City Rankings

To help myself apply for jobs, I created this tiered ranking system and placed the cities I visited (and some others) into the tiers. I will focus my job hunt efforts into these cities in accordance with these ranks. When job offers do start coming in, my interest in the job will be weighed against my interest in the city. When job quality + location quality meets my minimum requirements, I take the job. Simple as that.

Rankings apply only to where I want to look in my job hunt at this point in my life. It says very little about where I would want to live in the future, like with a family. It says nothing about how much I enjoyed my time in the city. For instance, Charleston, SC, was extremely fun but I can't see myself living there. Don't take offense if I'm not considering your city for a job!

City is italicized if I didn't visit it on this trip, but I've been there before and it got my interest.

Tier S (anybody got a job for me in these cities?)
Charlotte
Louisville





Tier A (would be thrilled here)
DC
Raleigh/Durham
NYC
Denver



Tier B (why not?)
Pittsburgh
Philadelphia
Richmond
Boston
Nashville
Chicago





Tier C (job needs to be perfect)
Winston-Salem
Atlanta
Mobile, Birmingham
New Orleans
Chattanooga
Annapolis
Providence
Minneapolis
SF, LA
Seattle

Tier F (out of the running)
Indianapolis
Cleveland
Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Roanoke
Greensboro
Columbia, Charleston
Savannah, Athens
Montgomery, Tuscaloosa
Baton Rouge
Jackson
Knoxville, Johnson City
Dover
Norwalk, Hartford
Concord
Montpelier, Burlington
Augusta
Moncton, Fredericton, Niagara
Albany
Trenton

Tier U (on the backburner)
Toronto > Quebec > Montreal > Ottawa
Brussels
Crete

Most European cities' industries seem to only be tourism, but Brussels was one of the few exceptions. There were certainly some other European cities I could see myself living in, but let's be serious, I'm not looking outside of America just yet. If I ever feel like living in Europe, Brussels is at the top of my list. And I'm throwing Crete out there for fun - Greece was just that incredible.

I think next I need to look up which of these cities have respectable fencing clubs.