Interested in being a researcher? Do you have an intellectual curiosity about understanding people's behavior? Then market research may be for you! In this episode, we explain market research, what characteristics make a great researcher, and culture at Murphy Research. Stay tuned for insights!
Key Takeaways:
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Maggie Bright 00:00
Hi, I'm Maggie Bright. Welcome to Key Takeaways. I'm joined today by Rachel Podell and Chuck Murphy. And we're going to chat about what makes a great researcher. We'll dive into what market research, is the culture at Murphy Research, and then what we're looking for in candidates. Thanks for joining us. Hello, everyone, I'm Maggie Bright. And I'm joined today by Rachel Podell, our Director of Talent and Chuck Murphy. And we're going to take a few minutes to talk about what makes a great researcher, Rachel is deep in interviewing candidates for our next class of research associates. And we were hoping she could share some insights with us about how that process goes and what she's looking for. So hello to Rachel and Chuck, I will start by throwing out a question to Chuck from the get go. So, Chuck, could you talk a little bit about kind of what Murphy what not Murphy Research market research is, and you know, sort of what our candidates could expect if they took a job in this field. I like that Murphy Research and market research are synonymous in your mind or be part of like the Kleenex in market research. Exactly.
Chuck Murphy 01:19
You know, it's funny, I my whole life, I always people are always like, What are you, my friend, my high school friends are always like, what do you do again? And then like, it's kind of hard to explain, it is hard to explain, right? Like, what is what is market research? What do we do? And the way I always think about it, is there's two kind of main components to market research, right? One is understanding what people do, why why they do it, you know, their behavior, its subcategory, or that could be a wide range of things, right, you know, we might be talking about why people like certain types of phones, or cars or movies, whatever it is. And in that regard, it's very similar to academic research, right? It might be very similar to anthropology, or psychology or political science, whatever you want, like this, these disciplines that that look at people's behavior and, and break them down in different ways. And, and there's all sorts of ways to do that, right? There's, there's, you can interview people, you could ask them, you could observe what they're doing, you could, you know, gather behavioral data from other sources about about why they're doing this. But the second big part of what we try to do in market research, typically, is to then predict what people will do in the future. And that's where this gets real tricky, right? You have the kind of understanding of why they're doing what they're doing now. Which is, is is easy, easier, let's put it that way. But then you move into this other bucket of Okay, now that we have an understanding of, of what people are doing, or why they're doing something, we're usually trying to predict how they're going to react to some change in the future. And that's that's generally what separates market research. From more academic pursuits, where we're generally trying to explain why something is happening.
Maggie Bright 03:10
I'm going to have my parents listen to this now, so they can finally understand what I do, because I default to its focus groups, but it's more than focus groups, because that seems to be where people are grounded is like focus groups. Makes sense. But the rest of it is a little esoteric. So thank you.
Chuck Murphy 03:27
It always makes me laugh. When people do that, by the way, it was like, they'll be like, oh, so researchers focus groups. And I'm like, well, that's like saying accounting as a calculator. It's like, yeah, later, but that's not what we're trying to do is just all show up together and look through one way mirrors like it's, it's a little funny that that's people's understanding, but it does at least visualize them.
Maggie Bright 03:46
Absolutely. I mean, I think we used to do an exercise in training where you had to write your own elevator pitch, and the entire focus of that elevator pitch was explaining what market research was. So I don't think it's an easy question to answer. And I think you summed it up very nicely. So.
Chuck Murphy 04:02
It's very tricky, because a lot of times I feel like people. And this always makes me laugh, right? This, this happens in my life all the time, right? People go like, what do you do? And then I feel like they're not really going to understand that unless I give them like a case study, right? Like, well, we were hired by x to do X and Y. And this is how we did it. And this is what happened. And then like, you'll, I'll circle around five years later, and that person will remember that, like, Oh, you did X for that company. And it's like, it's always funny to be that like, that's what that's the little micro that people under remember that. They remember that detail of like how that key study worked out, or how research played into that, that business decision or that outcome that got fascinating.
