Interview with Jon Fricke, Executive Recruiter for High Road Partners, Inc.
NWARSP’s Roving Reporter had the pleasure of interviewing Jon Fricke, Executive Logistics Recruiter for High Roads Partners, Inc, who works virtually out of his home in Bentonville. Jon is passionate, professional, knowledgeable, motivated and very good at what he does as an executive recruiter in his niche industry of logistics recruiting. Jon has been very successful leveraging Linkedin and other technology to help him create his own brand, expertise and value within his industry as a recruiter. I learn something from Jon every time I spend time with him. Jon is a role model for any professional who wants to be successful and wield influence in their specific industry Jon’s Linkedin profile can be found at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonfricke

 
NWARSP: How long have you lived in NWA?

Jon: Around 13 years.

NWARSP: Where did you grow up?

Jon: Mainly in the Chicago area. Graduated from high school in Centerville, Ohio and then went on to Bowling Green State University for college and then my first job out of college was in Memphis.

NWARSP: Looking at your employment history, it looks like you have always been working in the transportation and freight industry – was that your intention - plan?

Jon:  No, it just worked out that way. The companies came on campus and I tried to find one that seemed to be a fit. I was lured by the high starting pay and company car offers. After I got started in the industry – it just seemed like the place to stay.

NWARSP: What brought you to NWA?

Jon: One of the companies I worked for had a need for an inside-outside national account representative that actually required the person live in NWA, which brought me here.

NWARSP: Have you worked for JB Hunt?

Jon: Yes, I worked for J.B Hunt as a National Accounts Manager from 1995 to 2000 before I went to work for Transplace.

NWARSP:  What do you like about NWA?

Jon: NWA is a great place for families along with many recreational opportunities with caves, lakes, many places to run. I like having the Walton Arts Center.

NWARSP: Generally, what do you do as an Executive Recruiter for High Road Partners?

Jon:  I am responsible for both finding clients that have a need and then also finding candidates for those clients. All the recruiters in our company can fill another recruiter’s open position which means I can fill any position and they can fill my positions.

NWARSP:  So you do both; business development and recruit to the same clients.

Jon: Yes, our firm has always been set up like this. Having both sides; business development and recruiting means you can get both sides of the piece, which can be profitable if you can get the client’s business and find the right candidate for the client.

NWARSP: It seems advantageous to do both; business development and recruit but it requires high level of skill, wearing different hats, diverse knowledge and abilities to successfully do both.

Jon:  Everyone in our firm is able to service a client with everything except entry level, anything except drivers – in general our candidate searches are from $60k to over $200k salary.

NWARSP: So in your job and profession you really have to know your industry, not only the companies, employers, organizations but also candidates.

Jon: Yes, that’s why the clients come to us, because we have that industry experience. We help clients with their transportation / logistics needs in the trucking, 3^rd party logistics, distribution, manufacturing, retailers, food companies industries.  

NWARSP: Did I see you and your work with the railroad industries?

Jon: Yes. Our relationship with railroads and shipping is what we call intermodal transportation, which is where trucking companies interface with shipping and railroads concerning the transportation of the intermodal containers that go directly from ships or rails directly to trucking transportation.

NWARSP: How did you get into recruiting?

Jon: I had a neighbor who became a corporate recruiter and loved it which prompted me to contact a transportation company about recruiting and through our discussions it looked like a good opportunity.  In 2004, when I began in recruiting, there was a high demand for recruiters and business which had stayed high until 2009. I am anxious for a good 2010

NWARSP: In your current role, what brings you the most job satisfaction?

Jon:  I would say getting referrals from my clients where they had a good experience with us and where we provided them quality candidates who become hires. I also get tremendous job satisfaction from job referrals from those candidates who I worked with who were pleased and referred other great candidates.

NWARSP: In your experience searching for candidates, do find there is big quality difference between passive and active candidates?

Jon:  It’s interesting; I have to answer; it’s not a black and white issue.  The problem is things change in a candidate’s life which can change their candidate status. One day they are completely satisfied and solidly a passive candidate and the next day, something changes at work and the same candidate is willing to talk to a recruiter – and now not a solid passive and leaning toward active. Nothing has changed with their quality.

NWARSP: What makes the difference between a good recruiter and an outstanding recruiter?

Jon:  Being able to connect many different dots. Not being one dimensional. Anticipate different client needs. Being a partner with that client where they come to you and they know that you will work with them and look out for their interests and being able to maintain good relationships with both candidates and clients.  Also, picking up on a client’s unspoken or inferred need, knowing which candidates will be of interest better than the recruiter who sends candidates that are of no interest.  Better to send three candidates who get interviewed than sending 10 candidates with only two that are interviewed.

