14 replies to this topic

[Skyliner]

I'm curious to learn what you all would say to a young professional interested in moving to the great state of North Carolina.  Keep in mind, this person is single, but wants to get married someday.

[krazeeboi]

Traitor.  

[JunktionFET]

Based on personal experience, Charlotte is probably the best city for a young single professional. I would put Raleigh/Durham as second place. I suspect that they are all pretty decent choices however.

[krazeeboi]

And even then, I would say that it would depend on one's profession. If one is in the banking/finance field, then there's no question that Charlotte is the place to be. However, if one's career path is more on the biological/medical side (such as mine), then the Triangle would be an excellent choice.

[Skyliner]

This person is a close friend of mine and is in the Computer Graphics field.  This person wanted to post this question, but has been too busy and asked me to help in the search.  Thanks very much for your input!

[Skyliner]

BTW, my personal choice would be either Charlotte or Asheville.  I love the big-city feel in Charlotte, and the arts & crafts feel of Asheville.

[monsoon]

I would live in any of the urban areas of NC.  I like them all.   It really depends upon what you are looking for.

[Justin6882]

Well, being young and just recently entering into the working world, I would have to say, Raleigh is great.  There are 3 major univerisities within spitting distance of each other (NC State, Duke, UNC) and about 8 more smaller colleges.  The Triangle was also picked as one of the top places for singles in either Forbes or Fortune magazine recently (Charlotte was in the 40s).  

Charlotte is a nice place, but I think its for more established people.  Raleigh also seems to be a bit more liberal (if thats your thing).  The arts are great in the area, great museums, college sports, which we all know are better than professional anyday  

Also, the Triangle is more of a techy place than Charlotte, which is mostly just banking.  But again, you can't go wrong with either place.

Edited by Justin6882, 21 March 2005 - 10:20 AM.

[moonshield]

Charlotte is the best location because of continued growth of the city, the great business enviorment, and there are things to do. Uptown entertainment continues to become more diversified and with projects like epiCentre coming, there will be no shortage of things to do (there really is no shortage now). Housing prices are great (in my opinion), there are many great projects already built and under development. There are really no urban areas in NC that can compete with SouthEnd and Uptown. It is an exciting time to be in Charlotte.

Disclaimer: I do not really know too much about other NC cities.

[spectacle21]

Charlotte is a nice place to be right now because its the only city in the Carolinas that is on the path of becoming an internationally recognized major city.

Asheville is also a very nice place to be. Visiting the city for the first time two years ago, I was surprised by Downtown Asheville's unique culture of arts and natural beauty. Very nice, antique, and cozy.

[skysdalimit]

The reason why the Triangle is truly above Charlotte in the rankings is because of their mass of colleges and universities.  For the best place for a young professional, I would definately put Charlotte ahead because it is much larger and has many more business opportunities available, as well as a rapidly growing urban core and nightlife.  It is a city on the verge of another explosion.

[Skyliner]

I've heard about several of the great new developments about to happen there.  So what is the single most important reason you all would choose either Charlotte, Raleigh, or Winston-Salem over the other?  And what about Greensboro?  Are there not very many opportunities for young graphics professionals there?  I myself haven't recently been to any of the cities other than Charlotte, so my knowledge is not enough to be of any help to my friend.  Thanks for the info you've already posted!

[ezcheese]

As far as Greensboro is concerned, it is a wonderful place to live. There are tons of great parks and lakes, and the downtown area is slowly but surely being revitalized. Greensboro is growing, just not nearly as fast as Charlotte. I don’t really know what types of opportunities there are for young graphics professionals here in Greensboro as I am in school right now, but one thing that I have definitely noticed while my girlfriend was looking for a job out of college, it is much more competitive to get a good job in Charlotte than it is in Greensboro. We ended up moving back to Greensboro after being in Charlotte for a while because she found a job near Greensboro doing what she wanted to do (medical supply sales). I know that there are tons of graphic designers and web developers in Charlotte, a lot of them doing freelance work.

In the end it will come down to what type of environment your friend wants to live in after he actually gets a job. There is quite a bit more to do in Charlotte than Greensboro, but it costs money to do those things. If your friend would enjoy a more laid back environment, he may consider Greensboro.

[raleightransplant]

Triangle all the way.  If you're in to theatre, film, music, college sports, anything...RDU is hands down the best place to live in this state.  The Triangle prides itself on the kind of people who live here.  There are a lot of artsy, hip, young people so I think that's huge.  I do think that Charlotte is a nice city, but I moved down here in my early twenties..so I did my homework.  Charlotte and Raleigh tend to fight a bit, but both are great places to relocate to.  Charlotte presents itself as a growing international city, but Raleigh has been getting many of these headlines since the early '90s.  Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte are very close as far as MSA population(and both are growing like crazy), but Charlotte is more centralized if you're looking for all of your fun in one place.

Single scene is OK in both I would think, but nothing like you'll find in a Boston, NYC, DC or anything like that.  I moved here attached, so I can only go by what I've heard from many transplants..

[archiham04]

Skyliner, on Mar 21 2005, 05:08 AM, said:

BTW, my personal choice would be either Charlotte or Asheville.  I love the big-city feel in Charlotte, and the arts & crafts feel of Asheville.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm a native of Asheville and have chosen to live in Charlotte because I felt like trying on a "big city" before settling down.  After living in Charlotte for about 5yrs I've pretty much made my mind up to move back to Asheville.  Asheville has just about as much urbanity without the hassle of managing (or mismanging) gigantic population growth.  If you can find a job in Asheville, and you can put up with diversity (and I mean DI-VER-SI-TY), Asheville is hard to beat.