Atlanta is a city with a lot to offer. With its rich history, booming economy, and diverse population, it’s no wonder so many people are choosing Atlanta as their place to live. But with so much going on in the city, there are also plenty of entry-level jobs available for the aspiring young professional.
Here are some of the best entry-level jobs in Atlanta:
Administrative Assistant: Administrative assistants are responsible for performing administrative tasks within an organization. This can include data entry and filing, answering phones and responding to emails, and other clerical duties. The average salary for this position is $34K per year, but this number varies depending on industry and location.
Accountant: Accounting professionals help organizations manage their finances by preparing financial reports and managing budgets. Accountants need at least an associate degree or its equivalent before becoming eligible to sit for the CPA exam (Certified Public Accountant), which is required by most states before they can practice accounting professionally. The average salary for accountants in Atlanta is $45K per year
Entry Level Jobs In Atlanta
Atlanta (/ætˈlæntə/ at-LAN-tə) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. With a population of 498,715 living within the city limits, it is the eighth-most populous city in the Southeast and 38th most populous city in the United States according to the 2020 U.S. census.[11] It is the core of the much larger Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 6,144,050 people, making it the eighth-largest metropolitan area in the United States.[8] It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia. Situated among the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains at an elevation of just over 1,000 feet (300 m) above sea level, it features unique topography that includes rolling hills, lush greenery, and the most dense urban tree coverage of any major city in the United States.[12]
Atlanta was originally founded as the terminus of a major state-sponsored railroad, but it soon became the convergence point among several railroads, spurring its rapid growth. One of those railroads included the Western and Atlantic Railroad, from which the name “Atlanta” is derived, signifying the city’s growing reputation as a major hub of transportation.[13] During the American Civil War, it served a strategically important role for the Confederacy until it was captured in 1864. The city was almost entirely burnt to the ground during General William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea. However, the city rebounded dramatically in the post-war period and quickly became a national industrial center and the unofficial capital of the “New South”. After World War II, it also became manufacturing and technology hub.[14] During the 1950s and 1960s, it became a major organizing center of the American Civil Rights Movement, with Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, and many other locals becoming prominent figures in the movement’s leadership.[15] In the modern era, Atlanta has stayed true to its reputation as a major center of transportation, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport becoming the world’s busiest airport by passenger traffic in 1998 (a position it has held every year since, with the exception of 2020 as a result of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic).[16][17][18][19]
With a gross domestic product (GDP) of $406 billion, Atlanta has the tenth largest economy of cities in the U.S. and the 20th largest in the world.[20] Its economy is considered diverse, with dominant sectors in industries including transportation, aerospace, logistics, healthcare, news and media operations, film and television production, information technology, finance, and biomedical research and public policy.[21] The gentrification of some its neighborhoods, initially spurred by the 1996 Summer Olympics, has intensified in the 21st century with the growth of the Atlanta Beltline. This has altered its demographics, politics, aesthetics, and culture.[22][23][24]
Contents
1 History
1.1 Native American settlements
1.2 Western and Atlantic Railroad
1.3 Civil War
1.4 Reconstruction and late 19th century
1.5 20th century
1.6 Metropolitan area’s growth
1.7 Civil Rights Movement
1.8 1996 Summer Olympic Games
1.9 21st century
2 Geography
2.1 Cityscape
2.2 Climate
3 Demographics
3.1 Population
3.2 Sexual orientation and gender identity
4 Economy
5 Culture
5.1 Arts and theater
5.2 Music
5.3 Film and television
5.4 Festivals
5.5 Tourism
6 Sports
7 Parks and recreation
8 Government
9 Law enforcement, fire, and EMS services
10 Education
10.1 Tertiary education
10.2 Primary and secondary education
11 Media
12 Transportation
13 Tree canopy
14 Notable people
15 Sister cities
16 See also
17 Notes
18 References
19 Further reading
20 External links
History
Main article: History of Atlanta
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Atlanta.
Native American settlements
For thousands of years prior to the arrival of European settlers in north Georgia, the indigenous Creek people and their ancestors inhabited the area.[25] Standing Peachtree, a Creek village where Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee River, was the closest Native American settlement to what is now Atlanta.[26] Through the early 19th century, European Americans systematically encroached on the Creek of northern Georgia, forcing them out of the area from 1802 to 1825.[27] The Creek were forced to leave the area in 1821, under Indian Removal by the federal government,[28] and European American settlers arrived the following year.[29]
Western and Atlantic Railroad
Marietta Street, 1864
In 1836, the Georgia General Assembly voted to build the Western and Atlantic Railroad in order to provide a link between the port of Savannah and the Midwest.[30] The initial route was to run southward from Chattanooga to a terminus east of the Chattahoochee River, which would be linked to Savannah. After engineers surveyed various possible locations for the terminus, the “zero milepost” was driven into the ground in what is now Foundry Street, Five Points. When asked in 1837 about the future of the little village, Stephen H. Long, the railroad’s chief engineer said the place would be good “for one tavern, a blacksmith shop, a grocery store, and nothing else”.[31] A year later, the area around the milepost had developed into a settlement, first known as Terminus, and later Thrasherville, after a local merchant who built homes and a general store in the area.[32] By 1842, the town had six buildings and 30 residents and was renamed Marthasville to honor Governor Wilson Lumpkin’s daughter Martha. Later, John Edgar Thomson, Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad, suggested the town be renamed Atlanta.[33] The residents approved, and the town was incorporated as Atlanta on December 29, 1847.[34]
Civil War
George N. Barnard’s 1864 photograph of a slave trader’s business on Whitehall Street, Atlanta, Georgia, shows a United States Colored Troop infantryman (corporal) sitting by the door.
