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Old 04-19-2011, 10:50 AM
 
Location: Lexington Ky
891 posts, read 3,046,776 times
Reputation: 525

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Searching for a Job? Nix New York, Look to Lexington (Yes, Kentucky) - TIME NewsFeed
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Old 04-22-2011, 10:34 PM
 
Location: Near L.A.
4,108 posts, read 10,773,345 times
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It is indeed a great plug for Lexington. Good for it. Noooooow...

Where is the abundant array of jobs that are outside the education, healthcare and banking/financial sectors?

Where is the abundant array of jobs that are more than the $8.50/hour part-time truck unloader/stocker/warehouse position at Amazon.com, Big A** Fans, etc.?

Where is the strong job market with comfortably- to high-paying professional jobs that will keep more UK alumni in Central Kentucky?

Now, hypothetically, let's say that I have newly graduated with a B.A. or B.S. in Economics from UK...or Transylvania, Georgetown, Berea, Asbury, KSU, EKU, or which colleges offer such a degree in CKY. Realistically, in that case, there would/will be an abundance of entry-level teller positions at large banks, sales positions with insurance companies or department manager positions in big-box retailers. Most of these types of jobs do not require the completion of a Bachelor's degree.

Even in Lexington the competition will still be stiff for those jobs. But if I didn't want to go to graduate school just yet and find a financial analyst, economist, or business development job, there's a likelihood that I would have to leave the area. This problem really applies to Louisville and Cincinnati although they're not "college towns" like Lexington because their economies don't rely so greatly on their universities.

$12.35/hour for a teller in Lexington versus $22-25/hour for putting my degree to work in Raleigh, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Washington, etc. Which job do you THINK I would take?
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Old 04-23-2011, 02:27 PM
 
508 posts, read 1,508,315 times
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Competition is stiff in those markets too. Chicago, for example, is chock full of finance people w/ degrees from big time schools such as U of Chicago, Northwestern, Notre Dame and good public Big Ten schools. I'm sure Raleigh is full of IT people and engineers from Duke/Carolina, east coast talent, etc.

I made it the final round of an interview w/ a prestigious investment outfit in Chicago several years back. Competition was stiff. My school didn't have a single alumni connection working there. Ultimately, I wasn't offered the position. Another MBA colleague of mine moved to Chicago after b-school. Despite passing 2 of the 3 CFA exams, he hasn't been offered any investment analyst positons. Just run of the mill back office accounting positions. Why? IMO he doesn't have the school "pedigree" and connections.

I agree you have a greater chance at finding a nugget in a bigger job market, especially if you are just starting out. However, I think you are discounting the importance of connections. If you are well connected in Lexington, you will find work. Same applies to any metro area.

So when it came to landing a position following grad school and despite looking all over, guess where my 1st offer came from? Lexington. How so? A connection.
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Old 04-23-2011, 09:06 PM
 
914 posts, read 1,977,434 times
Reputation: 1330
Quote:
Originally Posted by EclecticEars View Post
It is indeed a great plug for Lexington. Good for it. Noooooow...

Where is the abundant array of jobs that are outside the education, healthcare and banking/financial sectors?

Where is the abundant array of jobs that are more than the $8.50/hour part-time truck unloader/stocker/warehouse position at Amazon.com, Big A** Fans, etc.?

Where is the strong job market with comfortably- to high-paying professional jobs that will keep more UK alumni in Central Kentucky?

Now, hypothetically, let's say that I have newly graduated with a B.A. or B.S. in Economics from UK...or Transylvania, Georgetown, Berea, Asbury, KSU, EKU, or which colleges offer such a degree in CKY. Realistically, in that case, there would/will be an abundance of entry-level teller positions at large banks, sales positions with insurance companies or department manager positions in big-box retailers. Most of these types of jobs do not require the completion of a Bachelor's degree.

Even in Lexington the competition will still be stiff for those jobs. But if I didn't want to go to graduate school just yet and find a financial analyst, economist, or business development job, there's a likelihood that I would have to leave the area. This problem really applies to Louisville and Cincinnati although they're not "college towns" like Lexington because their economies don't rely so greatly on their universities.

$12.35/hour for a teller in Lexington versus $22-25/hour for putting my degree to work in Raleigh, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Washington, etc. Which job do you THINK I would take?
Fortunately, everything you said was anecdotal. The fact of the matter is that Lexington is sitting is a very enviable position compared to most of the country in terms of job offerings. Interestingly, you mention Charlotte as a place with more job opportunities than Lexington. I guess their unemployment rate over 10% should be ignored. Lexington is a full 2% points lower (and has 20% less unemployed people). True, they may have more job openings than Lexington, but they also have far more job seekers than Lexington since it is a bigger city. Every city you mention is larger than Lexington, so in terms of total numbers of jobs I'm sure each of them has a larger number. However, each city has many times more unemployed job seekers in those exact same fields, and that's the key.
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Old 04-28-2011, 08:28 AM
 
1,255 posts, read 3,479,241 times
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Charlotte is doing ok, but remember that their big business there is the banking industry, which isn't doing too hot these days & probably won't for some time. That whole industry is in need of a serious enema & was built on top of the financial/housing bubble that they're trying desperately to re-inflat. Won't work.

Point being, I wouldn't want the city I lived in to be reliant on that. Tourism, same thing. So even though Lex is way smaller than Charlotte, I'd still probably pic it as far as holding a steady job goes & being able to actually live some kind of life.

Charlotte has better urban areas, more walkable & better transportation though, so that would save you a lot in other ways, but that's another topic. But hopefully Lex is listening to that growing trend & getting some of that type of infrastructure together because that's attractive to middle agers & young professionals today more than ever. It seems like they're trying though, which is good.
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