Redmond Ranked #1 by Forbes for "Cities with the Happiest Young Professionals"

DanitaDelimon.com, News.com SAMMAMISH RIVER TRAIL


"The Cities with the Happiest Young Professionals"
By Jacquelyn Smith
Forbes, September 9, 2011

"Heading the list of the cities with the happiest young professionals, Redmond earned an overall score of 3.835. Workers there expressed the most optimism in the Benefits category, which scored 4.260."

Its list [CareerBliss] of the 20 happiest cities for young professionals is based on analysis from thousands of employee generated reviews between 2010 and 2011. Young professionals, defined by CareerBliss as employees with less than 10 years’ experience in a full-time position, were asked to rate eight factors that affect workplace happiness, including growth opportunities, compensation, benefits, work-life balance, career advancement, senior management, job security and whether they would recommend their employer others.

“In our research, CareerBliss found that young professionals take career happiness very seriously,” says the company’s chief executive, Heidi Golledge. “Typically, they will continue to keep their résumé active on job boards just in case something more fulfilling comes along, and they are typically two to three times more likely than their parents to jump jobs for more career happiness. In short, they take the right to pursuit happiness to heart and will typically not stay at a job with poor conditions for very long, and they will even relocate to get out of an unhappy work environment.”

If you’re looking to move to a happier place, you might consider Redmond, Wash.  Read More >>


Heading the list of the cities with the happiest young professionals, Redmond earned an overall score of 3.835. Workers there expressed the most optimism in the Benefits category, which scored 4.260.

The city, located just east of Seattle, is best known as the home of the tech giant Microsoft—which could be responsible for making so many employees in the area happy.

“In terms of young professionals, Redmond features a large number of technology jobs, partly due to the location of Microsoft,” says CareerBliss chief technology officer Matt Miller. “Microsoft’s outstanding benefits ranking, as well as its status as a company its employees would recommend to others, helps elevate its ranking. We also found that Redmond ranked No. 1 in compensation for young professionals, which is very important for those starting out in the work force.”

Things are also sunny for young workers in Florida. Fort Lauderdale and Orlando round out the top three cities, with overall scores of 3.665 and 3.635, respectively.

Read the entire Forbes article here! - including slide show of the top 20 cities!

Abstract Posted by Bob Yoder
Resident, City of Redmond