Picking a major, a school, a career....and, now...a city?

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There's a fascinating new book out, titled Who's Your City: How the Creative Economy is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life. The author, Richard Florida, makes the argument that this decision is as important as any of the other big decisions that people make - like where to go to school, or what career to pursue. If you like data, Florida has plenty of it in his book, which uses a variety of disciplines, from sociology to economics to make some persuasive arguments about the importance of where you live.

Here are some personal examples from my own life, which anecdotally validate Florida's claims.

First, I went to college in the Midwest. My fellow students were mostly Midwesterners....the type that hadn't been out of their home state to date and probably wouldn't...except for a vacation in Florida....or if they were really daring, Cancun!. (Can you tell I'm being just a little sarcastic?) The point was that it was not a highly diverse or adventurous group, aside from a small minority. For a young woman, eager to explore the world and experience different cultures - this was not a particularly exciting place. To make matters worse, when I was ready to graduate, many of the headhunters were looking to fill spots locally - not in New York City or San Francisco or some other large city that appealed to me. Now, to be fair, not every Midwestern school is like this! I don't mean to knock Midwestern schools. I'm very proud of my Midwestern roots, I love many parts of the Midwest. However, if I'd been really smart, I would have done more homework when looking at universities. I would have talked to the admissions and career offices to learn more about both the diversity of the student campus, as well as where graduates often got placed...both in terms of the kinds of companies, as well as the geographic location of those placements. Some schools have a very wide net, in terms of where their students go after graduation. Other schools, are more regionally or locally focused. It pays to do your homework....if location matters to you.

Here's one more personal example. My husband is from Singapore. (That would explain how a woman with blond hair has the last name 'Chung'.) We spent years working and living abroad. It was a fantastic experience. Eventually, though, we decided that it was time to put down roots in the US. One of the factors that we looked at was local ethnic diversity. We wanted a place where multi-racial families were common....where it was easy to get good Asian cuisine, etc.

One of the ways where this ties into HBDI is that you find that people with similar thinking preferences tend to group themselves. Whether this is intentional or not, you find that engineers will have common thinking preferences, versus elementary school teachers who have a completely different set of preferences. And, so we know from other data points that people group themselves.

Florida goes to great length to argue that different cities have different characteristics or 'personalities', if you will. I would argue that the city in Taiwan where my husband and I worked for many years, Hsinchu - was dominated by A-quadrant type folks (to use HBDI lingo). It was a city filled with semiconductor researchers, engineers - very analytical types. On the other hand, Paris is a city defined by its aesthetic beauty, the appreciation of art, culture, wine and food.... The personality and defining characteristics of this city are completely different than Hsinchu, Taiwan. To go back to the HBDI tool, it's a city that is more in line with the C and D quadrants.

What's the connection to high schoolers who are probably just eager to as far away from home as possible? Be smart about your decisions. Do your homework. Think things through. When you get to that point in your college search when you're seriously considering one school or another, think about where it's located AND also do some research into where most graduates go afterwards.....do they stay in the same city or region as the school, or does the school have strong ties across the country....even the globe? More than likely, there are cities where you'll thrive and other cities where you'll feel less fulfilled and stimulated.

So, as Richard Florida puts it, 'Who's Your City?'. I'd love to hear your comments.