My most recent professional chapter had quite the twist: I relocated my career from Chicago to North Carolina—Charlotte, specifically. The version of me who once measured success by skyline size would’ve had a hard time imagining life in a city of fewer than a million people. Turns out, Charlotte had a few things to teach me.
For most of my twenties, big-city living was my plan and my identity. I spent 10 years building a career in Chicago after earning my undergraduate degree in Advertising & Public Relations from DePaul University. I completed my master’s degree at University of Chester while living in London, and postgraduate work regularly took me to places like New York, San Francisco, and Paris. I kept chasing bigger skylines because I assumed bigger cities automatically meant bigger opportunities.
But somewhere along the way, the pace of city life stopped feeling thrilling and started feeling exhausting and Sisyphean. Packed commutes, crowded elevators, and a weekly fight for a reservation at that restaurant you love just to spend an hour with friends. Every day felt like a familiar routine. And despite being surrounded by people at every moment, I felt disconnected.
In 2024, I took a leap into the unknown—unknown because I had never even been to Charlotte. I moved to Charlotte to join Deloitte as a “marketplace marketer,” a role centered on helping build local relationships and turning them into momentum for our organization. What surprised me was how quickly Charlotte met me halfway. People I had only just met remembered where I was from, asked about my family, and followed up on small details. Introductions turned into coffee meetings, coffee meetings turned into invitations to luncheons and events, and before long, I found myself joining the Young Professionals board.
While navigating this relocation, I learned something new about myself: I thrive on building relationships. Here, many of the executives and recent grads that I have met have been equally willing to sit down, get to know you, and make introductions. To me, this connection is part of what makes the city feel so full of possibility.
If Charlotte was once a well-kept secret, it isn’t anymore. About 157 people move here each day. The region is now home to 19 Fortune 1000 headquarters. And while Charlotte is known as a finance hub, life sciences is quickly nipping at its heels. The region has more than 145,000 people in its life sciences workforce, compared to just over 100,000 in finance. New organizations seem to arrive every day.
Charlotte has changed the way I think about opportunity: not as something measured by population size, but as something built connection by connection, relationship by relationship.
If this story resonated—whether you’re new to Charlotte, curious about the region, or simply someone who values connection—I’d always welcome the conversation. Please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, or find a time to meet for coffee.
Taylor Hyslop is a marketing manager at Deloitte Services LP. You can follow her on LinkedIn here.
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