She matches right job with right applicant
The Charlotte Observer
Michelle Fish’s entrepreneurial spirit dates back more than a century, to a great-grandfather who started a diamond and jewelry business in 1903. But she got into the business of employment staffing by accident.
Fish came to Charlotte after graduating college in 1990, eager to trade her sleepy hometown for a bigger city. She was scheduling emergency and same-day surgery at Presbyterian Hospital when she decided to try pharmaceutical sales. The owners of a Fayetteville staffing agency saw her resume and instead recruited her to help them expand to Charlotte. She later joined another agency, staying through its buyout by a public company.
But: “I knew I had to build something, that was just me.”
Fish found a knack for mating the right applicants with the right job. She likes the fast pace, the challenge of learning about a client’s business and understanding the personalities.
She learned that smarts aren’t enough. Fish looks for job candidates who are upbeat, emotionally stable, self-aware, not prone to wallow in negative feelings or suffer bouts of intense jealousy, people who think before they speak, people in tune with what’s around them and able to adapt.
In 1998, she co-founded a staffing company. To conserve cash, she leased a lot of the furniture, computers and other equipment. That ended up costing more in the long run — a mistake Fish says she won’t make again.
She sold out of that business after a few years, met Robert Fish, wed and started Integra in 2002. He’s the chief operating officer. So like her grandparents in the diamond business, she works daily with her husband. But he’s the numbers guy, busy keeping the business running.
“We very seldom see each other,” Michelle Fish said. “We need a date night to catch up.” — Stella Hopkins AGE: 37.
