How big of a deal is location when it comes to finding a job?

Mikayla, good question. In the United States, as well as most large countries and regions, there are parts where the job market is good for your particular field of study and there are places where the job market is not as good for your particular field of study. For example, being a marine biologist in Miami Florida makes a lot of sense, but finding a job that pertains to marine biology in Kentucky would most likely be much harder to do.

The good thing about research is that you have enormous mobility and options regarding where you can work. Some of the best research is conducted at universities in various American cities. I would suggest that you first start your search for a job in big cities that have good universities, this is a good place to start.

I was an international affairs major in college and my college just so happened to also be located in Washington D.C. which made finding internships and jobs that pertained to my major that much easier. Don't waste your time looking for jobs in areas that wouldn't seem to attract science researchers, look in places (big cities) that already have that kind of talent and job market.

I hope this helps and I wish you the best of luck.

Best,

Austin

Hi Mikayla,

That's a great question. We can stick to the medical field with this answer. Intuitively, the large the urban population, the more hospitals, and consequentially the more work opportunities. Cities like New York, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Atlanta and Los Angeles are all areas with a major hospital concentration. Another great area for this, and one that I live in, is the Triangle area of North Carolina. This encompasses Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. Duke Hospital and UNC Hospital are very renowned and it is one of the fastest growing areas for jobs in the country. So all in all, the more metropolitan the area, the more likely you will find open roles for work.

Thanks!

Mike

Congratulations on being interested in finding the right career to follow. The most important decision is the correct career area, the location will follow in due course. It takes a special person to enter into a specific career field and meet the demands which that career area presents. The first step is to get to know yourself to see if you share the personality traits which make that make one successful in that area. The next step is doing networking to meet and talk to and possibly shadow people doing what you might think that you want to do to see if this is something that you really want to do, as a career area could look much different on the inside than it looks from the outside. It is through this networking, that you will discover locations and projects of interest for you to pursue. When I was doing college recruiting, I encountered too many students, who skipped these important steps, and ended up in a career/job for which they were ill suited.