Maggie Bright 04:43
I default to we figured out how to price things. That's another one that I think people can grasp. Like, we figured out what price something should be launched at and or, you know, we figured out the communication strategy for a product that you use. So yeah, it's hard to explain it, particularly since we can't reveal a lot of the things that we do because of non disclosure agreements, so it's kind of hard to explain what we do sometimes.
Chuck Murphy 05:06
Rachel, do you have a go to explanation when people ask what market research is? How do you how do you explain it?
Rachel Podell 05:12
Yeah, of course, um, I often talk about it's really about understanding people's decision making and how they like, reacts their attitudes, behaviors as it relates to a particular product or brand, and going through the research process to get that data and then right be able to explain what's going on, and then make those predictions like you were talking about Chuck. And, and then I think, you know, it's also about really being able to, like, provide that, why behind a marketing and branding strategy. And I think that kind of clicks for people, oftentimes, people are confused thinking that marketing research is, and, you know, kind of like understanding like whether or not an ad is doing well, and kind of like understanding media or like the click through rates, and like they're trying to, they're looking at it in a little bit of a different lens. And I think when I explained the kind of the why behind the marketing strategy piece, it kind of makes more sense for them, like, oh, okay, yeah, the light bulb goes off.
Chuck Murphy 06:05
Yeah, it's easier for people to understand the outcomes based research, right, like a way like if something like that, it's much harder for people to because no one most people have never seen the process that that companies of this size go for in creating an ad campaign. So they never see the front end of it, which is very complicated. And it's very hard to understand if you haven't seen it.
Maggie Bright 06:24
I think, you know, it's been a while since I was in college, but there when I was in school, there were not there wasn't a lot of curriculum focus specifically on this part of the process. And I think that's, that's evolved over time. And I know, there are dedicated programs now, particularly for master's degrees, but I don't think it was something that was explicitly taught, at least as part of my academic career. So I think that's, that's another reason why it's not like, you know, you learn science, don't sit around and learn market research.
Chuck Murphy 06:56
That is in use drastically, especially like, yeah, there's some schools especially that really embraced it. Now, always. It always amazes me that this actually amazes me on the for those of you that know, my psychology is my background, but there's all these psych clinical psych words that are now part of the general venacular. And a lot of times they're used incorrectly, but it still cracks me up. But that's happened with market research, you'll, you'll hear words like segmentation now used among like non-professionals, and it always surprises me that like the awareness of some of the things that researchers do, is is much more prevalent now than when we came into this. For sure. Like, when, when I started when, when, you know, I first started interviewing people, which is a number of years ago now. No one ever do it market research was or what we did as a company, like we always had to start like with this, this, if we had if we found candidates, we liked it. I was like, Okay, this is what we do. And you know, that would that would kill like, you know, half the first interview is like trying to get them to understand kind of what the company did, which is very important. If you're choosing where to work that you understand what the company does, right? It's it's very, but, but that has changed a lot. They there's much more knowledge now out there about what, what it is market researchers do.
Maggie Bright 08:07
I'm going to switch gears a little bit, because I think that there are a lot of companies who do market research. But I think I have always found that there's something sort of special about Murphy Research. And it's the reason I've spent the bulk of my career here and working with Chuck and Rachel and all of our other great employees. And so Rachel, I would love your take kind of on the the culture at Murphy Research and what makes it a unique place to start a career and to stay and, you know, sort of continue your career. Because I found that to be true. And, you know, I have a hard time articulating it, because it is so special to me. So I would love your, your take on that.
