Memo from the Upper Crust

Attending the Cleveland Club of Washington was an eye-opening experience because I wasn’t the only person who did not know about it. This group, founded in 1957, celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. The Cleveland Plus presentation has made me feel much better about my beloved Cleveland area because there was much growth. The presenter correctly informed us that though we were hearing doom and gloom stories about Cleveland, no one resided in Cleveland proper which was true. All attendees were suburbanites. But still, we identified ourselves as Clevelanders! Cleveland Plus created a statistical area containing sixteen counties including Akron, Youngstown and Toledo in its demographic. However, it was important to ensure that native Clevelanders could fully participate in this job market. The reason why most of the attendees left was job opportunities. There were more entry-level economist job here than in Cleveland. The dearth of entry-level and middle-level opportunities really hit the area hard because there was no bridge between the two. It was just all upper-level management jobs. Honestly if the National City job reopened, I’d seriously reconsider it because I knew that I had the experience plus the bank would pay me adequate compensation.

Yet most people weren’t as gung ho because they felt returning to Cleveland was professional suicide because Washington was on a higher plateau (Well, DC was neither NY nor LA and people did fine!). This one lady said that she had been here 2 ½ years and that everyone including family dissuaded her from returning to Cleveland proclaiming that she’d outgrown the place. I didn’t feel that way because many of my Cleveland colleagues worked as vice-presidents and held upper management positions so I would fit right in. This experience helped me realize that it was people not places that were the great equalizer because if you knew the right people you could always get another job. I could unequivocally say that even if I do not return professionally, I could see myself staying there during retirement because Cleveland was not a rat race place.