It's Detroit vs. Everybody. Including Itself.

My Dad Always Showed Me Detroit. I grew up an hour north of the city; close enough to know it existed, far enough that people in my hometown "wouldn't dare go down there" unless it was for a hockey game at Joe Louis Arena or a concert at Ford Field. Between the auto industry collapse, the financial crisis, municipal bankruptcy, and devastating crime rates, the negative trope around Detroit when I was growing up was – unfortunately – well worn.  All the while, my dad — with deep Polish roots in Hamtramck, a life built around hockey, and an unshakeable pride in where he came from — always showed me every aspect of Detroit.

On faculty days growing up, when kids got a day off from school, he would take me on mini ‘dates’ in the city. Coffees at Dessert Oasis, visits to the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), picnics at Belle Isle, walks through the Heidelberg Project. Whether a spot was considered ‘dangerous’, slightly abandoned, or just beginning to stir, his mission was never to paint a perfect picture of Detroit, but to help my siblings and I understand it. And just like that, my love for Detroit was born.

Fast forward a couple years, you'll be shocked to find out I stayed in Detroit and became a Wayne State Warrior. Carrying my dad's influence in my pocket wherever I went, I eagerly dove into a first semester freshmen honors course that would fundamentally change my career trajectory. It was HON1000: The City, Changing Detroit.

For those that are curious, here's the brief description of the course from Wayne State's website:

HON 1000 - The City: Changing Detroit

"Detroit" is a symbol, a watchword, even a punchline. Detroit is also a real place where millions of people live ordinary lives. For those of us who are part of Wayne State University, it is our home, and it is worthy of our attention. In this course we will seek deeper understanding of Detroit and, in the process, learn tools of analysis that will allow you to make sense of any complex human system.

You will know your city. You will develop the skills necessary to understand how and why it has changed, and how you can play an active role in changing it for the better. You can then use those skills in Detroit or anywhere else.

What that single semester accomplished was remarkable, taking me from a quiet admirer to a full-blown champion. Learning the good, the bad, the ugly, and sometimes the uncomfortable didn't just deepen my appreciation for Detroit, it clarified what this city is and what it still can become. My Dad, that course, and working in restaurants in the city paved the way for Detroit to be my home for the last 6 years.

What my dad understood intuitively, and what HON1000 taught me academically, is that you can't manufacture love for a place. You either feel the pull of Detroit or you don't and no signing bonus or relocation package is going to create that feeling in someone who was never curious about it to begin with.

Champion the Already Convinced

So what does this mean for employers? The instinct in talent retention is to cast a wide net: recruit broadly, offer compelling packages, and hope people stick around. But in a city like Detroit, that approach misses the point entirely. You cannot incentivize someone into loving a place. No relocation bonus, no rooftop happy hour, no "15 best things to do in Detroit" welcome packet is going to manufacture a genuine connection to this city in someone who was never curious about it to begin with.

The better question for employers isn't "how do we convince people to stay?" It's "how do we identify the people who already want to?"

It sounds simple, but it requires a meaningful shift in how you hire and how you listen. In an interview, there's a difference between a candidate who says "I'm open to Detroit" and one who lights up talking about a new restaurant in Corktown they tried last weekend, or who volunteers at a local organization, or who has an opinion — any opinion — about the city's history and trajectory. One screams indifference, the other shows a vested interest.

Now, this is where the balancing act gets real. Rootedness alone doesn't close a deal or build a model. Aptitude, rigor, and raw intellectual horsepower still matter, and pretending otherwise would be naive. But here's what I've come to believe: the candidate who chose Detroit, who has skin in the game beyond a paycheck, who genuinely wants to see this city and this company succeed, that person will outwork and outlast the polished résumé nine times out of ten. Belief is a multiplier. And when someone is building or contributing to something in a place they actually love, it becomes a part of their mission. You may occasionally trade a brand name school for that kind of conviction, but in my experience, it's one of the best trades you can make.

