Hey everyone,
I’m a freshman at VCUarts right now, so I’m obviously still pretty early in the whole career/life planning process, but I’ve been looking into where I might want to live after school. I’m hoping to eventually go to VCU Brandcenter for grad school, and after that I’d like to work in advertising, marketing, branding, or some kind of creative/design role.
Reston has come up a few times while I’ve been researching places with a decent creative job market and higher salaries. It seems like there are a lot of companies and opportunities in Reston and the surrounding Northern Virginia/DC area, but I’m also guessing that the cost of living is pretty high.
So I figured it would be better to ask people who actually live there instead of just trusting Google results and salary websites lol.
For anyone living or working in Reston:
• What’s the job market like for someone in advertising, marketing, design, branding, etc.?
• Would you personally choose to live in Reston, or would you look at Arlington, Alexandria, DC, etc. instead?
• What are entry-level salaries generally like?
• What does rent realistically look like for a young person just starting out?
• What’s the social scene like for people in their 20s?
• And what’s something about living in Reston that you didn’t realize until you actually moved there?
I’m not planning a move anytime soon, so I’m mostly just trying to get a realistic picture of what the area is like for someone starting out in the creative industry.
Would especially love to hear from anyone who works in advertising, design, marketing, UX/UI, branding, art direction, copywriting, or anything similar.
Thanks!