Careers

Life in Scottsdale

Equity Methods is proudly located in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona. Scottsdale is part of the greater Phoenix area, also known as the Valley of the Sun (“the Valley”). Greater Phoenix is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas of the United States.

Careers

Life in Scottsdale

Local Commute

Scottsdale is more than a city of luxury resorts: it’s a neighborhood well suited to professionals and their families. Scottsdale offers numerous public/charter and private school options, a vibrant restaurant scene, outdoor activities (with weather to match), children’s programs, extensive shopping, and, best of all, room to breathe.

While Scottsdale itself is a sought-after residential area, there are many neighborhoods within a 10-minute drive of Equity Methods. The office provides easy access to surrounding areas: it’s roughly 10 minutes from the Phoenix border, 30 minutes from downtown Phoenix, 20 minutes from Old Town Scottsdale, 25 minutes from Tempe (location of Arizona State University’s main campus), and 35 minutes from Chandler’s Price Corridor technology hub.

Public transit is limited; you’re better off with a car. Parking at the office is plentiful and free.

In New York, I showed up at the bus stop around 7:00. And got into Port Authority – if I was lucky – around 9:00. And then took a subway for 15 minutes. All told, my commute cost up to 4 hours a day and 400 bucks a month. Now it’s 8 minutes.

Josh Schaeffer

Regional Travel

By car, the Equity Methods office is about four hours from Puerto Peñasco, five hours from Las Vegas, six hours from Los Angeles and San Diego, and seven hours from Albuquerque.

Arizona is home to many stunning national parks. The Grand Canyon National Park is about three and a half hours away, Flagstaff ski resorts are two hours away, and the natural beauty and vibrant arts community of Sedona is an hour and a half. Historic US Highway Route 66 goes right through northern Arizona en route from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Air Travel

Equity Methods is a 25-minute drive from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), the tenth busiest airport in the US. Sky Harbor is a hub for American Airlines and a focus city for Southwest Airlines. While Phoenix Sky Harbor is a bustling airport, it achieved Level 3 Optimization of the Airport Carbon Accreditation Program meaning it has a year-to-year reduction in carbon emissions, joining only seven other U.S. airports to attain this level of carbon reduction.

If you’re interested in flying through Sky Harbor airport, take a look at this list of domestic nonstop destinations from Sky Harbor is.

Near the Office

Our office is convenient to many restaurants, retailers, and service providers. Here’s a very abbreviated list:

Whole Foods Market, 2.4 miles
AJ’s Fine Foods, 1.2 miles
Fry’s Food and Drug (includes pharmacy), 2.3 miles
Costco, 2.6 miles
Scottsdale Child Care & Learning Center, 3.5 miles
Sumits Yoga, 2.2 miles
HonorHealth Medical Group, 3.5 miles
Dr. George T. Christakos Family & Cosmetic Dentistry, 0.5 mi
Desert Ridge Marketplace (open air shopping center), 5.0 miles
Mayo Clinic Hospital, 5.1 miles
Kierland Commons (upscale open air mall), 3.6 miles
Mayo Clinic—Scottsdale Campus, 6 miles
Target, 2.0 miles
In-n-Out Burger, 2.2 miles
The world’s largest Harley-Davidson dealership, 2.3 miles
Thompson Peak Family Dental, 3.1 miles
Trader Joe’s, 2.2 miles
True Food Kitchen, 2.8 miles
CVS Pharmacy, 2.7 miles
Walmart Supercenter, 2.7 miles

The Valley is also served by a number of farmers markets and community supported agriculture (CSA) farms.

Entertainment

The Valley has plenty of options to enjoy with family and friends.

For most of the year, people flock outdoors to enjoy the great weather. Many employees will visit Phoenix Raceway, WestWorld of Scottsdale, the Phoenix Zoo, Desert Botanical Gardens, and Top Golf. During the summer months, many enjoy indoor entertainment such as iFly Indoor Skydiving, OdySea Aquarium, ice skating, escape rooms, and dine-in movie theaters.

Professional Sports

All of the major leagues have franchises in the Valley. They include the Arizona Cardinals, Arizona Coyotes, Phoenix Suns, and Arizona Diamondbacks. We also have a WNBA team, the Phoenix Mercury.

Baseball fans will appreciate the extended season. For spring training, the farthest Cactus League stadium is 45 minutes from the office. And in October and November, top prospects from every team come to town for the Arizona Fall League.

Each year, the Tournament Players Club hosts the Phoenix Open plus a stop on the PGA Tour.

Museums and Historic Sites

Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Taliesin West National Historic Landmark is just five miles from the office. Craving more FLW? The David and Gladys Wright House and the Frank Lloyd Wright Spire are here as well.

Scottsdale is packed with museums and art galleries. Scottsdale ArtWalk welcomes visitors to Old Town’s many galleries every Thursday evening. In addition, employees and their families may wish to check out exhibits at the Heard Museum, the Musical Instrument Museum, the Phoenix Art Museum, the Arizona Science Center, and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA).

Performing Arts, Festivals, and Dining

Theater venues include Phoenix Symphony Hall, the ASU School of Music, ASU Gammage (with its Frank Lloyd Wright-designed auditorium), and the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts. Scottsdale also is home to a number of annual events, including an arts festival, a collector car show, a horse show, and a bona fide rodeo.

Scottsdale and Phoenix are foodie friendly cities, with ongoing culinary events and festivals in Scottsdale proper and throughout the greater Phoenix area.

Climate and the Great Outdoors

We’re in the desert. It’s sunny and dry. Winter temperatures are pleasant by day and cool by night. Summer temperatures are blazing hot by day and tend to decrease in the evening.

With terrific weather nine months of the year, golf, tennis, swimming, hiking, biking, climbing and running are highly accessible. And the short drive to northern Arizona makes chasing fresh snow easy in the winter.

The best part about living in Arizona is that, the vast majority of the year, it’s beautiful. I can get outside, walk some trails, and motorcycle about a fair amount.

Ben Clow

No amount of Chicago and New Jersey in the world can prepare you for 75 degrees with no wind in the middle of January.

Josh Schaeffer

So if you’d like to avoid threats from ice, flood, hurricane, or blizzard—not to mention earthquake or tornado—you’ll love Arizona. If dramatic rock formations and succulents are beautiful to you, come here and enjoy. And if you’re intrigued by ongoing developments in solar power technology, this abundantly sunny region is the place to be.

Just don’t plant a lush, green lawn.

Sustainability

Despite its desert location, the water needs of Scottsdale (and the Valley as a whole) have been well served by careful planning, investment, and engineering. However, we get much of our water from the Colorado River via Hoover Dam and the Salt River Project. This critical infrastructure is famously stressed from a long drought in the western US.

Part of what makes Scottsdale such an attractive destination are the many golf courses, and in the spirit of sustainability and preventing water waste, Scottsdale uses reclaimed water to keep the grounds of 23 golf courses green. Scottsdale also recharges over 1.7 billion gallons of purified drinking water annually through the Advanced Water Treatment Plant.

To counteract some of the heat island effect that affects so many urban cities, Phoenix has started installing cool pavement to reflect sunlight instead of absorbing light and heat.

For more about Arizona’s conservation efforts, check out the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University and the Environment and Sustainability Portal at the University of Arizona.

Proud to be Awarded

Our collegial and tight-knit group of smart, energetic consultants is a key reason why Equity Methods is recognized with industry and workplace awards, year after year.