Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Cost of Living

“In spite of the cost of living, it's still popular”  Kathleen Norris

Cost of living is a factor that can have a great impact on relocating for a new career opportunity.  New York City and a few cities in California are some of the most expensive places to live in the United States.  These cities are home to many employers in our industry.

There are also great fashion industry employers in smaller cities in Wisconsin and Texas.  There are big employers in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Columbus, Ohio is home to some major brands/retailers as is Boston, Massachusetts; Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; Baltimore, Maryland and Freeport, Maine.

It is a positive financial factor if you are leaving one of the expensive cities and moving to another region where housing and cost of living are less.  The employers in smaller regions pay very competitive salaries and you get to add the lower cost of living factor for a much greater discretionary income.

The challenge is if you want to head to New York City, San Francisco or Hermosa Beach, CA from a less expensive city.  Employers in the largest cities have similar salary bands and in some cases lower than the more remote regions because the talent in their local market is in abundance.  They are not able to make up the 105% increase in cost of living from Columbus, Ohio to New York City in their compensation packages. 

If your desire is to move to one of these hub cities it is best to do research and understand what it will cost you to live there.  Know ahead of time if you are coming from a remote region initially you will likely experience a reduced discretionary income.  It is up to you to weigh the options and decide what is most important. 

As a boutique search agency we hear candidates weigh in on this from opposite perspectives.  Candidates that make $110K in NYC say they would never leave the city.    They are completely satisfied and love their lives.  When someone from an area with a lower cost of living making a similar salary looks at moving to NYC for $110 they tell me they can’t imagine how they will survive.

Here are some resources to evaluate cost of living comparisons:




What are some factors that would motivate you consider taking a lower immediate discretionary income to move to a larger city?  Or...would you consider leaving the big city if it meant you could gain significant ground financially? 

Contact me at kari@apparel-resource.com to see what cities we have career opportunities in.

Monday, August 18, 2014

Compromise or collaborate

I often hear people complain about compromises they have made. They find themselves in situations where think they have to compromise with someone in order to get something done. In some cases, it is true that compromising may be the only solution. Often however collaborating may lead to a better solution. Most people easily interchange the two words, but don’t be fooled. Compromise and collaborate are not synonyms.  

In a compromise, people give something up. There is a loss. In a compromise, each person negotiating starts from what they see as the optimal position and begins to give in until they meet somewhere in the middle. Neither party gets what they truly want.

Alternatively, in a collaboration each negotiator works together to arrive at a solution. In true collaborations, the pie (so to speak) can get bigger. Each party can get what they originally intended and maybe more. There is opportunity to look at the problem from various angles and think about solutions in a new way. Understanding each other’s goals will help you discover an optimal resolution.


When have you had the opportunity to ‘expand the pie’ through collaboration? How often do you compromise when collaboration may be an opportunity? Who collaborates really well? What can you do to lead through collaboration rather than compromise?

Monday, August 11, 2014

Work Hard or Work Smart

I once had a leader that I respect say something to me that will stick forever.  I was an internal corporate recruiter.  It was just before the boom of electronic resume databases.  Resumes came in the mail on paper.  Applicants called to inquire about jobs.  We only used email to communicate internally corporately. (I know I sound like a dinosaur.)  We would post an ad in the paper, wait for the resumes to come, review EVERY one of them and follow up accordingly…with EVERY one. 

This employer was in the top 100 companies to work for in the United States.  When we would post a job there was more work than you could get through, even in an extended day. 

I have always been a “hard worker” it is a value my father had and I am proud of it.  I would work very late until all of the resumes were processed and I had a plan put together for the next day.  It was manual and I did it as “hard” as I could.  I wanted my boss to value it too.  I wanted him to appreciate the “hard work” I was doing.  He saw the late emails coming from me in the office on a regular basis. 

One morning he came to my desk and said, “Kari, I appreciate how hard you are working but I would prefer to see you work smart and get out of here at a reasonable hour than work hard and burn out.”   At first I was crushed.  But it was truly one of them most valuable things that someone has said to me in my career.  I started to think about it.  How could I work smart?  There were lots of things about what we did that didn’t really make sense to me.  How could I make that better?  I had just picked up what I was shown how to do and never questioned if there might be a smarter way.  Maybe finding shortcuts wasn’t lazy, maybe it was smart.

I was free to try brand new things with the process of recruiting.  The next job opening I decided we would engage the hiring managers.  We were tasked with hiring a large group of IT people all at one time.  I decided to advertise for an open house.  Candidates were to come with their resumes and be prepared to meet with the hiring managers.  We had food and beverages for the candidates. We provided areas where they could learn about the company and the jobs we were filling.  Candidates had the opportunity to meet with the hiring managers.  We hammered out a week’s worth of work by the old “process” in a 4 hour evening event.  We made multiple hires from this first event and it was a process that we continued to use successfully for several years.

This position on working smart is a principle I try to use to this day.  Are there things in your job that could be done more effectively?  Were you trained on processes that you have followed but they don’t really make sense to you?  See what happens if you spend some time thinking about how you could be smarter about what you do every day.  We would love to hear what happens.

