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| Steve Neuman came to Seattle because of the city's vibrant arts scene, the urban lifestyle and creative culture-and the jobs he couldn't find in San Francisco or Portland. |
When Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps came to the Seattle Repertory Theatre last fall, Steven Neuman and his wife, Yelena, quickly bought tickets. As new arrivals in a city known for embracing progressive art, ideas and music, the Neumans planned to take advantage of the many cultural opportunities they would have. They walked into the Rep to be greeted by a full house, a completely sold-out show-on a Wednesday evening at 5 p.m.
That's why they moved to Seattle. Well, that and the relatively good job opportunities, and the fact that they can walk their dog, Boris, in the one-of-a-kind sculpture park right behind their condo near Seattle's waterfront.
"It makes you feel really good about the place you're living when the community supports the arts like that," Neuman says. "That play was in the middle of the week."
A 2007 University of Oregon graduate, Neuman moved to Spokane to begin his career at the same newspaper where he interned throughout his college years, The Spokesman-Review. After a few months working as a reporter and copy editor, he was laid off, shortly before the paper went through its first round of massive layoffs. He is hardly alone right now.
Seattle is one of only a handful of cities to which young professionals are flocking. An increasing number of college graduates have adopted this city known for its hotbed of technology, its success in generating new startup companies and its openness to new ideas.
A September 2009 edition of The Wall Street Journal ranked the "Next Youth-Magnet Cities" that recent ambitious college grads now call home. The verdict? Seattle tied for first place with Washington, D.C. Author Richard Florida-his book, The Rise of the Creative Class, has transformed the way urban planners work-says Seattle is a "high-tech and lifestyle mecca." Seattle was also ranked City of the Year in Fast Company magazine's "13 Most Creative Cities in the World."
But during the toughest recession this generation will probably ever face, it's a wonder that 20-somethings and other young folk still manage to afford basic necessities, let alone to travel and experience the world at large. But they thrive on the ability to find their own way. And they're still coming.
Welcome to Generation Y, the casual-dressing, hardworking, multitasking, tweeting-on-the-go demographic. Nowadays, they follow this formula: graduate from college, choose a vibrant city with a hip reputation to live in and launch their careers with only a car full of belongings and lofty aspirations.
When they look for a new city, the most critical ingredient is to find a place with lots of growing companies ready to hire. Neuman, now a web design coordinator for Sesame Communications in Renton, followed such a scenario. Seattle's reputation has long been connected to the coffee shops on every corner, the 30-plus inches of rainfall per year, the alternative music scene and the claim to fame as home to either Dr. Frasier Crane or Dr. McDreamy (depending on which generation you belong to). Over the past few years, that reputation has been overtaken by Seattle's real-world dynamism, where-if you have the talent-you can succeed, and by extension, so can the businesses for which you work. There's a reason technology leaders like Microsoft, Amazon.com and PopCap Games are successful.
Neuman says he and his wife very seriously considered moving to Portland or San Francisco, but in the end, realized that the jobs he wanted were here. "We liked the creative culture here, the Jewish population, the arts and entertainment scene, and the urban lifestyle of Seattle," he explains.
Taking the Plunge
For 23-year-old Andra Wooton, the decision was rather impulsive. The Michigan native graduated from Ferris State University and found a job at Thermo Fisher Scientific. But after she fell victim to the research company's round of layoffs, she realized nothing was keeping her in Michigan. When her best friend planted the idea of moving to Seattle, Wooton told her she was crazy. But they were already aware of the city's reputation, and crazy soon turned into reality.
"We spent three months job searching before we came out here," Wooton says. While her friend went on job interviews, Wooton visited several apartments and sought the help of Ajilon, a job agency in Seattle. Ajilon set up an interview with Filter, a staffing agency that connects creative professionals with work. It was the only job Wooton applied for and, miraculously, she landed it. Wooton's been living in the Capitol Hill area since August while, ironically, her friend returned to Michigan after she was unable to find a position.
Many observers note the tendency of the current generation of 20-somethings to job hop. "Generation Y-ers don't expect to stay in a job, or even a career, for too long-they've seen the scandals that imploded Enron and Arthur Andersen, and they're skeptical when it comes to such concepts as employee loyalty," says Bruce Tulgan, co-author of Managing Generation Y.
Graphic designer Thomas Ryun made the pilgrimage west from New York to gain more hands-on experience in a smaller city with similar qualities. After the ultimate design internship for New York's Museum of Modern Art, Ryun and his then-fiancée, a product designer, explored their options. Though he'd only been to Seattle once, Ryun said he always flirted with moving to the Northwest.