Rachel Podell 08:52
Yeah, absolutely. So, um, yeah, I mean, I think I agree, I think Murphy research is definitely a special place, I think, especially as being a boutique firm, or you having a really strong culture is so important because every person here really matters, right? We're, and every person who comes to the table, like has a voice has a real role to play and a real contribution to make. And that's reflected in our culture offset, right, like every person is going to impact that. And so I think like, you know, we've talked a lot about culture of the organization and really kind of like have come up with a think like, internally what we've seen really made people successful here and like how, what that means in terms of like, what drives our culture and and, and I think we're just for the people who really have a lot of like excellent judgment, you know, really make a decision making. And you know, people are really willing to commit to strong teamwork. Every project at Murphy is really worked on by small teams. So that teamwork piece is so important and making sure that you have honest and direct feedback that you can like, talk to your teammates, you can collaborate that you can provide that support have each other's back, but also just as an overall as the organization overarching right can we think of ourselves as a company is like one unified team also, which I think is really important in the way that we like to drive the business and the way everyone's like, motivated to show up to work every day and like, get ready to go. And I think also, like researchers, by nature are like, naturally curious people ask a lot of questions. And I see that all the time in our researchers and I think in our candidates, we look for it strongly to have like, this, like natural intellectual curiosity that really drives people's motivation. And it keeps them really engaged in the work that they do. Like, you have to be interested in studying people and why they do what they do, how they think, as a relates to like, these products and brands and the clients that we're working for. Otherwise, you're not gonna like your fate. And like, I think people at Murphy are like really positive and really engaged in the work that they do. And that allows, you know, everyone to really have this, like, passion and confidence when they walk into the room with clients to really get excited about the research and like information they found. And it really also shares this kind of like inspiring creativity throughout the organization, right. And that allows people to like, be kind of like sharing what, what they're working on and ask them questions with each other. And really kind of having this like creative drive that really kind of flows throughout all of the work in the day to day processes. And then I think we see that really in those final results, right. And so place where I think people really care about like delivering high quality products, and like that, having that high quality service, but also like, they care a lot about like the team of people they're working with, and making sure those people are really having a high quality experience also. And so those things are really like intertwined.
Maggie Bright 11:21
Yeah, I was gonna say, I mean, my favorite thing about coming to work each day is the intellectual curiosity piece of it, and the fact that we get to spend time thinking of methodologies or, you know, having conversations about if we make this decision on the questionnaire, what does that mean, later in the analysis, or in the report and kind of, you know, thinking about that, in a collective way, really makes the job more more fun and entertaining. And it, you know, I've been doing this for 20 plus years, and I still learn on a daily basis from the people around me, which I think is, is fascinating, it's what's kept me interested in it so long, and the size of the company, I think, is another huge benefit. And, you know, I've worked at very large companies, and also at smaller companies. And I think there's just something so it's so much easier to connect with your colleagues in this smaller format. And, you know, 40 people, I think, at this point, so it's not so small that you don't, there's not a diversity of opinions and backgrounds. But it's it's small enough that you can genuinely make strong connections with all of the people you work with, which is which is truly unique, I think. And, you know, something that particularly when you start your career is such a benefit to have, as you kind of mature in the workforce. And so like I love that about Murphy Research, and I think it's fun to I mean, I don't know how many people can genuinely say that they have fun, even even when working remotely for two years, I think that we've still been able to have fun. And I it's, it's crazy to me that you know that I still feel very connected to everyone, despite the circumstances that we've been. And I think that is a testament to the culture that you two have built and you know, and supported for 10 years.
Rachel Podell 13:22
Maggie, I would echo that the remote thing, I get a lot of questions around that as I meet with potential candidates. And I think I often find myself saying that that remote first experience that we've kind of leaning into, it's because we've kind of seen the ability for people to have such like strong teamwork, such strong collaboration, and also have the flexibility to be, you know, at home and kind of like operating their day as they need to, but still having like the motivation to get their work done. And still, we really are seeing our culture thrive and kind of like equalize across everyone's experience. And which is, I think, really interesting. And I think it really is like a powerful thing that like everyone still comes to where they really are building these strong relationships. Virtually. We also I think people do really value the facetime. And so people are hopping on and off video calls all day long. We are like trying to do like in person things as it's safe to do so. And people are interested in that. And I think like there's just like a very interesting, fluid flexible and like structure that we've built. And that allows for like the people who are part of our team to really like create it, the organization and the culture and the way that they want to see it. Yeah.
