the combination of intelligence and work ethic.

If a candidate has no work ethic they don't make the first cut. Show me that you are willing to put in the work to make the team succeed, or I'm a thumbs down.

The second test is focused more on intelligence than skills. I graph out the bucket test.

Some folks have insufficient bucket capacity to do the job. End of test.

Most folks have medium buckets, all of which leak at varying rates. A medium bucket with big holes likely won't work out.

Occasionally you find a large bucket. Again, if it's empty every Monday morning I'm taking a pass. Large buckets are rare and beautiful, but the maintenance can be exhausting.

All buckets come with some content, generally a mix of gems and turds. It's our job to help them recognize the gems and add to thier collection, while carefully scooping out the turds. Of course, we have to recognize when the gems we impart are simply old, polished turds in disguise....

@thebionicman not a bad analogy at all. I do always try and remember building a team or giving my opinion of who or who not to hire is much like a sports team. Not everyone is a point guard or a quarterback. You need the diverse skill sets to keep the machine working well. I always like to find those who are strong in what I am not .  I have seen those in many different environments that like to clone themselves through all hires. This usually doesn’t work well in the long run. As no innovation can happen as they are all thinking the exact same way. No one that is outside of the box to make you say hmmmm. Not that those who see and think differently always have good ideas or approaches but it does help everyone to think about something that they have not. I once was assigned to a team that everyone one of them were from the same university the same degree all graduated within a couple of years of each other. One of the toughest environments to be in as an outsider. I was finally able to recommend getting a few others to join that were from different backgrounds and disciplines to get on the team a few of the clones went to other teams and different missions.  We then were able to accomplish the mission efficiently.

I agree with all of this and really great analogies and thoughts.  It is interesting that when learning in a classroom setting high school, college or continuing education its usually about the skills.  No classroom tries to teach how to be a good person with good character.  Much more difficult to teach.  But it is possible.  

Working with someone with a great character really does truly allow you to get more done with less headaches and stress.  But as you say @thebionicman if they do not at least have the intelligence then no matter how much good character they have it still leads to headaches and stress because now they may be the nicest person on the planet but if you are unable to teach them anything...that brings about its own hardships.