NWARSP: You are very busy and keep up to date with industry trends and news; how do manage your sources of information and news?

Jon:  I find myself spending more time with my Linkedin group (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=134135&trk=anet_ug_hm )

where I have connected with 10 to 15 news feeds from different industry publications via RSS feeds. The advantage of using these RSS feeds is that instead of me going to 10 to 15 different sources, now through RSS feeds to my Linkedin Group, they come to me in one place.

NWARSP: What is your most memorable professional accomplishment?

Jon:  One was being awarded the Rookie of the Year for Snelling Corporate (of which we are a franchise) and since then being one of the top 5 to 10 of all Snelling recruiters each year. 

NWARSP: Do you have a favorite restaurant here in NWA?

Jon:  Two I guess. On the high end would be Bordino’s Restaurant (West Dickson St, Fayetteville). On the more reasonable end would be The Taste of Thai (Bentonville).

NWARSP: What is the last good book you have read?
Jon:  The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty. By Julia Flynn Siler. The book is not just about the wine industry but also about the Mondavi family succession, how things can change in a family business and how screwed up a business in a family can become, greed and overexpansion. .

NWARSP: What do you do in your free time?

Jon:  I try to run as much as possible. That’s possibly my passion: running as well as bicycling. I have been involved in the annual Hogeye Marathon and Race as a Board Member and fund raising chairman.

NWARSP:  Do you race as a runner?

Jon:  Technically, you could say I am a racer, but I am not a fast racer. The only time I am competitive with other racers is in a few races that have a “Clydesdale” division. Competition in a “Clydesdale” division is based on your weight. My advantage in this category of runners is that I am fortunately ‘weight gifted’. In the Clydesdale category, I am fast for my weight.

NWARSP: What person, dead or alive, would you like to meet?

Jon: Martin Luther, (1483-1546) one of history’s great reformers. He wasn’t perfect and many shortcomings, which I would like to him about. He was listed as one of the 500 most influential people of all time. 

NWARSP: You have been a big supporter of NWARSP, how has NWARSP helped you?

Jon:  NWARSP has helped me in multiple ways: networking, ideas, having a professional place where you can share ideas, just a real good atmosphere, which is not competitive but sharing, fun and friendly.

Interview with Angela Robinson, Editor and Owner of "The Job Guide":
NWARSP: You have been in NWA for a number of years but where did you grown up?

Angela:  I am a native Texan, lived in Texas since I was 33 and then moved to Philadelphia. So I have experienced the east coast for 5 years, then I moved to California for 5 years. There is an old Rap Song that says: ‘Live on the East Coast but move out before you get to hard. Go to the West Coast but move out before you get to soft.’

NWARSP: How long have you been in NWA?

 Angela:     I moved here in 1996. What brought me here was I had fallen in love and my husband, who was a professional golfer. He had chosen to move to NWA because it was easier for him to travel to his golf tournaments across the country from NWA. The intent was he was to make 10 Zillion dollars on the golf tournament and we would live happily ever after; well that is not what the universe had planned. As the old saying goes: ‘Life is what happens in spite of your plans’.

 NWARSP: What do you like about NWA?

Angela:  It might sound corny, but I love NWA because of many things but particularly the nature, the trees, the seasons, the rocks.

NWARSP: You have done many things in your work life; file clerk, telephone pole climber, owner/operator of an aerobic studio, working at the Texas A&M Career Services director of a Computer learning center, College President;; what impact have these experiences had on your outlook toward work, employment and career success

Angela:  It’s not the title you have in your job or the position you hold or the money you make. What a person brings to their work, no matter what the position or level, is their work ethic, their own inner peace, their tenacity. You are who they are.

NWARSP: Tell us more about The Job Guide; its services, distribution, impact, value, etc

Angela:  The Job Guide prints 30,000 books every 2 weeks and we have been doing this in NWA since 1996. Every ad or job posting is also on our website. The Job Guide covers the region from NWA to Tulsa and down to Ft Smith and all areas in between. If someone is looking for a job, no matter what level, they are going to pick it up The Job Guide. The Job Guide’s mission is to act as a conduit between employers and employment seekers. The ironic thing is that the Job Guide has been out there for so long; often it is overlooked until a worker is unemployed and needs a job or an employer needs an employee

NWARSP: Generally, what do you do as Publisher and Owner of The Job Guide?

Angela:  Wow, not much (laughs). As Publisher and Owner I try to facilitate getting more jobs and ads in The Job Guide. My job is to diligently search for and find out where job openings are, develop relationships with employers and get open jobs posted to help job seekers. If there are people unemployed, I feel it is my job to make sure they have access to where the open positions are.

