Despite the body of studies on different dimensions of effective teaching, the literature provides little evidence of research on effective teachers as persons. To narrow this gap, 50 pre-service and in-service English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers participated in this study to explore their beliefs about the attributes of effective teachers as persons. The data were collected through a mixed methods design using interviews and a Likert-scale questionnaire informed by the effective-teachers-as-persons component of the framework of effective teachers proposed by Stronge (2007). The analysis of both sources of data indicated that pre-service teachers valued personal teacher characteristics such as patience, kindness, friendliness, strictness, knowledge, enthusiasm, and fairness. In addition, they believed that an effective teacher uses reflection to improve teaching. On the other hand, in-service teachers mostly emphasized teachers' knowledge and energy, sense of humor, and friendliness. They further assumed that effective teachers as persons display positive attitudes toward teaching, create a warm classroom environment, and treat learners equally. A comparison of pre-service and in-service teachers' questionnaire responses revealed significant differences in their beliefs regarding, inter alia, creating a supportive classroom climate, using humor, taking pleasure in teaching, maintaining high-quality work, and seeking professional development. These findings suggest that in-service teachers possess different beliefs about the characteristics of effective teachers as persons due to their teaching experience, whereas pre-service teachers hold beliefs rooted in their immediate background as learners.