Maggie Bright 14:27
Chuck, one of the things that I always talk about when I talk to prospective clients or candidates is how fundamental the training aspect of our culture is and kind of how that's weaved into particularly in the beginning of your career at Murphy Research, but really throughout and wondered if you had any, any additional thoughts on just how strongly we believe in training people who come through the door?
Chuck Murphy 14:55
Yeah, no, I think that's a great point. And I think you kind of touched on it earlier when you're talking about kind of intellectual curiosity and always learning. And I think that's such a critical part of, of the personality of people that go into this field and enjoy this field, right? Like you have to be kind of, I still am kind of fascinated, like, you know, when we start working with different brands or different areas, in trying to kind of understand what the dynamics are. And I find that really interesting just to learn about just kind of things that I've never thought about. And I think that that's so many of the people that that choose market research that choose our company, they have that intellectual curiosity, and they love that and naturally wanting to kind of train and share what they've learned with other people and bring, kind of help teach everyone on the team, how to do something better, is just a critical part of the culture that we've we've tried to, to build is to kind of keep that, you know, that is creativity in a lot of ways, right, like being able to kind of think of have a different way to do something, or a different approach to something or different reasons something might be the way it is. And I think that's such a big part of what, what I love about this field, like I really do, I'd love market research I did. And I really am glad I found it, I really didn't know what it was for so many years. And I kind of stumbled into it accidentally. And I was like, wow, this is a crazy, interesting world that these people are just going deep on like, why someone does this or that or like, whether it be like nutrition, or fitness or some of the area like all the other different areas we go deep on. And it's it's really interesting just to learn about that. And I think training is an extension of that intellectual curiosity like, Hey, how can we? How can we teach everybody what we learned here to make help them do a better job over here. And it's uh, you know, we've been lucky enough to build it in credibly smart group of people that enjoy kind of sharing with each other. And I think we've also, very intentionally from the beginning, built a culture where people do see each other as teammates and collaborators, and they try to lift each other up, and they don't see each other see other teammates as competitors, or threats to their own career progression, which I think is a big part of kind of that collaborative, creative culture like that, from the beginning, I think we wanted this company to be creative environment where people could try new methods or try new approaches, or try to tell stories in different ways. And I think that that training is a big part of that.
Maggie Bright 17:15
Absolutely, I stumbled into market research too. And I am always so glad that I found it because it does, let me use kind of the right and left side of my brain very regularly. And you know, so I can be creative for an hour or two. And then I can be very analytical for an hour, or two, or six or eight. I think that gives us a nice transition into another topic that I think it's probably like the most important topic that we can talk about in a podcast labeled what makes a great researcher. So what does make a great candidate and researcher and I throw this question out to both of you, because I know you have both talked to a lot of candidates over the years, and I think we have a pretty unified vision on what that is at Murphy research. But Rachel, why don't you take it first, and then Chuck and I can fill in, can throw our two cents in as we do.
Rachel Podell 18:15
Yeah, so um, I mean, certainly, there's various qualities we look for, and that we've seen really make people successful as a researcher. And it's certainly, um, you know, that creative element we were talking about, where you have to have that kind of creative mindset and, and be someone who's like, can think out of the box and do that, in a way when you're thinking about problem solving, right, much of what the work that we're doing is problem solving. And so that decision making skill, and the way you use your judgment in that process is super important. And I think also right, the ability to manage multiple projects at once and kind of manage your time is something that is super critical in this type of experience and very fast paced environment. And so people are often hopping on and off different projects, you're managing multiple things. At the same time, deadlines are shifting, and you have to be able to, I think, like keep your calm and cool throughout that process. And really also like be someone who thrives in that kind of energetic space, the same time. And then right, there's kind of like the nitty gritty details that go into that, right, like as a researcher, you have to be really strong attention to detail, you have to have really good communication skills. And you have to be able to right kind of like understand a timeline and process kind of what's going on first anticipate what's going to happen later in the process, right and kind of move through and write the cycle of any given project. And it's also a place where like, every project is different. So you have to get comfortable kind of jumping into that unknown space. And so I think we really people who are self starters and kind of have that self motivation and kind of almost entrepreneurial approach because you're constantly doing a new thing on every new project. And so you have to get comfortable kind of diving in the deep end there. And so yeah, I know I'll start there. I'd love to hear you know, Chuck your take.