By 1860, Atlanta’s population had grown to 9,554.[35][36] During the American Civil War, the nexus of multiple railroads in Atlanta made the city a strategic hub for the distribution of military supplies.[37]
In 1864, the Union Army moved southward following the capture of Chattanooga and began its invasion of north Georgia. The region surrounding Atlanta was the location of several major army battles, culminating with the Battle of Atlanta and a four-month-long siege of the city by the Union Army under the command of General William Tecumseh Sherman. On September 1, 1864, Confederate General John Bell Hood decided to retreat from Atlanta, and he ordered the destruction of all public buildings and possible assets that could be of use to the Union Army. On the next day, Mayor James Calhoun surrendered Atlanta to the Union Army, and on September 7, Sherman ordered the city’s civilian population to evacuate. On November 11, 1864, Sherman prepared for the Union Army’s March to the Sea by ordering the destruction of Atlanta’s remaining military assets.[38]
Reconstruction and late 19th century
After the Civil War ended in 1865, Atlanta was gradually rebuilt during the Reconstruction era. The work attracted many new residents. Due to the city’s superior rail transportation network, the state capital was moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta in 1868.[39] In the 1880 Census, Atlanta had surpassed Savannah as Georgia’s largest city.[citation needed]
Beginning in the 1880s, Henry W. Grady, the editor of the Atlanta Constitution newspaper, promoted Atlanta to potential investors as a city of the “New South” that would be based upon a modern economy and less reliant on agriculture. By 1885, the founding of the Georgia School of Technology (now Georgia Tech) and the Atlanta University Center, a consortium of historically black colleges made up of units for men and women, had established Atlanta as a center for higher education. In 1895, Atlanta hosted the Cotton States and International Exposition, which attracted nearly 800,000 attendees and successfully promoted the New South’s development to the world.[40]
20th century
In 1907, Peachtree Street, the main street of Atlanta, was busy with streetcars and automobiles.
During the first decades of the 20th century, Atlanta enjoyed a period of unprecedented growth. In three decades’ time, Atlanta’s population tripled as the city limits expanded to include nearby streetcar suburbs. The city’s skyline grew taller with the construction of the Equitable, Flatiron, Empire, and Candler buildings. Sweet Auburn emerged as a center of black commerce. The period was also marked by strife and tragedy. Increased racial tensions led to the Atlanta Race Riot of 1906, when whites attacked blacks, leaving at least 27 people dead and over 70 injured, with extensive damage in black neighborhoods. In 1913, Leo Frank, a Jewish-American factory superintendent, was convicted of the murder of a 13-year-old girl in a highly publicized trial. He was sentenced to death but the governor commuted his sentence to life. An enraged and organized lynch mob took him from jail in 1915 and hanged him in Marietta. The Jewish community in Atlanta and across the country were horrified.[41][42] On May 21, 1917, the Great Atlanta Fire destroyed 1,938 buildings in what is now the Old Fourth Ward, resulting in one fatality and the displacement of 10,000 people.[33]
On December 15, 1939, Atlanta hosted the premiere of Gone with the Wind, the epic film based on the best-selling novel by Atlanta’s Margaret Mitchell. The gala event at Loew’s Grand Theatre was attended by the film’s legendary producer, David O. Selznick, and the film’s stars Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, and Olivia de Havilland, but Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel, an African-American actress, was barred from the event due to racial segregation laws.[43]
Metropolitan area’s growth
Atlanta played a vital role in the Allied effort during World War II due to the city’s war-related manufacturing companies, railroad network and military bases. The defense industries attracted thousands of new residents and generated revenues, resulting in rapid population and economic growth. In the 1950s, the city’s newly constructed highway system, supported by federal subsidies, allowed middle class Atlantans the ability to relocate to the suburbs. As a result, the city began to make up an ever-smaller proportion of the metropolitan area’s population.[33] Georgia Tech’s president Blake R. Van Leer played an important role with a goal of making Atlanta the “MIT of the South.”[44] In 1946 Georgia Tech secured about $240,000 (equivalent to $3,340,000 in 2021) annually in sponsored research and purchased an electron microscope for $13,000 (equivalent to $180,000 in 2021), the first such instrument in the Southeastern United States and one of few in the United States at the time.[45] The Research Building was expanded, and a $300,000 (equivalent to $4,000,000 in 2021) Westinghouse A-C network calculator was given to Georgia Tech by Georgia Power in 1947.[46] In 1953, Van Leer assisted with helping Lockheed establish a research and development and production line in Marietta. Later in 1955 he helped set up a committee to assist with establishing a nuclear research facility, which would later become the Neely Nuclear Research Center. Van Leer also co-founded Southern Polytechnic State University now absorbed by and made part of Kennesaw State University to help meet the need for technicians after the war.[47][48] Van Leer was instrumental in making the school and Atlanta the first major research center in the American South. The building that houses Tech’s school of Electrical and Computer Engineering bears his name.[49][50]
