9:30 a.m.
Wednesday, May 25, 2022 9:31 am

With graduation season upon us and employers planning to hire 31.6% more graduates from the Class of 2022 than they did from the Class of 2021, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2022's Best and Worst Places to Start a Career.

To help recent graduates launch their careers in the right place, WalletHub compared more than 180 U.S. cities based on 27 key indicators of career-friendliness. The data set ranges from the availability of entry-level jobs to monthly average starting salary to housing affordability.

Best vs. Worst

• Tacoma, Washington, has the highest monthly average starting salary (adjusted for cost of living), $4,724, which is 2.8 times higher than in Juneau, Alaska, the city with the lowest at $1,669.
  
• Columbia, Maryland, has the highest median annual household income (adjusted for cost of living), $104,486, which is 3.5 times higher than in Newark, New Jersey, the city with the lowest at $30,271.
  
• Oxnard, California, has the highest workforce diversity, which is 2.4 times higher than in New Haven, Connecticut, the city with the lowest.
  
• South Burlington, Vermont, has the lowest unemployment rate, 1.50 percent, which is 8.1 times lower than in Detroit, Michigan, the city with the highest at 12.10 percent.

To view the full report and your city's rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-cities-to-start-a-career/3626


Expert Commentary

Do you have any tips for turning an entry-level job into a long, successful career?

"Stay invested in your personal and professional development and focus on building within AND outside your current employer. This includes staying abreast of what is becoming more professionally prevalent in your field and not limiting yourself to just one industry. Instead, focus on creating talents, skills, and abilities that are in demand across numerous industries. Also, long gone are the days of expecting to grow one's career with one company. Instead, people should stay professionally nimble. Stay ready to get a new job at any time. Employers downsize when they deem it to be a good business decision. Thus, people should stay open to new opportunities. This includes interviewing periodically, even if you are happy at your job. One can be happy at a variety of employers, not just one or two."
Rochelle Parks-Yancy - Full Professor, Texas Southern University

"In identifying what helps with crafting a long and engaged career, it is also worthwhile to think about what can interfere with or derail such a career...Work that is not meaningful, doing things that do not challenge or stimulate oneself, and where the work does not allow for some form of self-expression, are all factors that contribute to alienation and successive burnout. Thus, to ensure a long, engaged, and successful career, it helps to find work that one perceives as being meaningful in some way, that offers some creativity and challenge and one where there is an opportunity to express oneself and one's capabilities. Looking for opportunities where one perceives value and meaning in what one is doing, and finding small windows to express oneself at work, can go a long way in building a long and successful career where one is fully engaged and inspired to go to work each day."
Nisha Nair, Ph.D. - Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh

What is the biggest career mistake that young people make?

"I believe one of the biggest mistakes is thinking they do not have a voice in their working conditions or how they are treated. Advocating for yourself is something I hear and see that takes time to develop. The earlier one realizes they can professionally advocate for themselves, the better...Another big career mistake is not negotiating at the outset. I see a misconception with most of my students that negotiating makes paints you as someone who does not really want the job or, they will be thought of negatively. My advice to all my college juniors is to not let an employer determine their worth. I encourage them to do their salary homework on Glassdoor or other similar sites and craft a negotiation response appropriate to their level of education, experience, and industry standards. I assure them candidates who negotiate are seen as strong, not weak."
Jana Craft, Ph.D. - Professor, Winona State University

"Impatience. It takes around 5 years to master any given job. You need time to grow and understand what it takes to be successful. As for the job itself, you probably will not get your dream job right away, but you will never get there if you will not settle for anything less than perfect at the start."
Peter Harms, Ph.D. - Professor, University of Alabama; Co-editor of Research in Occupational Stress and Well Being