Chuck Murphy 19:54
Yeah, no, I've always thought of it and explained it to people is there's there's three primary buckets right. The one bucket is kind of what you would you would, I tend to use the word analytic skills, but that makes people think very quantitatively, but to me, a good analyst could be very qualitative and anthropologist is great animals, they're good at listening to everywhere people say and hanging on it. So, so but that's, that's what people think of as a researcher. Right. And that's very important. The other side of it is Rachel you just touched on is you need really good project management skills, time management, the ability to kind of, you know, see what, what needs to be done in which sequence and not, you know, forget about anything, right. Because there are, there's a lot of moving pieces here. And then things move very fast in any sort of consulting environment, you have clients, and deadlines shifting and all that stuff. So you've got your analytic skills, your project management. And the third one, I always good journalistic communications or storytelling is the big bucket. And that's the ability to kind of take what you've learned or what you've observed, and explain it to others in a way that that makes sense to them. And that can sometimes be hard. And I also do say that we're building teams here. And it's important that a solid team has all three of those bases covered really well. But many times people might be some people that are really exceptional in one bucket oftentimes struggle in another like, the classic example is that the amazing analysts that is not such a good communicator, right? Like, which makes you know, that's common, that's a, it's a little bit of a stereotype. But it's a common, if there's some truth to that to that, like sometimes people that are really insightful, they are on the quiet side. And they're they're observers first and, second, sometimes people that are fantastic communicators are not as observant. And so, but we're always trying to build teams that have those three buckets covered. And ideally, if you know, if a candidate has all three of those, that's phenomenal. But generally, we're looking for like, I always think if someone has is good on at least two of them, they could make it they could have a really good career marker research. And you could you could kind of backfill the team, to help with it, feel someone's weakness, and sometimes people you know, like anything else, like you think about it, like a sport, you address your weakness over time, right? Like maybe you came in is just a great storyteller and a good researcher, but your project management skills leave a little bit to be desired that you got to get in there and really work on strategies and kind of shore that up. And you could, you know, you might have the same thing with like, the really great analyst and good project manager, that's not the best communicator, then you have to learn how to get better at kind of expressing yourself and telling the story side of it. And that is, you know, As Maggie mentioned earlier, that's one of the reasons there's so much training is it's very hard to find a candidate that has all three of those really well. And it's also sometimes hard this is this is Rachel's primary function here, right. It's sometimes hard to tell, especially the communication storytelling part, it's sometimes hard to tell early people's life, especially in a standard kind of interview setting, how good somebody will be later on those sorts of fronts. Right? It's, it's it's a challenge.
Rachel Podell 23:10
I think there's so much mentorship that people get as part of their career at Murphy, I think that apprenticeship model that is so strong throughout our career path that I think right, like, we certainly really look for those elements for people at the beginning. But also we have to recognize, like, what are the sparks that we're seeing in them at this early stage of their career that we know will grow over time and have faith and confidence that we'll see progressing also. And so, we're not especially expecting people to be come in and be experts at market research from day one, right? Like we're hiring people at that associate level and looking to help help them grow and help provide them the tools and skills and experience to do so. So some of it's also about us trusting the sparks that we're seeing in that kind of those early conversations.
Chuck Murphy 23:49
Yeah.