    I received two calls this morning from two unemployed maintenance techs and it occurred to me I did not have any maintenance tech jobs posted in The Job Guide. But I know, in this area, there has to be a company who has a maintenance tech opening and it is my job to find out who has it. I consider it my job to be that of a conduit between employers and unemployed. That’s my job – a conduit.

 NWARSP: What does your typical day look like?

 Angela:  I do a lot of networking in my typical work day. It is inevitable while meeting and getting to know people; I also end up being both an employment counselor and life counselor. My day is pretty fluid, I don’t have a real rigid schedule. My day can include everything from contacting customers, going to meetings and talking to people. I am a talker. I have two great employees who take care of the many administrative requirements of the business aspect of The Job Guide, allowing me to do what I do best – meet and talk with people.

NWARSP: In your role with The Job Guide, you have quite an understanding and knowledge of the regional employment, industries and the workforce.   What is one thing you would advise our local companies and organizations?

Angela:  All the parts of the body are already here in this area. Most everything that an employer or company could possibly want is here in this region. What often hinders our organizations and region in general, is when we don’t have a clear flow, view or connection from one end to the other end. The flow to resources becomes blocked or constipated (laughter) and stops the efficient and natural flow of opportunities, knowledge, skills and resources. We (this NWA Region) have many fabulous local resources here that are under utilized. As an example; Synergy Tech is a little known gem behind NIT (Northwest Technical Institute) which trains Maintenance Techs and the Shewmaker Center at NWACC that can customize any training and has great facilities and instructors, to name just a few.

    To add to this lack of connection between organizations is the fact that people have gotten out of art of connecting between fellow human beings, we seem too busy to do the mundane. One of my favorite movies is “The Big Kahuna” (1999) where Danny DeVito and Kevin Spacey are fast-talking, slick salesmen desperate to land a big client at a swanky reception or they may lose their positions in the firm. There is a great quote in the very end of the movie when Danny DeVito says: “Until you really sit down and have a conversation with another human being without any expectations, you are not having a conversation.” Can you give without expecting something in return? What is your intent, what are your expectations in a conversation or meeting? Anger is nothing more than unmet expectations where you expected a different outcome.

NWARSP: Like recruiters, we share the satisfaction of helping others in their job and career aspirations; is there a particular person or event that brought satisfaction

Angela:  I don’t ever want to come across as arrogant. If I am ever used to facilitate a synergistic happening of events between people, it’s not because of me but rather it’s that I wasn’t constipated and was able to let events flow thru me. One of my favorite and satisfying connecting events dealt with a man named Marshall McCall who called me from Fresno California; was unemployed for 2 years, needed a job, just earned his masters degree, in his late 50’s and asked for help and asked if I could tell him more about The Job Guide. I could have easily reacted by thinking; ‘you are not placing an ad so why should I help you?’ (This type of telephone call and scene is very typical of my day). How many more strikes could an unemployed job seeker have against him?  I gave him information about an open position at the Shewmaker Center. He applied but was not interviewed or hired.

    Marshall would call regularly asking about jobs and during one call, I had asked what his dream was and he mentioned he would love to get a job, stay with it until he retires and then fish. I had learned from the Shoemaker Center that the same position was now open again and Marshall re-applied. Soon thereafter, I was at the Shoemaker Center and happened to be chatting with the Hiring Manager and I noticed she had two stacks of resumes on her desk and on top of one stack was Marshall’s resume. I asked the HM, ‘why don’t you consider Marshall’ and she replied ‘he was too old and had been unemployed to long’.

    Isn’t this often the daily duty of recruiters; to judge people’s qualifications based on a 1 minute look at the resume, and decide qualified or not qualified on so little information and bias? Recruiters have the very, very difficult job of choosing the fate of so many.

   The HM elaborated about the position; ‘we cannot keep anyone in that position, they use the position as a stepping stone to other jobs’. I asked; ‘why don’t you try hiring an older person whose goal is to ride out the job to retirement?’ Obviously the HM was just focused on Marshall’s disqualifications rather than his qualifications. He had absolutely everything they wanted and more. Marshall called me a few days later and told me he was flying into XNA for an onsite interview for this position and asked if I knew of any homes he and his wife could look at while in town. I told him about a home across the street from mine that just went up for sale. The house and location was perfect; next to the lake where he could go fishing and in his price range. Remember, I have never met him – this is just conversations over the phone.

   Marshall did get the job and lives next door to me and is one of the happiest people I know.