"I had read about Seattle, and I had been living in New York for five years when I realized it wasn't somewhere I wanted to be long term," the 27-year-old Ryun recalls.
He took advantage of his connections in the tight-knit design community, showing his portfolio to prospective employers every chance he got. His hard work paid off and after freelancing for a time, Ryun now works as a designer for Belle & Wissell Co., a small design studio in South Seattle.
"The studios here are more forward thinking in how to evolve and how to embrace new ideas," Ryun notes. Today's young people are often looking for companies willing to listen and embrace their innovative spirits.
The Gen-Yers are also looking for diversity, both in the people and the value systems they espouse. Such was the case with Florida natives Susan and Michael Elliott, who moved to Seattle in 1996 in search of a more creative lifestyle. Neither had lived anywhere but Florida, but in visiting the Northwest, they grew to love the diversity they found here. "Back in Jacksonville, when we told people we were vegetarians, they looked at you like, 'Are you sick? What's wrong with you that you have to change your diet?' They didn't understand it was a conscious, moral decision," Michael Elliott says.
The small advertising firm the Elliotts started in Seattle, RocketDog Communications, extends the couple's creativity and forward thinking into the business realm. RocketDog is usually working on 10 to 20 projects at any given time for such clients as Disney, Mattel, Microsoft, Expedia and the Girl Scouts of the USA.
The Elliotts were left with a tough decision in narrowing it down to New York, San Francisco or Seattle. But the housing market in San Francisco proved just too unbearable for struggling creatives wanting to start their own company, and New York looked as though it would "chew you up and spit you out," he says. Seattle proved to be that perfect middle ground.
"The other thing was the internet in this town was literally all over the place," Michael Elliott recalls. "Everybody came from a tech point of view, there were startups all over the place and companies like Microsoft were here." Telling their friends they were driving cross-country to Seattle because of its creative allure sparked questions about how crazy the two really were.
"But now our friends say, 'You own your business? You're thriving in a city like Seattle? That's awesome,'" Susan Elliott beams.
Seattle's Y Factor
So what happens to the city's economy when so many young people bring in a particular set of skills and even create jobs for themselves? "Ideally, this elevates the role of design in Seattle," Ryun says. "There are a lot of good things going on here. It's definitely a positive addition to the city."
Ken Myer, the outgoing president and CEO of the Washington Technology Industry Association, believes that this trend of young people choosing Seattle is raising the quality of work that comes out of our city. He also wonders how much influence and power Generation Y brings with it.
"People are very entrepreneurial here," Myers notes. "People are willing to take risks because they have a tight community they are a part of. This gives you people to get advice from and people to fall back on when you have problems. That type of environment breeds a good deal of risk taking."
Whereas baby boomers tended to put priority on their careers, today's young are more likely to look to a broader network of friends, family and community to support their entrepreneurial endeavors.
And they have a new tool set of social networking technologies to maintain those wide-ranging relationships. "This generation has grown up with the tools to naturally embrace" broad social networks, says Myers, pointing to such community- building tech companies as GeoPage, BuddyTV and Facebook, which place a high value on community.
Qualified professionals and risk takers are crucial ingredients to fuel growth in crucial business sectors such as software, marketing, video games, biotech and design.
If these talented young people are so important to Seattle's future growth, what can be done to keep them coming, particularly in a weak economic climate? In part, it's a question of choices.
"No one ever feels like they have job security right now," says Steve Neuman. "You can't give your soul to the company. You can't trust them." But as long as companies like Amazon continue to grow, there is an expectation that some job somewhere will come along.
Kristin Knight, CEO of the staffing agency Filter, says that many of her 200 corporate clients have begun looking to hire new full-time workers from among Filter's ranks of 10,000 members, many of whom are design professionals. Knight believes the lower cost of living in Seattle compared with alternative creative hubs like San Francisco and New York City will keep young people attracted to this region.
A better supply of affordable housing-because many landlords are lowering rents or offering a month rent-free to lure in new tenants-is helping to keep young people here. The Neumans, for example, have found they can afford to live comfortably in lower Queen Anne, close to downtown. "There's a lot of supply right now and not that much demand," Neuman explains. In 2009, Seattle's cost of living index was 122, compared with Manhattan's 218, D.C.'s 140 and Portland, Ore.'s 120, according to the census bureau.
In choosing a new home base, Neuman says he understood the creative opportunity is here. "The technology community is here. It's similar to San Francisco's climate. But there are young companies, established companies and everything in between."
In the early years of the 21st century, Seattle has earned the reputation that New York enjoyed with previous generations: If you have talent, if you're willing to work hard, put in long hours and take criticism well, you can make it here.
Says Neuman, "Ultimately, it was just an easier market to enter."