Is Nashville the New Tech Hub for Young Professionals?

Your newly minted bachelor’s degree feels like your passport to the rest of the world. But as a newly graduated technology professional, where should you set your sights to start your career? A renowned spot like Silicon Valley? A major city like New York or Chicago? If you’re looking for an emerging technology hub with new opportunities for young professionals, look no further than the heart of the American South: Nashville, Tennessee. 

Nashville’s Tech Market Landscape at a Glance

• Amazon selected Nashville as its next east coast operations hub in 2018 and will finish its new site in 2021. 
• Oracle announced on April 7, 2021 a plan to bring a hub location and 8,500 jobs to the Nashville area.
• Out of 50 tech hubs in the United States, Nashville is considered one of the top 10 most affordable locations to start a technology business.
• Many established tech companies, like Silicon Valley’s Yoshi, have started migrating their headquarters to Nashville.

Nashville offers many benefits to large technology companies, but even more tangible benefits to young professionals. The city furnishes a lower cost of living than many other tech hubs, and is one of only nine states with no income tax. 

If you’re looking for fun things to do, Nashville stays true to its “Music City” title with several local recording studios and music festivals, not to mention the local performances you can find at any time of day on Broadway. 

Nashville hosts four professional sports teams and boasts one of the most diverse multicultural landscapes in the South, with large Kurdish, Laotian, and Latinx communities. Young tech professionals don’t just move to Nashville for their careers—they are drawn in by the community too.

Several factors contribute to the growing tech community, and the Greater Nashville Technology Council is one organization that intentionally pushes for opportunities for job seekers, recent graduates, remote workers, women, and minority groups. They also offer several programs to help you sharpen your professional skills, with tech camps, peer groups, leadership training, and internship opportunities. Most notably, the Council started ApprentiTN, the first tech apprenticeship program in the Southeast. 

So as a graduate trying to enter the tech scene, what kinds of positions should you look for? Jacqueline Tibbs, Talent Acquisition Coordinator at TechnologyAdvice, recommends searching for job titles like Program Coordinator, Sales Development Representative, and full-time paid internships to get your foot in the door. She also recommends finding a company culture that aligns with your workplace goals, whether you strive for promotion opportunities, great benefits, or extracurricular activities with your coworkers. Different companies offer different advantages, so do your research.

If you are ready to begin your technology career in Nashville, many companies are looking for recent graduates in IT, computer science, and data science. Start your search today by exploring the following resources:

• Greater Nashville Technology Council
• Nashville Software School
• Handshake 

What are you waiting for?

Shelby Hiter is a marketing content writer at TechnologyAdvice in Nashville, TN. She has over five years of experience in writing and editing, focusing on healthcare, technology, data, enterprise IT, and technology marketing. When she’s not writing, Shelby loves finding group trivia events with friends, cross stitching decorations for her home, reading too many novels, and turning her puppy into a social media influencer.

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