Short Takes

Cost-of-Living

Next Stop, Austin

A new A.T. Kearney study indicates that based on the availability of a tech-savvy talent pool, quality of life, and cost of living, the best locations for high-tech companies remains a familiar roster of geographies: Austin, Texas; Atlanta; the San Francisco Bay Area (including San Francisco and San Jose); and Dallas.

Firms looking at cost-of-living alone when making the decision on where they should open shop may want to refer to William M. Mercer's ranking of the world's most expensive cities, which covers 144 locales. Tokyo, Moscow, and Hong Kong are the world's most expensive villes, according to the global human resource consulting firm. London has moved out of the top 10 this year, going from 10th to 12th. Beijing; Osaka, Japan; Shanghai; St. Petersburg, Russia; New York; Guangzhou, China; and Seoul rounded out the top 10. Worldwide, the least costly "westernized" cities are found in New Zealand and Australia.

Most Wanted Employers

McKinsey Still MBA Students' Top Pick

McKinsey & Co., Boston Consulting Group, and Cisco Systems are the three most popular employers among MBA students in the U.S., according to a survey by Universum International, a Swedish company that specializes in graduate recruitment and student relations.

McKinsey has been at the top of the list every year since 1997.

According to the survey, which polled about 2,030 students, the appeal of challenge, responsibility, camaraderie, and casual dress that students may associate with dot-com employers still exists, yet this year MBA students are more likely to consider employment with more traditional companies — especially those that have picked up some "start-up mentality" during the past few years.

Management consulting is the most popular industry among respondents, while Internet/e-commerce and venture capital industries saw a drop this past year. Here is how other consulting firms were ranked: Deloitte Consulting, 12; A.T. Kearney, 16; PricewaterhouseCoopers, 26; and DiamondCluster, 44.

MBA students don't appear to be making long-term plans for sticking with their first employer. (See chart.) As employers struggle to retain top performers, many ask how they can retain young stars. The answer from MBA students is to give them more money. A promotion and flexible working conditions are also the greatest motivators for remaining with their first employer.

Talent Pools

IT Workers With "Hot Skills" Still Smiling

IT professionals lucky enough to have skills in short supply and high demand resulting in rapid changes in market value are still receiving pay and perks comparable to — if not higher than — past years, according to a Hewitt Associates study.

The median increase for base pay during the last 12 months was 7.5 percent, while the median total cash increase (annual base salary plus bonuses received during the year) was more than 6 percent, according to the firm's report, "2001 U.S. Hot Technologies Survey." The firm polled 198 companies reporting on nearly 42,000 employees.

Other highlights:

• Median voluntary turnover rate for IS/IT employees and non-IS/IT employees was similar during the last 12 months, 11 percent and 12 percent respectively.

• "Hot" skill employees leave for promotions to higher-level jobs at other companies. At least 41 percent of firms rank this the number one reason employees leave.

• Approximately 96 percent of the companies in this study said that the most common source for "hot" skill candidates was referrals, followed by the Internet at 92 percent and internal transfers at 88 percent.

Sidebar: Today's "Hot" Skills

PeopleSoft (application development, production services)

SAP (infrastructure, application development, production services)

Object Engineering

Data Warehousing

Data Visualization

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