Maggie Bright 23:50
I think our industry is evolving to to like, put emphasis on different areas, like obviously, will always need to be strong analytics and project managers. But I do think the emphasis on the storytelling and sort of what I what I might call softer skills, that I don't really love that term. But you know, this, the ability to tell a story to be client services oriented, to be able to, you know, bring in a strategy aspect to what we do is growing as well. And so that makes I think that's really exciting, right? Because it gives us more opportunities to learn new things and to interact with our clients and brands in different ways. But it adds another challenge in terms of the training and the sort of the depth that the candidates that we need to find have and so I I love that piece of it. So I'm always excited when we get to you know, interact with our clients in that way. But it's it's another set of skills that have to be taught and practiced. Which again, I think is great, but you know, it's more for Rachel to look for when she interviews.
Chuck Murphy 24:56
Well, it's funny if you if you get old like like like me
Maggie Bright 24:59
If you get old at, we all get old, Chuck, that happens.
Chuck Murphy 25:03
You realize that like, I assume that this is true in every field, that it is amazing how fast these things change and how different the challenges are, you know, like that the storytelling has totally changed in terms of the pace of it in the last like, five to 10 years. And what's also interesting, though, is the, you know, the the colleges and grad schools, the, the way that that is taught is so different now there's so I came in to, to research with like, zero storytelling skills. And I was, I was actually amazed the first time I was kind of in meetings and saw consultants explain things, you know, and I, you know, I think that people know this, but but one of the challenges is like, you know, you do you make a big decision, or you do big piece of research. And you have, you know, people in the audience that are researchers, people in the audience that are nothing about research, and they're marketers, people in the audience that no don't care about marketing, they're more focused on product or sales, or whatever it is, there's all these different people with different different kind of points of view, and to be able to kind of wrap up a story and explain things in a way that kind of works for everyone. It's really challenging, and that, for me, that was the most challenging part, like I came into market research, and I loved research. And I was always very detail oriented person, I never, like that was always very natural. But then the storytelling part was very, all new to me. I was like, wow, this is fascinating, like the way then, and then I like you. I can't remember if it was Rachel maggie mention this earlier. But the mentorship, like for me, the first time I saw some people that were really good at that, I was like, wow, that is really elegant, like, you know, like, just because a lot of times, it actually is pretty simple the way they laid it out. But when you see the whole soup to nuts process, and you realize, like, what they started with the fact that they did make it so simple and still convey the point, which is a lot of marketing in general, right? Marketing is about taking all of this complicated stuff, and boiling it down to something simple that people remember. It's hard, it's definitely a skill, and some people are really good at it. And they're really good at not just making that, that's that. Laying that story out, but also getting people to buy into it and getting people to, to understand it under like understanding where people might be losing the trail of the story, or where they might get getting confused or what questions they might have and when to stop versus when to it's it's it's a very, like, tricky skill set. And it does require a lot of time. And I think that I do think still, the best way to learn is to see someone who's good at it, do it. But like, I like the mentorship kind of model for that.
Maggie Bright 27:37
I came into research through advertising where, like, stories abound, but it bothered me that I didn't understand why they were telling the stories they were telling, right. So like, how did you get to decide that that was the story. And so that's what I think so fascinating about the research piece of it is that you get to pull in the insights that tell you which stories the best to tell. And then where you need to support that story with, you know, some pretty strong evidence or empirical insights that like kind of help get you there. And I agree with Chuck storytelling is the most fascinating and elegant and challenging piece of this. But I think, you know, we come armed with so much data, that it's it's nice to know that your story is very much grounded in something real and concrete, which is why I love research. So much like I didn't, I didn't want to just be told the story, I wanted to understand how they got there. So kind of a tangent there. Rachel, one of the things I wanted to make sure I asked you about I know as a company, and this kind of goes to, to culture again, but this you know, we've focused a lot on really making sure that we are thinking about diversity, equity and inclusion, both as a, you know, from the inside as a as a company and you know, across our employees and in the things that we're doing even within the research that we're that we're Fielding, can you talk a little bit more about that piece of our culture and kind of how that plays into your job in terms of finding our talent?