Monday, August 4, 2014

Work-life balance... in your current role

If you read last week’s post by Kari, you know how important it is to be up front about your need for work-life balance before starting a job. What if work-life balance wasn’t important for you when you started your job, but your circumstances have changed? When you started this job a couple years ago, you had a different life, different priorities and different goals. You were willing to eat three meals a day at your desk. It was no problem to not see the daylight on a workday… or even the weekend.

Things have changed. Maybe you are realizing you are out of shape and want to get back to the gym? Maybe you just had a baby or you realized your child is growing up without you? Maybe you did some vision work with your career coach and realized you want more from life than work? Maybe you just want to see your family and friends more? Whatever the case, how can you gain work-life balance in an existing role?

The first step is to understand what is keeping you late in the office. The root cause can help you understand how to deal with your hours. How many of the late nights are a result of your own-doing vs your boss or workload? Right now, most people are saying- ‘oh, it’s the workload.’ Or- ‘it’s definitely my boss.’ Before answering, think really carefully. How do you trust your team to accomplish their goals vs micromanaging? How can you give better direction rather than participate in every meeting? What are you doing that may not be necessary or productive? How much time do you spend making small talk around the office vs focusing on your work? What do you let derail you from urgent projects? How can you better manage your time? I had someone once tell me that it takes 2 minutes on average to read and deal with an email. I get about 150 emails a day… that is almost 5 hours of just reading and answering emails! What can I do about it? I decided that picking up the phone or having a 15 minute meeting with a small group can clear up a flurry of emails- 15 minutes… eliminates 15 emails… equals 15 minutes back to me!  

After taking a good look at your own actions, what were you able to gain? If this is still not what you are looking for, consider discussing your situation with your boss. I say consider because you will know better than anyone else what his/ her position will be. How productive will the conversation be? What should your positioning be in that conversation? How can you best connect with your boss on this point? How can you help offer solutions to give you more work-life balance? What flexible options could help give you more balance? For example, do you have a long commute? Could working from home one day a week give you more time to get actual work done vs driving?

What other ideas do you have to bring work-life balance? How can you help your co-workers and employees to also gain work-life balance? How long are you willing to tolerate your current hours?


To learn more about career coaching, go to www.katekibler.com

Work-life balance... in your current role

If you read last week’s post by Kari, you know how important it is to be up front about your need for work-life balance before starting a job. What if work-life balance wasn’t important for you when you started your job, but your circumstances have changed? When you started this job a couple years ago, you had a different life, different priorities and different goals. You were willing to eat three meals a day at your desk. It was no problem to not see the daylight on a workday… or even the weekend.

Things have changed. Maybe you are realizing you are out of shape and want to get back to the gym? Maybe you just had a baby or you realized your child is growing up without you? Maybe you did some vision work with your career coach and realized you want more from life than work? Maybe you just want to see your family and friends more? Whatever the case, how can you gain work-life balance in an existing role?

The first step is to understand what is keeping you late in the office. The root cause can help you understand how to deal with your hours. How many of the late nights are a result of your own-doing vs your boss or workload? Right now, most people are saying- ‘oh, it’s the workload.’ Or- ‘it’s definitely my boss.’ Before answering, think really carefully. How do you trust your team to accomplish their goals vs micromanaging? How can you give better direction rather than participate in every meeting? What are you doing that may not be necessary or productive? How much time do you spend making small talk around the office vs focusing on your work? What do you let derail you from urgent projects? How can you better manage your time? I had someone once tell me that it takes 2 minutes on average to read and deal with an email. I get about 150 emails a day… that is almost 5 hours of just reading and answering emails! What can I do about it? I decided that picking up the phone or having a 15 minute meeting with a small group can clear up a flurry of emails- 15 minutes… eliminates 15 emails… equals 15 minutes back to me!  

After taking a good look at your own actions, what were you able to gain? If this is still not what you are looking for, consider discussing your situation with your boss. I say consider because you will know better than anyone else what his/ her position will be. How productive will the conversation be? What should your positioning be in that conversation? How can you best connect with your boss on this point? How can you help offer solutions to give you more work-life balance? What flexible options could help give you more balance? For example, do you have a long commute? Could working from home one day a week give you more time to get actual work done vs driving?

What other ideas do you have to bring work-life balance? How can you help your co-workers and employees to also gain work-life balance? How long are you willing to tolerate your current hours?


To learn more about career coaching, go to www.katekibler.com

High performing team

Understanding what you are good at can help you excel in your role. Not only can you accentuate the positive, but you can hire and surround yourself with people who have different skills. It is easy when hiring to look for people you relate to… someone who shares your skills. In reality, you should be looking for a team to complement your skills. At first, this makes getting things done harder. Everyone on the team has a different point of view and as I mentioned, different skills. This usually means individuals will approach and work to solve problems differently. The good news: if you are patient, listen to all points of view and the team trusts each other, the outcome will be optimal as more solutions have been considered and reviewed. Once the team gets into a rhythm and develops this ‘muscle’, you have yourself a high performing team.


What do you do better than anyone else? What aren't you good at? Who do you know who does it really well? How can you respect other points of view? When do you listen to new ideas? What frustrates you about a diverse team?