I'll never call it Bland Rapids again!

JoAnn Fitzpatrick, former editorial editor of the Patriot Ledger in Boston, apparently visited my home town recently and penned this piece on “Why can’t we be more like Grand Rapids?”

Although my company works nationwide, with clients in locations that can be notoriously hard sells (think Iowa, Nebraska and a “quaint little town in western New York state") we have run into the “Grand Rapids… really?” response when talking with candidates about our local clients.

Our local clients are major multi-billion dollar companies and industry leaders with great reputations, but that often can't overcome the "but it's in a flyover state" roadblock.

This "ugh" response to the location is really difficult for me to understand, because... well I like it here!

So, it was nice to hear the positive impression Grand Rapids left on a visitor from the coast. Her comments include:

…A place that truly seems to represent good old-fashioned American values

The streets of Grand Rapids are as gleaming as the refurbished buildings throughout the downtown

Midwestern friendliness and helpfulness were everywhere

Downtown Grand Rapids, a city of about 200,000, is a laboratory of urban renewal.

But I had to laugh when I read: “There you can buy a five-bedroom house in the historic district for $400,000. Yup, $400,000”

I found myself thinking, do you really think $400k is a great deal? Our neighbor’s house (4000+ sq ft, 4 bedrooms, and an in-ground pool, all on a beautiful 1 acre wooded lot) is less than $300,000! Granted it isn't "downtown" but there is hardly such a thing as a "difficult commute" in Grand Rapids!

Is the Midwestern cost of living is the best kept secret in America?

Think about these numbers:

• Compared to Boston, the Grand Rapids cost of living is 34% lower.
• Compared to San Francisco, the Grand Rapids cost of living is 53.5% lower
• Compared to New York City, the Grand Rapids cost of living is 56% lower

Salary.com will tell you that, yes, employees make a bit less in Grand Rapids… but not that much less. For example, if you’re making $100,000 in Boston, and you moved here, you would need $71,000 to maintain your currently lifestyle, and would be likely make at least $90,000 or so - and besides, it's not likely that you'll be asked to take a drastic pay cut when you move here!

Don’t get me wrong, Grand Rapids has its fair share of problem neighborhoods and not-so-great areas, but for a city of 200,000 it’s a pretty nice place.

I promise to never call it "Bland Rapids" again.

Bad Recruiters

Yes - there are many many many bad recruiters out there!

Evil HR Lady has a great example in her post Bad, Bad Recruiters! (by the way, sorry for the marathon comment, Evil.)

I wish all the recruiters, search consultants, and headhunters would do things the right way. That is to say: Respect your candidates, respect your clients, and take an interest in the long term success of the match between the two.

Unfortunately many recruiters just don't.

Common Interview Questions

Rowan Manahan at Fortify Your Oasis is running an commentary on the Common Interview Questions. Although my posts tend to spend more time talking about Odd Interview Questions, I have some opinions on the more conventional questions as well.

Common Question #1: What are your strengths and weaknesses?

My Advice: They are going to ask you this, I almost guarantee it! So prepare a response in advance. Use a REAL example, when discussing your weaknesses, then talk about how you overcame the issue and kept it from adversely affecting your performance or how you are currently working to improve.

Do not try to “spin” something like… “Well I suppose I care just too much about my job.” That just makes you look like an idiot, at least if I were interviewing you.

When discussing strengths, do so in a way that highlights your skills and relates them to the position for which you are interviewing. Provide examples (and quantify your results if possible.

Stop short of sounding arrogant. “I can do just about anything I put my mind to!” is just blather.

See Rowan’s advice here

Common Question #2: Tell me about yourself.

My Advice: If you think this response begins with “Well, I was born in a small town in Iowa…” STOP. I don’t need to know your life story, I want to know how you chose your line of work and what brings you to this interview today. Speak briefly about your career history, how you moved from position to position, what attracted you to the company, and why you feel you’re a good fit for the job.

If you have something JOB RELEVANT to add from your personal life, for example you design engine cooling components for a living and in your spare time you build race car engines, that’s job relevant. However, my experience building off-road demo-derby race cars with Figure 8 isn’t relevant to my job. (Well, it did come up in an interview once: when I asked to “Share something about you that would surprise us.”)

See Rowan’s advice here

Of course I've always got plenty to say on this topic. Since teaching candidates to interview effectively is a major part of our jobs. See all I've got to say about interviewing here.

Cell Phone Etiquette

Just a couple of tips that came up this week:

1. Do not have a silly greeting message on your voicemail. “Yo, Adddriann! Yo! Leave a message!”, doesn’t display professionalism to someone calling you about a job.
2. Do not answer your cell phone in the middle of an interview – if you do so, do not do either of the following: a) Tell the recruiter that’s calling – "I’m sorry I’ll have to call you back I’m in the middle of an interview right now" b) Tell your recruiter – “Yep, I made it here just fine. In fact, I’m being ‘grilled’ by three people right now!”

