City "Tiers"
Not meaning to turn this into another rankings thread, but earlier I saw a post where someone said they were in a Tier 4 city - wtf does that even mean?
I assume Tier 1 includes NY, SF, LA, Chicago, maybe a couple others (Houston for oil?). Then Tier 2 the other large cities that aren't as crucial to the financial sector - Boston, Atlanta, Seattle, Dallas, Miami, Philly... But beyond that though, what is a tier 3 and 4 and so on city?
Basically, give me some examples of what you guys consider different tiers of cities.
Comments (75)
Do you really care enough about a "Tier 4" city that you had to create a meaningless thread?
Tier 1: Compton
Tier 2: Atlanta
Tier 3: Chicago
Tier 4: Brooklyn
Tier 5: 8 Mile, Detroit
Hey! Some of us actually LIVE in those icky Tier IV - Tier VI cities, most of you seem to disdain. I have lived in many of these places, covered clients in places that STILL may not show up on Google Maps. Let me share with you some insight from the non-Elite Coastal Class. Please note that when I say Indianapolis, I am talking about living in the suburbs, not the city.
Palm Beach: Solid city, good for younger folks. We needed designated drivers in our day, with Uber, it is 10x easier. Solid mix of old and new money. May 15th thru September 15th suck, but 8 months are paradise.
Columbus: Another great town if you are young or a family guy. The middle (24-30 y/o) sucks due to the demographics. 22 y/o analyst, the world is your oyster. 35 y/o family guy with three kids? Fantastic. Cost of living is stupidly low. Taxes are a bit prickly. Top tier shopping (LV, Bose, etc.), restaurants (e.g. S&W) and activities (The Columbus Symphony Orchestra rocks...seriously).
Jacksonville: Helllllllooooooooooo DB! Welcome to your new home! Live SOUTH of Jacksonville or at the FL/GA border and you will be fine. Was a member of Sawgrass, the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club and my home course for many years. Nightlife downtown is meh, but out on the Beaches, you will never want to leave. Surprisingly, it is as far west as Pittsburgh, so it stays light real late. Terrible driving town.
Indianapolis: In my opinion, best of the bunch. Low taxes, great population, nationwide a top 50 school system. Cost of living is even lower than columbus $85-90/sqft housing? Dozen or so of F500 headquarters. People are nice, conservative (not Republican), and actually give a damn. Ring suburbs are all fantastic and 24to 32 year old vibe is strong and growing. Two of the four major sports leagues have teams here.
Lived for 10+ years in NYC/suburbs. NEVER AGAIN. EVER.
Partied and worked in Miami. Great town, couldn't live there.
Austin is awesome, but starting to lose some of its shine.
D.C. is a viper pit of government excess and propped up home prices
What's my point? Expand your horizons. Cover clients is such luxurious places as Doniphan, Nebraska and Napoleon, ND and realize that these folks are the heart of America. It may not be the financial capital of the world, but when your horizons grow, your perspective changes and improves.
Namaste.
D.O.U.G.
Tier 1 - NYC, LA, SF
Tier 2 - Miami,Chicago, Atlanta, Houston,Washington,Boston,
Tier 3 - Philly,Dallas,Austin,New Orleans,Minneapolis, Phoenix,Charlotte, Denver, San Diego
Tier 4 - Orlando, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Portland, Seattle,
Tier 5 -Jacksonville,Memphis, Kansas City
Tier 6 - Birmingham, San Antonio, Tallahassee
Tier 7 - Detroit, Baltimore
Not your best work prospect, pls fix
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Tier 1 - LA as a Tier 1 city? In what? Traffic and homeless crackheads and annoying people? SF ain't much better either
Tier 2 - Atlanta - Tier 2? Really? Tier 2 in rappers maybe, I do love me some Young Thug
Tier 3 - Austin? Austin is the best city of its size in America (but going the way of SF), I'm going to drown you in Lady Bird Lake for saying that
Tier 4 - Cleveland and Seattle are on the same tier? What the fuck?
Tier 5-6 meh no one cares anyways
Tier 7 - yes
I have been to every city on this list besides Kansas City, and I have to say, you are on crack. Plz fix
*Town Lake
.
Tier 1: Cities that have deep markets across all industries - NY, London, Hong Kong (HK will lose this status in / before 2047 but these are the only ones in this tier for now)
Tier 2: Cities that offer comparable life style but are more siloed: SF, Chicago, HTX, Singapore, Frankfurt, Shanghai etc.
Tier 3: maybe they have some speciality, but don't carry the weight of the above: LA, Dallas, Charlotte, Madrid, Amsterdam, Shenzhen, Tokyo
Tokyo is 3rd tier? yeah more going on in Houston than Tokyo....
Houston is the global headquarters for energy, Tokyo is the capital of Japan.
Being the center of a entire industry trumps in that situation imo
While more homogenous than say New York or Paris, Tokyo is undoubtedly a tier 1 international city.
T1: NYC, London
T2: SF, Chicago, Charlotte, Boston,
T3: Other cities
Charlotte???
Charlotte lmfao
Found the Wells Fargo Analyst
I think this depends on your industry coverage. If you're interested in tech, you're doing yourself a disservice by working in NY over SF. If you're interested in O&G, you should be in Houston, not London. If we're talking generalist, then yes NY is higher tier than SF.
I love how every response is shat on.
I personally have seen tier one in America as just NY and SF for finance.
SF is essentially tech banking and some healthcare. I'd have Chicago as a tier 1 before SF, it's a lot of industrials and consumer but all the big players have a presence with more than just a regional focus.
