In this week’s Fellow Spotlight, we are checking in with Cody Grant. He fills us in on what he enjoys most about living in the city, and his host company, Strategic Staffing Solutions!

Tell us about your move to Detroit?

My move to Detroit was IMG_2555something of a regional effort.  I keep an apartment in Lafayette Park, 13 minutes south of where I lived prior to Challenge Detroit.  My place is small, but nice.  It’s close enough for me to walk to work on nice days, and it’s just a quick jaunt over from Eastern Market.  Also, I spend quite a bit of time in Royal Oak, where my girlfriend lives.  If anything, this year has really expanded my view and spatial relations of southeastern Michigan as a whole.

What do you enjoy most about living, working, playing, giving, and leading in Detroit?

There is a fluidity to this five-tier IMG_2544approach that I think is often overlooked.  It is a really wonderful feeling to know that I can leave my apartment at seven or eight in the morning and stay busy with my job and after work events until the wee hours of the night.  I have never felt as connected to the city as I have as a member of Challenge Detroit.  I have had the pleasure of spending some extended time in other big cities, and I can say that Detroit now has that buzz that the others do.  I get excited when I get stuck in traffic, because that means people are here.  I am okay with higher prices downtown because that means that demand in the market in working.  Things will always change, and it is nice to just embrace that change for what it is.

Tell us about your host company, and what you do?

I work for Strategic Staffing Solutions (S3), a IMG_2552Detroit-based global IT and business services company.  We currently have 29 locations and more than 2,000 team members in the U.S. and Europe combined.  In addition to being a certified woman-owned business enterprise, S3 provides IT services to Fortune 500 companies globally in the agricultural, energy/utility, financial, government, healthcare, retail distribution and telecommunications industries.  At S3, I am a Resource Coordinator.  I assist in the management of a vendor program for one of the largest Catholic health systems in the nation.

What makes working at S3 unique?

Tons of reasons make S3 IMG_2546a unique place, but I would like to focus on opportunity.  Since September, I have had the opportunity to work on-site with one of our largest clients.  This B2B interaction is quite rare within the contingent workforce industry, and it has not been lost on me.  Each day at S3 is an education, and the lessons learned apply to far more than healthcare/IT staffing.

What is your favorite part of the Challenges?

My favorite part of the IMG_2550challenges has changed over the months.  In the beginning, I was most interested in seeing the kind of work I could do for our non-profit partners.  I wanted to make myself marketable and prove the impact of which I knew I was capable.  In recent months, my favorite part of the challenges is getting to work with such a diverse group of minds each and every Friday.  There is no better feeling than championing a great idea that came from a group process.  Challenge Detroit has improved the way I work with others and how I view talent in workplace.

What are you most looking forward to in Detroit?

What’s the right answer here?  IMG_2551My brain wants to say Punch Bowl Social, but I know that’s superfluous.  So aside from the opening of Punch Bowl Social, I am most looking forward to staying here.  For background, I was born in Detroit, went to school in Detroit and graduated from the University of Detroit Mercy.  I often thought that it was going to be law school that would whisk me away from here, but the right mix of people and places has convinced me otherwise, and I couldn’t be happier.

Check out Cody’s personal blog here, and his spotlight video below.