Just a few tips from your friendly neighborhood headhunter!

My funny co-workers

Today marks the launch of the new website for one of our divisions, Partners in Medical Search. As we were preparing to launch the site, I asked for some any testimonials that may be available for Partners in Medical Search (or PiMS). Here's what my co-worker sent over:

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“Partners in Medical Search is the finest executive search firm on the planet. When I needed someone to raise the dead, I called PiMS.”
God

“When it was time for a career change, I called PiMS!”
Jonas Salk

“Using another Medical Executive Search firm can be fatal to your career.”
The Surgeon General

“I’m I the job market and I won’t work with anyone but PiMS!”
Dr. Jack “Death” Kervorkian

“Where do you think I found Consuelo????”
Dr. Marcus Welby

“PiMS? Well, they don’t suck.”
Dr. Gregorie House, M.D.

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Murder Cover-up at Eastern Michigan University

Okay, this is off my normal topic, but I'm outraged and I must rant. As an EMU alumni, I'm really quite upset, and I'd like to think that people without ties to the university would be angry as well. As I'm sure this story hasn't made it much beyond my home state of Michigan, I'll give you the brief recap:

In December, a EMU student was found dead in her dorm room. The university insisted that there were no indications of fool play. Eastern Michigan University stuck to this version of events for sometime, however it was eventually revealed that the student was a murder victim, killed by another EMU student.

Yesterday, it was revealed that the university administration not only insisted that EMU should maintain it's "No fool play story" but actively concealed information about the murder by shredding documents which reported the details of the murder. My understanding is that this is a violation of the "Clery Act".

More for my local news station >

Let me say here that I had nothing but a positive experience at Eastern Michigan University, I cannot stress enough that I felt safe and protected on campus, I believe the campus is still safe. The University Police were always serious about the responsibility they had for protecting us as students, and I believe they still are. Obviously the investigation continued, and an arrest was made.

My question is this, to the administrators of EMU, including two individuals for whom I once had tremendous respect, Why? What did you hope accomplish by covering this up? Surely an administration that decieves its student body and lies to the public is more of a deterrent to enrollment than one act of violence on your campus.

Some things are more important that your job, or your organization's reputation. Namely the truth.

Emus don't bury their heads in the sand, ostriches do.

Idiots among us...

Okay, I’ve had my fair share of moments of stupidity (like the mismatched shoe incident) but I’d like to think I don’t approach the level of idiocy demonstrated in the following antedotes I recently received from a friend...

I walked into a Arby's with a buy-one-get-one-free coupon for a sandwich. I handed it to the girl and she looked over at a little chalkboard that said "buy one-get one free". "They're already buy-one-get-one-free", she said, "so I guess they're both free". She handed me my free sandwiches and I walked out the door.

I used to work in technical support for a 24/7 call center. One day I got a call from an individual who asked what hours the call center was open. I told him, "The number you dialed is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week." He responded, "Is that Eastern or Pacific time?" Wanting to end the call quickly, I said, "Uh, Pacific."

I couldn't find my luggage at the airport baggage area, so I went to the lost luggage office and told the woman there that my bags never showed up. She smiled and told me not to worry because she was a trained professional and I was in good hands. "Now," she asked me, "has your plane arrived yet?"

I thought this all felt familiar...

Another astute observation from Jessica Hagy at Indexed:

Performance Evaluations

Someone sent me a "Job Evaluation Dictionary" the other day... These are "translations" of all those things you see in Performance Evaluations... I thought I'd share some of my favorites:

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ACTIVE SOCIALLY: Drinks heavily.
CHARACTER ABOVE REPROACH: Still one step ahead of the law.
QUICK THINKING: Offers plausible excuses for errors.
APPROACHES DIFFICULT PROBLEMS WITH LOGIC: Finds someone else to do the job.
A KEEN ANALYST: Thoroughly confused.
SPENDS EXTRA HOURS ON THE JOB: Miserable home life.
CONSCIENTIOUS AND CAREFUL: Scared.
METICULOUS IN ATTENTION TO DETAIL: A nitpicker.
DEMONSTRATES QUALITIES OF LEADERSHIP: Has a loud voice.
KEEN SENSE OF HUMOR: Knows lots of dirty jokes.
ALERT TO COMPANY DEVELOPMENTS: An office gossip.
ENJOYS JOB: Needs more to do.
HAPPY: Paid too much.
CONSULTS WITH SUPERVISOR OFTEN: Annoying.
WILL GO FAR: Relative of management.
SHOULD GO FAR: Please.
VERY CREATIVE: Finds 22 reasons to do anything except original work.
USES RESOURSES WELL: Delegates everything.

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