Consulting firms. When they think about where they're going to build offices,
they think about where the money is - where the centers of power are in the
business world, where major decision makers are, and finally, where you, their
potential hirees, might want to live. Ultimately consulting firms put
themselves in cities and grow their presence in cities where both of those
qualifications are met: there's money to be had, and their staff to be employed in
order to put on the projects. Now, a lot of consultants are known for traveling
and a lot of your projects aren't going to be in office, but still there are major
network effects for some key cities in the United States.
So we're gonna highlight today the top three most popular office locations in
the United States. Number three, interestingly, Boston, Massachusetts.
Number three, Boston, is interesting because it's not one of the largest
metropolitan areas, and it's also not one of the fastest growing. But there are
major network effects from universities in the Northeast that are related to
being in Boston. Also, two main headquarters of major consulting firms,
the Boston Consulting Group and Bain & Company, are in Boston. And many other
firms have made a big pharmaceutical presence in Boston. So those practices - as
the health care sector has continued to grow - have really advanced the Boston
offices for hiring. Number two, San Francisco. Over the last 10 years, we
haven't seen anything like what's happened in San Francisco in the
business world. You see not just an advancement in start-up companies, but
probably more importantly for consulting firms, maturing of many firms into a
place where they are regularly working as clients of consulting firms. They're
doing cost optimization work, which is something that 10 years ago they weren't
doing. They're doing outsourcing work, which they've always thought a little
bit about but it's really becoming core to their business. And they're doing
acquisition work and other strategic work, which is something that consulting
firms have excelled at, but the tech firms haven't always thought about.
So all of that work means that San Francisco is a hotbed for hiring and for
all of you, San Francisco has become one of the top
places on your list to go. So, because of that, for private equity, for venture
capital, and for all of the hub of everything that's happening in the Bay
Area, San Francisco is number two on our list. For consulting firms, the overall
place where they all want to be, where they build their fanciest, biggest,
flagship offices in the entire world is our number one: New York City. New York is
pretty hard to beat when it comes to competition for talent and also a center
of power. You have some major industries that are headquartered there, such as
financial services. And over the last 10 years we've seen trouble in financial
services - and trouble smells opportunity for consulting firms. That's exciting for
them, so there are lots of problems to fix, and there are a lot of you that are
interested in living in New York City to fix it. And what is it about New York?
Everyone who's on the island says, "It's the best place in the world." Having lived
there, I absolutely agree and understand it, but there are a lot of other places
that, even though they've seen growth, New York has continued to eclipse in terms
of popularity. Overall, these are our top three locations. Number one, New York City.
Number two, San Francisco. And number three, Boston. If you're interested in
insights for how to go about strategies on selecting your firm locations during
the application process, we would love to help give you even deeper insights
across the US and in the rest of the world. Thanks for watching.