It might be time to consider a move. Author not pictured.lachlan dempsey/Unsplash- Moving from Washington D.C. to St. Louis helped author Alex Haimann advance his career.
- Big cities like Washington D.C. can provide cultural and professional benefits, but moving to smaller cities can offer other advantages.
- Mid-sized cities offer a shorter commute, significantly lower living expenses, and a sense of community.
- Networking is easier in a smaller city - as a result, positions in organizations or companies become more accessible.
Big cities aren't the only path to a great career.
I lived and worked in Washington, D.C. for six years before relocating to St. Louis Missouri for a full-time MBA program. I was working at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum as a collections specialist when I was accepted, but I took the plunge, quit my job, and moved.
Now, I'm a partner and the head of business development for a software company.
My relocation to a small city has been nothing but positive. In addition to the huge costs associated with living in big cities - which make buying a home and growing your savings nearly impossible, especially for Millennials and Gen Zers - building a professional and personal network is tricky. Most of your colleagues move after a few short years, and everyone is competing for the few long-lasting connections you might find.
Metropolitan areas like New York, Washington D.C., and Silicon Valley have obvious advantages: geographic location, infrastructure, universities, and decades upon decades of history. It might seem hard for mid-sized cities to catch up, but some are undertaking the challenge.
For instance, in my field - tech - smaller cities are seeing growth. ZipRecruiter noticed the trend, and sifted through more than 8 million job postings and ranked the 20 tech markets experiencing the most rapid growth. While job growth is slowing near San Francisco, Hunstville - in Alabama - grew more than 300% from 2016 to 2017, with Kansas City, Missouri at 157%, and Albany, New York at 161% tech job growth.
Smaller cities have a lot to offer
The St. Louis's smaller metro area has significantly reduced the logistics of my daily commute, which is one of the smaller-city advantages cited by the Economist Intelligence Unit in its Global Liveability Ranking. Cultural sites, work, and residential areas are often in close proximity, making it faster and cheaper to access every part of the city.
Another benefit I've noticed is the focus is on a person's passion and interests - rather than prestige. Politics-driven places, like my former home, D.C., are often obsessed with status. But in St. Louis, I'm more commonly asked, "What do you do?" than "Where do you work?" The distinction is small, but its effect on networking is immense - and for me, these genuine interactions have fostered more fulfilling career growth.
Not convinced? Here are three more reasons to consider building your career in a smaller or mid-sized city.
1. Expanding your circle is easier
I've found that upward mobility is much easier in a city like St. Louis than it would be in, say, New York City.
The ability to learn on a job, and calibrate yourself accordingly, is key to advancing your career. One of the best ways to do that is to meet, engage, listen, and reflect with other people. This includes both industry peers and engaging with people from different fields and backgrounds.
From experience, the most effective networking opportunities come at smaller, more intimate events. In St. Louis, I've been able to engage with others in a far more authentic way than I did in any setting in D.C. - and as a result, each of the two jobs I've had since moving here have come from networking locally.
Organizations such as f.ounders, Summit, and Dialog center around cultivating small, close-knit communities of like-minded people. And in a smaller city, that describes just about every networking event you come across. Estimates suggest that 70-80% (or as high as 85%) of people have used networking to find their current position, so take advantage of the close communities that smaller cities have to offer.
2. Companies in small cities want to retain young talent
Most middle-tier cities have realized the important role young professionals play in developing communities economically and politically, so it's in their advantage to retain young talent. In my time in St. Louis, I've seen that smaller metro areas with a diverse array of industries are likely to compete for great talent, which helps you whether you're looking to move up in your current company or shift to a different employer.
One reliable indicator of a talent-focused ecosystem is to find universities that focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). Pittsburgh, for example, has Carnegie Mellon University, which produces a reliable batch of candidates each year, and the Eastern Idaho Innovation Corridor recruits graduates from Brigham Young University-Idaho and Idaho State University. Washington University attracts top talent to St. Louis - something I identified when looking at the city as a potential new home.
It's not that this practice was nonexistent in D.C.; it just felt far more limited to the legal and political sectors - not industries that I was looking to move into. I'm now at a software company - and we primarily look right to our local higher-ed institutions to recruit new employees.
When in doubt, follow the universities producing smart, hardworking graduates. The local job market is likely to match the human capital.
3. It's easier to get on an organization's board
Serving on an organization's board is a tremendous opportunity for young professionals to meet senior leaders in the community. It also offers the benefit of seeing organizational leadership up-close, when they might not have that vantage point yet in their full-time jobs.
Millennials interested in getting that exposure are almost certainly out of luck in a city like San Francisco or New York City. But in cities like my adopted home of St. Louis, young professionals are able to go from volunteering to acting as members of the board for museums or other nonprofits much more rapidly.
This is largely because it's a buyer's market in a smaller city. Small cities can offer a more intimate and local connections, and greater opportunities for moving into leadership positions than in larger networks.
I was able to network locally and became a member of the board of the American Philatelic Society, a national nonprofit. While my path took me to engage with a national organization, I became a member of the board through networking in a smaller city, and the personal development impact for me was the same.
Roberto de Leon, an award-winning architect based out of Louisville, Kentucky, has also personally experienced the accessibility of cultural institutions. Neither he nor his business partner is from Louisville, but the two men selected it as their base after researching middle-tier cities with the resources their business needed. "There are just a lot of opportunities here, in terms of accessibility of people [who] actually are able to make decisions," says de Leon, "It's really quite easy to meet the mayor."
There is a trust and energy in networking in small cities. I wake up every day excited to tackle the challenges of my job, and that mindset is supported by all the benefits of living and working in a smaller metro area.
There's no shortage of mid-sized cities that can help your personal and professional lives thrive. Do your homework and think about what is most important to you in a home base. But don't be afraid to make the move - mid-sized cities really can help your career bloom.
Alex Haimann is a partner and the head of business development at Less Annoying CRM, a St. Louis-based company providing customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for small businesses. Prior to his time in St. Louis, Alex worked as a collections specialist and web projects developer at the Smithsonian Institution's National Postal Museum.
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