As San Diego adds teams, projects and customers, executives’ main question is not about space or incentives, but about people. Local employers in defense, life sciences and tech are adding business roles faster than they can fill them. Those gaps show up in delayed launches, slipped audits and customer work that depends on managers as much as engineers. Revenue, operations and finance leaders feel this pressure most. Where do we find ready-to-lead business talent that can execute here this quarter?
One strong answer is in our own backyard. Business programs across the region — including UC San Diego’s Rady School, San Diego State’s Fowler College and the University of San Diego’s Knauss School — graduate professionals who know this region and want to build here. Hiring from these programs is not civic courtesy; it is a business decision that improves speed and retention and strengthens this community.
Local graduates ramp faster: no relocation lag, no time zone friction, and they already know how to work with the bases, labs, suppliers and civic partners that define San Diego’s economy. When schedules and audits matter, that familiarity saves weeks.
Our business schools place students in the sectors that define this region: defense programs that operate under strict rules, life science firms that align public and private partners, and growing software teams that need strong sales operations, finance and product marketing. That experience produces product and operations managers, sales and finance leads, and product marketers who can run reviews, meet requirements and turn pilots into repeatable revenue.
People who start their careers here tend to stay. Retention protects customer relationships, preserves hard-won program knowledge and builds trust. Teams that are not constantly turning over can promise a delivery date and mean it.
Consider the track record. A UC San Diego-born startup hired a local software intern who converted to full-time and shipped a core feature in three months, less than half the original timeline. A city development services team that built a pipeline with a community college partner moved from chronic vacancies to stable staffing. These are the kinds of speed and retention wins executives notice.
When employers hire locally, dollars stay in the region. Alumni mentor students coming up behind them, and faculty connect companies to the next project. Keeping more graduates in San Diego strengthens the tax base, supports small businesses and reduces the costs when families churn in and out. It builds a denser network of mentors and managers who can solve problems across organizations.
The hiring habit is simple: Look local first. Give the home team the first interview when speed and retention matter. For niche roles, still run a national search, but start where the odds of success are highest, with business school talent that already understands this market and plans to stay.
This is not a pitch for a new initiative or brand, or a case against national hiring. It is an argument for a habit that fits San Diego’s culture: Hire from the schools that invest in this region, teach in its industries and graduate professionals who want to grow here. In my day job, I work on programs where delivery and oversight are real constraints, and I serve on a board that supports military families who need predictable work and care. In both lanes, the lesson is the same: Teams win when they are built for the place they serve.
San Diego is winning attention for the right reasons. If we want that attention to become durable jobs and lasting companies, make “hire here first” the habit, starting with our business schools. If we miss this moment, the work may still come, but more of it will be run from somewhere else. Let the results decide.
Lu is a government contracts manager who lives in San Diego.