    I have a million stories just like Marshall’s. Marshall’s story and the others are just a result of being available and connecting. Have you seen the 2008 movie “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett which illustrates the amazing connection between the sequences of events that effect people, lives and destinies? What’s the chances of me entering that HM’s office on that day, at that moment and seeing Marshall’s resume on top of the “don’t call” pile and it prompting a discussion which eventually lead to Marshall’s hire, what lead to a family moving from California to NWA, which lead to the purchase of a house on the lake and the Shoemaker Center having an employee that has been ideal for them. I don’t control the series of events but I am responsible. I have the ability to respond to what is happening. I could have kept my mouth shut and not said a word to the HM. I could have ignored the phone call from Mrs. McCall and would have never gotten to know Marshall as a human being who was looking for his next yes or no destiny.

 NWARSP: You are very busy and involved in many activities; how do you stay organized.

Angela:  I have been told I am a perfectionist but I really see it as getting involved and getting the details and mundane done. I have a 15 minute hour glass on my desk and I use it to spend 15 minutes of focused time on one specific task at a time. Those small, dedicated, quality increments of time, duplicated day after day can lead to accomplishing amazing results over the weeks and months.

NWARSP: You are always very calm, serene and pleasant; how do you do that?

Angela:  With out getting airy fairy, I do a lot of studying and practicing at being a human every day. I constantly try to practice generosity, reverence for life, reverence for other people and communing with nature. Every time I see somebody, I think: I have an opportunity to practice being a spirit in human form and I want to communicate with this other person and instead of being just a practice, it becomes a way of life.

NWARSP: What's something you know now about happiness that you didn’t know when you were younger?

Angela:  Happiness is like a butterfly – it evolves and that today will be the ‘good ole days’ in 5 years. 5 years from now we will look back on today and say – God, July 2009 was the good old days. So why not enjoy today?

NWARSP: Do you have a favorite restaurant here in NWA?

Angela:  Anywhere where I do not have to cook!

A few top ones are: Fish City Grill Pinnacle Hills Promenade, Table Mesa Bistro in Bentonville, River Grille in Bentonville and Carrabba’s Italian Grill in Rogers.

NWARSP: What is the last good book that you have read?

Angela: Wayne Dyer’s “Excuses Begone!: How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking Habits”and “The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal” by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.

It’s amazing how Dyer’s spiritual book and this corporate book “Power of Full Engagement” relate perfectly.

NWARSP: Who is your hero/mentor in life and why?

Angela:  Dr Richard Gwyn, who I met for the first time in 1967. I have a million stories about Dr Gwyn who was the catalyst for so much of my work, social perception and approach to life. Let me just say; ‘One man, one program’ can and does make a difference in the life of a young person. Dr. Gwyn ran a social program for disadvantaged youth, which I was chosen to participate in. He was the beginning of my 8 thoughts of life.

     One key important truth I learned from Dr Gwyn was: everything is a learned skill. Everything learned, whether it is how to be a CEO, how to be an accountant or classical pianist – is all learned and can be learned by anyone. No one is born knowing everything and no one is better than anyone else. Everything you want to be- can be learned.  

    This was an empowering realization for me that changed my life because I, like so many others, had at age 17, pretty firm limiting beliefs which if not changed, would have kept me trapped in my poor, under privileged and limiting world. My very first job was as a housekeeper in a nursing home and I really believed I would be a housekeeper in a nursing home for the rest of my life. Dr Gwynn learned I thought I would be a housekeeper in this nursing home for the rest of my life and he literally came to my house and immediately got me a different job, proving, I could do more with my life.

NWARSP: You've been a big supporter of NWARSP, how has NWARSP helped you?

Angela:  The jewel of NWARSP has been the speakers with a local flair. I really loved hearing Cameron Smith in January 2009. He has always been a “mystery” to me. After hearing him speak at NWARSP, it was as if a little treasure was found.

In the recent Retailing Today’s Connecting NWA, The Supplier Community Resource magazine (June/July 2009), Cameron made a typical Cameron quote that relates to building a sustainable career “complacency is never a good strategy”.

    I also enjoyed Coach Ken Hatfield, which was one of those ahah moments

NWARSP: What person, dead or alive, would you like to meet?

 Angela:  This one was hard. I have been thinking about this for about a week and had only figured it out last night in a dream. In my dream that I was in this house and actor/producer/comedian Mel Brooks came into the house. I was so excited about Mel Brooks and Mel asked me “why are you so interested in meeting me?” I told him that it wasn’t you I really wanted to meet but his wife, Ann Bancroft, the actress that played Mrs. Robinson in the 1967 comedy/drama movie “The Graduate”. Ann Bancroft has this allusion and façade of having perfect class and perfect what ever she did but little known she had the greatest sense of humor and laughter. I would like to meet Ann Bancroft and talk to her about her sense of humor and laughter because I need to laugh more.

NWARSP: Do you have a favorite quote?

Angela:  I am the queen of quotes and I love wearing them. My latest is actually two:

“Talk does not cook rice”

“Yes and no are the most powerful words in the world”. Your destiny is determined by what you say yes and no to!