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Tier 4 would be like Ft. Lauderdale - sorry RayJay people.
You know the Tampa/St. Pete area isn't Ft Lauderdale right?
I think that you are mostly on the right track. Remember that this is a subjective approach, so it's open to interpretation.
I tend to think of them based on size and how business-oriented they are (in no particular order):
Tier 1: NYC, San Fran, Chicago, LA
Tier 2: Houston (some may push them into Tier 1, which is fine), Dallas, Atlanta, Seattle, Boston, Miami, Philly, D.C.
Tier 3: Denver, Minneapolis, Charlotte, Nashville, Austin, Phoenix, Detroit, Cleveland, Tampa, SLC, Vegas (several could easily be a tier lower in some minds)
Tier 4: Portland, San Diego, Indy, Orlando, Columbus, Cincy, New Orleans, Milwaukee, St. Louis, KC
Bump. Interesting.
Can't believe how many people feel the need to rank cities lmfao
Have any of you seen how fucked up NYC is now? People are getting the fuck out of there in record numbers. Yeah it's got Wall Street but we are all working from home so what's the point of paying $$$$ to be there??
Agreed - I'm in NYC finance and seriously considering a move to TX (Dallas/Austin) next summer
Austin looks comfy as fuck
People in Houston have a huge chip on their shoulder about their city
Wouldn't you? Texas sucksssssss
People in Texas are defensive about Texas and are prideful about it at the same time
If we're being honest, it isn't even a Top 3 city in the state.
I've heard Austin is much better. Heard there's nothing to do in Houston.
Deleted
travel more
Tier 1: The "four corners" of the United States: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston. Plus San Francisco and DC.
Tier 2: Cities that are respectable, but the best go to Tier 1 cities for the higher income. Atlanta, Denver, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, Seattle, Dallas, Miami, Charlotte, Nashville, San Diego, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Portland, Phoenix, and Minneapolis.
Tier 3: Cities that are nice, friendly, you can easily pull six figures and have a nice work-life balance after you are established. Cincinnati, Louisville, Des Moines, Orlando, Little Rock, Boise, Austin,Indianapolis, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, and Kansas City.
Tier 4: Once great but high crime and corruption have ruined them. New Orleans, Detroit, Baltimore, Memphis, Las Vegas, Newark, and El Paso.
You get the idea.
Income is same across all banks
Just want to point out that North Las Vegas, the high crime area of Vegas is a separate city from Vegas proper.
Array
Is there anything you weirdos don't rank?
Laughed way harder at this than I should've
How Freudian
"Work ethic, work ethic" - Vince Vaughn
Username checks out
"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
I'd rather be in Africa being hunted by Hyenas than be @ a tier 4
Tier 1: NYC
Tier II: London, Paris, Los Angles, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing
^^^
Agree, but the 1 and II really get to me.
"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
The Global and World Cities Research Network compiles a list of cities ranked by their relative globalization. If you agree that globalization leads to opportunity which leads to money/power/importance/abundance of resources, it can be used as a proxy for ranking cities
For 2020, top rankings are:
Alpha ++: NYC, London
Alpha+: Beijing, Dubai, Hong Kong, Paris, Tokyo, Singapore
Alpha: Amsterdam, Brussels, Chicago, Frankfurt, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Los Angeles, Madrid, Mexico City, Milan, Moscow, Mumbai, Sao Paolo, Sydney, Toronto
I am not going to write out the complete rest of the listings, but other cities of note in certain tiers:
Alpha-:Boston, SF, Munich, Dublin, Vienna, Johannesburg, Buenos Aires
Beta+: Atlanta, Barcelona, Berlin, Cairo, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Rome, Vancouver, Washington DC
Beta: Athens, Casablanca, Denver, Helsinki, Ho Chi Minh City, Philadelphia, Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, Seattle
Beta-: Austin, Belgrade, Calgary, Caracas, Detroit, Dhaka, Geneva, Guatemala City, Hyderabad, Lagos, Kuwait City, Minneapolis, St. Petersburg (Russia), San Diego, Tampa
I understand the concept and appreciate the contribution, but I laughed at Ho Chi Minh City being next to Philadelphia
Where is Shanghai my friend?
It's south of Beijing on the coast.
"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
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Portland and Seattle are not tier 3/4 anymore...
Bump
Array
"Don't want to turn this into another ranking thread"
creates ranking thread
CITY RANKINGS IN 1987:
Tier 1: New York, London, Chicago, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo, Zurich
Tier 2: Singapore, Hong Kong, Boston, Philadelphia, Frankfurt, Milan, Toronto
Tier 3: Montreal, Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, Sydney, West Berlin, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Miami
"Work ethic, work ethic" - Vince Vaughn
HK tier 2?
In 1987, yeah. China was a shithole then.
"Work ethic, work ethic" - Vince Vaughn
Miami slowly creeping into tier 1 now
tier 4 - people who rank cities
tier 3 - people who laugh at people who rank cities
tier 2 - people who don't rank cities
tier 1 - people who live in multiple cities
First: NYC
Last: London
"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
San Francisco and Seattle are probably close to last for people on WSO.
Lots of butthurt people working in Tier 3 and below cities lmfao
Tier 1: Timbuktu, Ouagadougou, Kampala
Tier 2: Casablanca, Pretoria, Luanda
Tier 3: Lusaka, Antanarivo, Brazzaville
god some of you people are weird, who keeps up with city tiers? if you wana work there and a reputable bank offers you a job take it.
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