I encourage everyone who is hiring, building, and grinding in this city to look below the surface when scouting talent.

Are We Building Talent for Michigan or for Everywhere Else?

The champions of Detroit don't need convincing, they just need a place to grow.

There is an unspoken hierarchy in how we talk about ambition in Michigan. Graduate from one of the state's top universities, land a job in Chicago, New York, or San Francisco, and you've made it. Stay in Detroit and you're met with a polite smile and a subtle "oh, really?" It's a cultural current that runs deep, and it starts earlier than most people realize. My childhood experience is a good example. 

Michigan is home to some of the most talented students in the country, many of whom are shaped and developed at world-class institutions right here in this state. But somewhere along the way, the measure of a great education became how far it took you from where you started. Career fairs skew coastal, recruiting pipelines flow outward, And the students who raise their hand and say "I actually want to stay here" are often met with well-meaning but quietly discouraging responses — are you sure you're thinking big enough? I’m not writing this to call out any companies or institutions direct^ly… but there are companies located IN MICHIGAN who do not attend Wayne State career fairs. I mean, wtf guys?

Don’t get me wrong, there are many other exceptional universities here, and their graduates go on to do remarkable things. But there is a difference between preparing students for the world and quietly suggesting that the world worth pursuing isn't here. Detroit deserves better than to be treated as a consolation prize by the very institutions that call this state home.

What's interesting is that the antidote already exists and I stumbled into it as a freshman at Wayne State. A single course that took the city seriously, examined it honestly, and trusted students to form their own conclusions. No agenda or rose-colored glasses. Just Detroit, in full.

A Few Suggestions

None of this is to suggest that culture and conviction alone are enough. Jobs need to come here. Investment needs to flow here. Resources, infrastructure, and economic opportunity are the foundation without which none of these conversations matter. Attracting companies, developing neighborhoods, and creating pathways for people to build financially stable lives in Detroit remains as urgent as ever. But those things alone won't keep people here either, and that's the point. The cities that win the talent game long term are the ones that get both right. The economic engine and the cultural soul. Detroit has always maintained the latter. The work now is making sure we don't squander it by failing to champion the people who already believe in it.

Speaking transparently for a moment, when I interviewed for my current role at Straylight Capital, I probably wasn’t the most attractive of the candidates on paper. No investment banking or consulting experience, no shiny certifications, and no ‘name-brand’ university degree. What I lacked in those things, I made up for in a deep belief in the culture of the Midwest and a burning desire to build a career here. I am so fortunate that resonated with the people across the table from me.

Since then, Straylight has hired another Wayne State graduate with that same unmistakable sparkle for Detroit — hi, Claire! — and with that, we've become far more intentional about how we think about our talent pipeline. We've made a conscious decision that when we bring on interns or full-time hires, they need to showcase that they have bought into the mission of building something meaningful in the Midwest — and in Detroit specifically. This is a non-negotiable for us.

What does that look like in practice? It means asking different questions in interviews. It means paying attention to who lights up when Detroit comes up and who goes quiet. It means passing on impressive candidates with full-time roles post-grad in NYC. It means recruiting at Wayne State and other institutions where students are being shaped by this city rather than quietly steered away from it. And it means trusting that the candidate who chose to stay is often more valuable in the long run than the one you had to convince.

But this isn't just on employers. Detroit itself has a role to play. The city needs to keep investing in the institutions and experiences that create champions in the first place. The DIA, Belle Isle, the Heidelberg Project, the independent restaurant scene in Corktown and Midtown — these aren't amenities. They are the very things that made people like me fall in love with this place before we ever had a reason to stay professionally. You cannot separate the cultural fabric of a city from its ability to retain talent. They’re the same conversation.

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Caroline Wolanin is an Associate at Straylight Capital, a growth equity firm for “the magnificent middle”, based in Detroit. As an associate, she helps source and vet deals for the firm. Outside of her work, she writes pieces like the one here and was once a pastry chef.