Tempe named best city in state to launch career

Ready to kickstart your future but don’t know where to do it? Zippia named Tempe the best city in Arizona to launch a career.

“For workers, Tempe provides a large variety of job opportunities, many of which are with companies that offer excellent career advancement and benefits such as tuition reimbursement or flexible scheduling,” Jill Buschbacher, City of Tempe Economic Development Program Manager, said. “One of the most attractive features of Tempe is the mixture of industries it offers.”

From small mom and pop shops to well-known corporations, Tempe is filled with businesses that offer a variety of job opportunities.

“The community has a strong financial services sector, a healthy number of tech companies and a few hundred manufacturing companies,” Buschbacher said. “One can start software engineering, industrial engineering, or finance or insurance related careers at various levels with Fortune 500 companies or cutting-edge startups.”

Tempe has also experienced an increase in hospitality development in recent years. The Fairfield Inn & Suites Phoenix Tempe/Airport and the Hilton Garden Inn Phoenix-Tempe ASU Research Park opened in Tempe within the last year.  

Buschbacher said that as more hotels develop, “hospitality jobs continue to grow.”

In addition to job opportunities, Tempe offers plenty of other attractive features for people launching a career.

“Tempe offers a great quality of life to its residents and visitors. It is a vibrant, young, city with outdoor amenities, entertainment, arts and culture, and some of the largest events in the state,” Buschbacher said.

Buschbacher said Arizona State University (ASU) and the nearby community colleges play a role in Tempe’s workforce opportunities.

Cindy Parnell, executive director of ASU Career and Professional Development Services, explained that ASU works with the City of Tempe to “attract and bring in businesses, companies and organizations into Tempe” and “we have a huge talent pipeline in our quality of students, that’s one of the reasons why companies come.”

She said that ASU works to maintain a strong relationship with the business community, which benefits companies in Tempe and students preparing to enter the workforce.

“One of the first things we do is bring awareness to the companies and businesses about the talent pipeline that exists at ASU,” Parnell said. “With over 100,000 students studying at ASU- and that’s between our on-ground and online students- businesses and companies really have a one-stop-shop in their hiring needs at ASU.”

Parnell said ASU focuses on guiding students to become well-rounded professionals. In addition to academics and internships, students are encouraged to join clubs and organizations that help them develop leadership and teamwork skills.

“A lot of universities focus on curriculum, majors, admissions into the university- something that I’m really proud about at ASU is we work on that full circle,” Parnell said. “It’s what the student experience is like both in and out of the classroom so that they’re best prepared.”