You’re young, ambitious, talented, and the world is your oyster. Or is it? Must you follow opportunity wherever you find it, or can you select a place to live like you would pinpoint a vacation spot and then find a promising job?
The answer varies, experts say, depending on a person’s skills, field and level of ambition. But in general, for Chicagoans, the diverse job base coupled with the tight labor market nationwide means that job seekers can choose to stay here if they want, or be pretty choosy about where they’re willing to relocate.
The younger you are, the more likely it is that you’ll move without misgivings, noted Bruce Tulgan, the founder of RainmakerThinking Inc., a New Haven, Conn., consulting firm that studies the work patterns of adults born after 1963. “The older you get, the more commitments you get and the more difficult it is to move for a job,” he said.
U.S. Census Bureau figures bear that out: About one-third of all people in their 20s changed residences in 1997, more than double the rate for those 35 to 44 years old.
Many of those moves that young adults make may be in the same general locale, but across town or out to a suburb to be nearer a new job, said Philip Gardner, director of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University.
“We expect young people to change jobs a lot, but not necessarily move around the country,” Gardner said. “Our research shows there is a 30 percent to 40 percent turnover in the first 12 to 18 months after a new college grad starts working. They may move to a new apartment to be closer to a new job, but not a new city.”
Chicagoans born, bred and schooled here may have a much weaker wanderlust than other young people who may be from a small one-company town or rural area. At the Illinois Institute of Technology, for instance, “Most students have roots here in Chicago, and would prefer to stay here if possible,” said Erik Friedman, associate director of Illinois Institute of Technology’s Career Development Center.
Especially if a student is in high demand by employers, like those job seekers with computer or consulting expertise, the Chicago vicinity has so many job openings that one can be resolute about staying here without sacrificing greater pay or potential, Friedman said.
This city has opportunity in all fields and industries, said Mark Gasche, associate director for recruiting at the University of Chicago. Some 35 percent of U. of C. grads last year responding to a survey and aware of where they were going to be working were staying in the Chicago area.
But Gasche said jobseekers who are open to relocating anywhere can field the best possible offers. “We have a lot of students who are pretty open to going wherever and that really helps their job prospects,” he said.
Fierce ambition goes with career focus and a willingness to jump from opportunity to opportunity, according to 27-year-old Marilee McNaughton. A native of Northfield, McNaughton initially moved around chasing broadcasting jobs in radio and TV after graduating from the University of Montana. But after deciding a broadcasting career wasn’t for her, she found a niche in the advertising business in Denver.
“I’m having so much fun in my working life and in my social life that I wouldn’t move now,” she said. “But then again, I don’t think of myself on the high road career-wise. If I was, I would have had to have a focus on advertising right after graduating, and I would have been making $60,000 by the time I was 25, and I’d be moving to New York now to get a better position or make more money.”
The middle ground between overriding ambition and a preference for place over career possibilities is to adopt a modicum of flexibility and have a few locations you’re willing to set up residence in.
Gasche said: “If you are open to working in multiple cities, your chances of an offer are that much better. Let’s say you’re interviewing with a big, national consulting firm. If you are open to three or four cities you are more likely to meet the company’s needs.
“I always encourage students to make their top [location] choice known, but if they can, [also] provide a second, third, and fourth choice,” Gasche said.
To attract talented workers, and to keep them happy once they hire on, employers are forced to be more flexible about location issues than they were in years past, Tulgan said.
“Companies used to be able to transfer you around at will. Now, though, employers realize it doesn’t make much sense to move John to Germany if he really wants to stay in Chicago,” Tulgan explained. “John will just leave for another employer. But, on the other hand, if Amy says she really wants to go to Germany, it makes sense to send her there, even if she doesn’t have quite the experience John has.”
A scarcity of talented workers has forced employers to be more flexible, experts say, but that doesn’t mean individuals have control over where a company or industry does business, and where certain talents are needed. For instance, said Rachel Tepfer, director of career development at Lake Forest College: “Someone who wants to be in the financial world and doesn’t want to go to New York is in trouble.”
Likewise, Tulgan said, you’d better develop a taste for the Big Apple if you want a career in publishing, or abandon ties to the Midwest and prepare to live on either coast for a place in the entertainment business.
And in today’s global world, international assignments help propel you up the corporate hierarchy, Gasche said. While some may regard relocating strictly as a necessary accommodation to career success, others welcome the opportunity to sample different spots.
“I think [when a person is] just starting out in the real world, relocation tends to sound appealing. . . . seeing new sights, traveling a bit,” said Andrea Chang, a University of Chicago senior from Glenview.
On a very practical level, job seekers must not only size up offers in terms of career opportunities, but also calculate what the cost of moving and cost of living will be in different locales.
Brian Chan, who graduated last year from the University of Chicago, weighed offers from several large consulting firms. The California native finally settled on a position in Internet consulting in Los Angeles with a firm which he is hoping will someday go public, reaping him stock-option gains.
“They offered me $62,000 in salary, whereas other firms offered $50,000 to $60,000, and they were also giving me an offer in LA, where the cost of living is less than say, Chicago, San Francisco, or New York,” Chan said. “So the $62,000 I was offered was actually that much more than the salaries offered in high-cost locations.”
While white-collar professionals have traditionally migrated to major metropolitan areas like Chicago, there is now more work to be found in smaller cities like Santa Fe or Madison, Wis.
“One of the major transformations in the organization of any advanced economy is that more firms in all sectors–whether in manufacturing, agriculture, health, high tech, or transport–are buying more specialized service inputs: financial, accounting, legal, programming, consulting, etc,” said Saskia Sassen, a professor of sociology at the University of Chicago.
“This has created an enormous demand for specialized service workers of all sorts,” Sassen added. “Secondly, this has created a growth sector in just about any city in the country.”
Perhaps as a result of the increased opportunities in a more diverse array of places, Tepfer of Lake Forest College says she has noticed students have begun to first research where they’d like to live, and then search for a job near the place that offers the most pleasing lifestyle.
“Our Adam’s Job Bank books [city job directories] are always busy,” she said. “I have some students who went to Austin, Texas, last year on spring break and fell in love with that city, and now are looking for jobs there. Phoenix and Las Vegas are also popular. Some students want a place where costs are cheap enough that they can buy some property.”
Internet sites have also helped jobseekers investigate opportunities. Still, there’s a strong local influence on how people land jobs, said Gardner of Michigan State’s Employment Research Institute.
“Very few actual hires result from Internet sites,” he said. “Most job offers come from job fairs or from your network of family, friends, and alums.”
