by Philo Gabriel

Created on: August 17, 2010   Last Updated: August 24, 2010

The tried and true route to a successful, professional career is to first obtain a college education, if not an additional degree beyond that.

But even for those who lay the proper foundation like that, the first job can be the toughest to get.  Given the choice between a qualified person with experience in a given field, and a person who is qualified on paper but doesn’t yet have that experience, it’s understandable that most employers would prefer the experienced candidate.

In a down economy, this problem for the work force newcomer is only exacerbated.  A high unemployment rate means more people competing for job openings, with more than usual of those people being experienced, appealing candidates.

So one factor you may have to consider is relocating to find the right entry level job for you.  If such jobs are hard to come by where you are, find out where they are more plentiful.  Because whatever the general state of affairs in the economy, career prospects will always be better in some places and worse in others.

Recently, two major publications/websites - Bloomberg and Monster.com - researched which U.S. cities are most promising for recent graduates looking to start their professional careers.  Bloomberg based its findings on data from the website AfterCollege that matches graduates with employers, as well as each city’s average salary, cost of living, and unemployment rate.  Monster used the factors of the cities’ growth rates, unemployment rates, average salary, cost of living, and commute time.

So which cities came out on top for entry-level professional jobs?  Let’s look at the top ten from each list:

* Bloomberg *

1.  Houston, TX

2.  Washington, DC

3.  Dallas, TX

4.  Atlanta, GA

5.  Austin, TX

6.  Minneapolis, MN

7.  Pittsburgh, PA

8.  Denver, CO

9.  Columbus, OH

10.  Fort Worth, TX

* Monster *

1.  Austin, TX

2.  San Antonio, TX

3.  Salt Lake City, UT

4.  Oklahoma City, OK

5.  Raleigh-Cary metropolitan area, NC

6.  Seattle, WA

7.  Rochester, NY

8.  Portland, OR

9.  Denver, CO

10.  Honolulu, HI

Maybe the first thing that jumps out at one is how little overlap there is between the lists.  Only two cities made both top tens (Austin and Denver).  What this shows as much as anything is that there is a lot of subjectivity, a lot of interpretation, a lot of judgment in determining

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