Civil Rights Movement
African-American veterans returned from World War II seeking full rights in their country and began heightened activism. In exchange for support by that portion of the black community that could vote, in 1948 the mayor ordered the hiring of the first eight African-American police officers in the city. Much controversy preceded the 1956 Sugar Bowl, when the Pitt Panthers, with African-American fullback Bobby Grier on the roster, met the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.[51] There had been controversy over whether Grier should be allowed to play due to his race, and whether Georgia Tech should even play at all due to Georgia’s Governor Marvin Griffin’s opposition to racial integration.[52][53][54] After Griffin publicly sent a telegram to the state’s Board of Regents requesting Georgia Tech not to engage in racially integrated events, Georgia Tech’s president Blake R. Van Leer rejected the request and threatened to resign. The game went on as planned.[55]
In the 1960s, Atlanta became a major organizing center of the civil rights movement, with Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, and students from Atlanta’s historically black colleges and universities playing major roles in the movement’s leadership. While Atlanta in the postwar years had relatively minimal racial strife compared to other cities, blacks were limited by discrimination, segregation, and continued disenfranchisement of most voters.[56] In 1961, the city attempted to thwart blockbusting by realtors by erecting road barriers in Cascade Heights, countering the efforts of civic and business leaders to foster Atlanta as the “city too busy to hate”.[56][57]
Desegregation of the public sphere came in stages, with public transportation desegregated by 1959,[58] the restaurant at Rich’s department store by 1961,[59] movie theaters by 1963,[60] and public schools by 1973 (nearly 20 years after the US Supreme Court ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional).[61]
In 1960, whites comprised 61.7% of the city’s population.[62] During the 1950s–70s, suburbanization and white flight from urban areas led to a significant demographic shift.[56] By 1970, African Americans were the majority of the city’s population and exercised their recently enforced voting rights and political influence by electing Atlanta’s first black mayor, Maynard Jackson, in 1973. Under Mayor Jackson’s tenure, Atlanta’s airport was modernized, strengthening the city’s role as a transportation center. The opening of the Georgia World Congress Center in 1976 heralded Atlanta’s rise as a convention city.[63] Construction of the city’s subway system began in 1975, with rail service commencing in 1979.[64] Despite these improvements, Atlanta lost more than 100,000 residents between 1970 and 1990, over 20% of its population.[65] At the same time, it developed new office space after attracting numerous corporations, with an increasing portion of workers from northern areas.[citation needed]
1996 Summer Olympic Games
The Olympic flag waves at the 1996 games.
Atlanta was selected as the site for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. Following the announcement, the city government undertook several major construction projects to improve Atlanta’s parks, sporting venues, and transportation infrastructure; however, for the first time, none of the $1.7 billion cost of the games was governmentally funded. While the games experienced transportation and accommodation problems and, despite extra security precautions, there was the Centennial Olympic Park bombing,[66] the spectacle was a watershed event in Atlanta’s history. For the first time in Olympic history, every one of the record 197 national Olympic committees invited to compete sent athletes, sending more than 10,000 contestants participating in a record 271 events. The related projects such as Atlanta’s Olympic Legacy Program and civic effort initiated a fundamental transformation of the city in the following decade.[65]
21st century
During the 2000s, city of Atlanta underwent a profound physical, cultural, and demographic change. As some of the African American middle and upper classes also began to move to the suburbs, a booming economy drew numerous new migrants from other cities in the United States, who contributed to changes in the city’s demographics. African Americans made up a decreasing portion of the population, from a high of 67% in 1990 to 54% in 2010.[67] From 2000 to 2010, Atlanta gained 22,763 white residents, 5,142 Asian residents, and 3,095 Hispanic residents, while the city’s black population decreased by 31,678.[68][69] Much of the city’s demographic change during the decade was driven by young, college-educated professionals: from 2000 to 2009, the three-mile radius surrounding Downtown Atlanta gained 9,722 residents aged 25 to 34 and holding at least a four-year degree, an increase of 61%.[70] This was similar to the tendency in other cities for young, college educated, single or married couples to live in downtown areas.[71]
