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by Claire Smith Two words have plagued me since September: brain drain. Wisconsin spends millions of dollars cultivating and educating the leaders of tomorrow, but as soon as some graduates of higher education receive their diplomas, they flee Wisconsin like Green Bay Packer linebackers are chasing them. They go down the drain, taking their able brains with them. Researching the “brain drain” for a class assignment got me thinking about the one topic I try to avoid – life after graduation. It makes me wonder, will I be able to sustain a livelihood in Wisconsin or will I have to shed my badger-loving roots and literally slip down the drain. Like any good writer would, I harnessed my curiosity and decided to launch my own investigation. Determined to unlock the mystery of the brain drain, I set off in search of young Wisconsinites to crack the code of why young professionals chose to leave or stay in Wisconsin.
Tori Thomson has it all. She owns her own house, is right on track with her career goals, lives close to her family and accomplished it all while living in Wisconsin. Thompson, a 25-year-old senior accountant who was born, raised and educated in the Green Bay area, has no desires to leave her home turf. “I do plan to center my career around here,” Thomson said. “I found a company that I am extremely happy with and feel that I can be successful there. Plus my family and friends are all here.” Thomson admits the Green Bay area leaves a bit to be desired in terms of cultural diversity; however the area is becoming more diverse. She also said more diverse areas, like Milwaukee and Chicago, are close to Green Bay. “I have many friends who live in places like Chicago and Milwaukee and love to visit those areas, but I could never live there,” Thomson said. “Green Bay is perfect – no traffic, no parking problems, and bigger cities are just a car ride away.”
The decision to stay in Wisconsin usually is not as natural a transition for most young professionals as it was for Thomson. Amanda Lutz, a 22-year-old broadcast journalist, just landed her first job in Wausau. Despite the fact that she was born and raised in Wisconsin, Lutz was willing to leave her home state for her first job. “It was a luck-of-the-draw decision,” Lutz said. “I applied to dozens of stations and I would’ve pretty much gone anywhere for my first job. Wausau just happened to be one of the stations interested in me so it was a lucky break!” Although Lutz is content to be in Wisconsin, her career aspirations may take her to places that Wisconsin can’t compete with, mainly the large media markets of Chicago or Minneapolis and St. Paul. Lutz said she would love to end up somewhere like Minneapolis or Chicago, but Wisconsin is a great place to start because of its diversity of station sizes. Sticking around Wisconsin and the Midwest is situational. Lutz acknowledged that if she were offered a job outside of Wisconsin, she would seriously consider the offer.
Difficulty breaking into the job market seems to be a common trend for recent graduates like Kari Cox. This 25-year-old publications coordinator of Trails Custom Publishing and managing editor of Madguide worked at a UW-Madison campus deli for a couple of months because her first job fell through two weeks before graduation. Cox did not want to start her career outside of Madison or leave her college friends so she worked at a UW-Madison campus deli until she could find a better job. “We were the lucky ones, to stay,” Cox said. “We had a lot of other friends that loved it here, but the market took them elsewhere. The reason that a lot of people get a job outside of their field is because they want to stay here and there aren’t enough jobs to go around.” |
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"Wisdom from the professionals" slide show
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Should I stay or should I go? 
