As college students approach graduation, they must soon decide where to put down roots and begin their careers — a choice that can significantly shape the trajectory and challenges of their professional lives.
Chip Lupo, an analyst with WalletHub, said the transition from college to the workplace “can be a difficult and stressful process, but certain cities make things a lot easier than others.”
“The best cities for starting a career not only have a lot of job opportunities but also provide substantial income growth potential and satisfying work conditions,” Lupo said in a news release. “It’s also important to consider factors such as how fun a city is to live in or how good a place it is for raising a family, to ensure life satisfaction outside of your career.”
Ahead of graduation, WalletHub compared 182 cities based on their market strength and overall livability to determine the best and worst places in the country to start a career.
Here’s WalletHub’s methodology, along with its findings for cities nationwide and those in California included in the analysis.
WalletHub’s methodology
To determine the best place to launch a career, WalletHub looked at 182 cities, which included 150 of the nation’s most populated cities, as well as at least two of the most populous cities in each state. For each city, the company looked at two dimensions: professional opportunities and quality of life.
Those dimensions were assessed on 25 metrics, with each metric “graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for job-market entrants,” WalletHub said.
For professional opportunities, WalletHub included the following metrics:
Quality of life metrics include:
The company then calculated a weighted average of the metrics to derive an overall score, which was used to rank the cities.
Best cities to start a career
Here are the best cities to start a career, along with their ranking and overall score, according to WalletHub’s analysis.
Worst places to start a career
Here are the worst cities to start a career, along with their ranking and overall score, according to WalletHub’s analysis.
Where do California cities rank?
Here is what WalletHub found for the nearly 30 California cities included in the company’s analysis of 182 cities.
The cities are listed from best to worst place to start a career. Their ranking and overall scores are also included.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Report ranks best, worst cities to start career. See California findings
Reporting by Daniella Segura, USA TODAY NETWORK / Palm Springs Desert Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
