Portland, Maine, Named One of America’s Best Cities to Start a Career

Wallethub.com, the popular personal finance website, has published its annual report on the best American cities to start a career. Not only can Portland be found near the top, but it's also the second highest ranked New England city on the list.

How Good of a City is Portland, Maine to Start a Career In?

Portland ranks as the 24th best city to start a career in. That's out of a list of 182 cities that were used in Wallethub's survey. I would have to say a very reputable ranking for Portland, especially with it being one of the highest in the region.

Maine scored a 56.75 out of a possible 100 points. The scoring system is based on a two major categories, Professional Opportunities and Quality of Life. These categories are broken down in 25 subcategories to make it as detailed as possible. You can read more about the methodology here.

Portland finished with a ranking of 38th in professional opportunities, which places it well within the top third nationally. It’s great to see Portland receiving accolades for its employment opportunities. The city is much more than just a tourism service hub. Portland offers career paths in nearly every industry, including engineering, tech, higher education, and, of course, hospitality.

The city truly shined in the quality-of-life category, where it finished in the top 20 at 18th overall. That should surprise nobody, considering the quality of life across the great state of Maine is pretty remarkable. Just try to avoid running into a moose.

I, for one, am not surprised Portland scored well in this report. Is it expensive to live in Southern Maine? Sure. However, there are still plenty of opportunities to build a career in a state where the quality of life outshines most places. Plus, nearly every city in America is expensive these days, so Portland is hardly an outlier there.

What is the Best New England City to Start a Career In?

While Portland performed well, the highest-ranked New England city was South Burlington, which finished 11th overall. That’s quite an impressive showing for the Green Mountain State.

READ MORE: Portland, Maine, Crowned America’s Best Small Food City—and It’s No Surprise

A hat tip also goes to Lewiston. Maine’s other representative earned a very respectable ranking of 59th. The city also finished 19th overall for employment opportunities, a clear sign that Lewiston’s revitalization efforts are paying off.

You can check out all the rankings here. Where did your favorite city finish?