Rachel Podell 29:11
Yeah, absolutely, I'd be happy to. And yeah, I mean, it's certainly in my role, like thinking about our talent, it's constantly top of mind as we're thinking about the how we approach our recruitment process, how we make sure we're widening the candidate pool to make sure we're attracting different demographic talent, different talent from different academic backgrounds, right, different experiences, so that when we are, you know, running through our interviews, and we're making selections for hiring, we're doing that with a strong pool of talents. I'm coming from diverse places, right? And we love to bring in diverse voices into the way that we enter our team right and so that the way that we approach research has these like multi-interdisciplinary perspectives and from people with different backgrounds and also feel they can come to the table and be part of our authentic organizations and bring their whole selves to work right and like, and I think that's something that's like very inherent in like the way that we operate as the people who just like be themselves genuinely in their day to day interactions with their colleagues. And I think also I hear a lot of our researchers talk about, talk about diversity in the way of like elevating consumers voices, and they get to be in a role where they are, and right kind of seeking out those consumer voices to help companies understand and touch their consumers in a more direct way. And so as market researchers, I think you get the chance to kind of like, elevate some of those diverse perspectives that aren't maybe always in the mainstream, right? In terms of that conversation, and so we think there's a really nice opportunity there for people to think about their own experience and the work that they're doing, as a researcher to kind of make a contribution through that way as well.
Maggie Bright 30:42
I think that's great. I can't, I'm embarrassed to admit the number of times I've been like, well, based on a focus group of one and that one being me, this is how I feel about this brand or product. And so I agree with you like the more the more diverse we are as a company, the better it reflects the holistic consumer experience and Outlook. So
Rachel Podell 31:01
Yeah, and I think there's like a core group of people of people at Murphy who like really care about a lot of these like efforts to and so we have a variety of like initiatives and things that are happening in terms of thinking about like the way we're asking questions on questionnaire as it relates to race and ethnicity, or as it relates to gender and, you know, inclusion and accessibility and like all of these various elements to make sure that we are thinking critically around diversity, equity inclusion as it relates to those consumer voices. And we're thinking about that also, from an organizational perspective with our culture of like, what initiatives do we need to be having in place to make sure that we are welcoming and inclusionary and place where people can advance their careers and regardless of their background, right, in a way, be able to celebrate their like who they are, and really make a successful career for themselves while you're here?
Maggie Bright 31:48
Absolutely. All right. So I remember when I was going through the interview process a million years ago, there was one question that always haunted me. And it was if you could invent anything, what would you invent? And I have been thinking about that for 20 plus years, and my answer changes constantly. But do you have a question, Rachel, that you ask that's like around like finding creati... the other one I was asked was if you were a spice, which spice where would you be? Which just that just happened recently, and I was like, I was cumin. Um, but so do you have, you can either answer my questions or throw your own question back at me. What spice are you? Or what's your question?
Chuck Murphy 32:32
What spice are you? That is really a you that is a really unusual twist on the whole like, what fruit are you or what? What spice I wouldn't even building it that
Maggie Bright 32:44
way. You have to? I mean, there's so many. Do you want me to pick a spice for you?
Chuck Murphy 32:49
Can I tell you I don't think this this probably says a lot about my personality. But I don't even use salt, pepper. I'm sure there are like, what they are. I don't know that. I hope I hope I hope that McCormick people are listening to this call.
Maggie Bright 33:08
I'm an avid spice user. And my favorites are cumin and smoked paprika, and I think those fit my personality.
Chuck Murphy 33:15
Smoked paprika. Wow. Wow, you've really like digging deep here. Rachel, do you? Would you describe yourself as a spice?
Rachel Podell 33:23
Um, it's a really good question. I agree. I've not been asked that one. And I do recall being asked once on an interview, what flavor cookie I would be and I like definitely fooled me and I just went with oatmeal raisin because I really liked those. But the spice one's interesting because you get these like flavors of personality in in that, um, I one I like feel like I really want to like think of it and like, like, what's my spirit animal? What's my spirit? But on since I just have to like spit out an answer right now I want to go with garlic.
Maggie Bright 34:01
Oh, that's, that's a good choice.
Rachel Podell 34:03
Garlic has a lot of health benefits. It has like a really strong powerful flavor. I think my personality at times can have that. But it can also be kind of subtle. And you don't you don't need a lot of garlic to make an impact. So...
Chuck Murphy 34:17
You don't need a lot of garlic to make impact. That's a great bumper sticker. Okay, so Rachel without giving away what it is because I don't want to ruin it. Do you have a metaphorical question like this that you use or no?
Rachel Podell 34:31
So I wouldn't call it a metaphorical question. I do have a question. That's a little more on the fun side like this. And I'm happy to share it actually I think our the candidates who might be listening would be curious to hear both of your answers. And I do ask and if you have a if you have a superpower, what would it be and what would you do with it?
Chuck Murphy 34:50
I have actually been asked that one before
Maggie Bright 34:52
Me too, but by my children, not by an interviewer.
Chuck Murphy 34:56
Oh really, I've been so in an interview. I always I always said I would fly. By the way, when you said what product would you be doing? It was like I want to invent an airplane.
Maggie Bright 35:04
It's already been invented. It has to be a new product.
Chuck Murphy 35:08
Well it would be a new product. It could be a new kind of airplane. I don't know, I have to figure that out.
Maggie Bright 35:11
Did you want to be a fighter pilot growing up? Like? Um, I already forgot the question. What was the question?
Chuck Murphy 35:20
I asked Rachel, if she had a metaphorical question.
Maggie Bright 35:23
No, but what was the question you asked back?
Rachel Podell 35:25
If you had a superpower? What would it be? What would you do with it earlier?
Maggie Bright 35:29
It would be a better memory. I always think that, um, oh, gosh, I see. I went like seven, which I know that's not a good answer. But I think the ability to read people's mind, but like, also the ability to turn off that ability because I don't want to know everything, but like, it would be nice sometimes to be like, what were we thinking and you know, like tap into that, but then immediately turn it off. So either that or invisibility? I mean, like it would be kind of nice to be a fly on the wall sometimes.
Chuck Murphy 36:03
I guess the fact that you want the ability to read people's minds and you want to do market research is means this is a good career fit for you.
Maggie Bright 36:11
And I promise I would only use my powers for good. I don't I don't like to start trouble. Well, I wanted to thank you both. This has been wonderful. Any any last thoughts now that I've made you embarrass yourself with spices and product inventions?
Chuck Murphy 36:32
Oh, I'm going to think I'm going to I'm going to try to increase my use of spices this week. That's going to be my I'm going to open the Scary Spice for just
Maggie Bright 36:39
I think you got to go big chalk like I mean, don't just go for garlic powder. Not that there's anything wrong with garlic powder, Rachel, but like you got to do something that's like, stretches you beyond your comfort.
Chuck Murphy 36:49
She likes spicy Paprika.
Maggie Bright 36:51
smoked paprika. As a definite like put it in your avocado.
Chuck Murphy 36:58
And, thankfully, some smoked paprika.
Maggie Bright 37:03
It's yeah, it's it's it's well worth the hunt. And I'm not being paid to endorse it either believe. Although if the smoked paprika people are out there, I'm your girl. Well, thank you both. We are so excited to meet our new candidates and research associates. So Rachel, we will hopefully check back in with you soon to see how things are coming along in the recruitment process. Thank you.
Rachel Podell 37:33
Yeah, so far. It's going really well. Very excited to keep things moving.
Maggie Bright 37:37
Great. Thanks, everyone.