Interesting.
The thing that is most toxic about long-term survival in small towns is the lack of many jobs. No jobs, no mortgage payment, no point.
Although if I was up for relocation right now, I'd look at Colorado (Denver/Boulder) or Baltimore...
The thing that is most toxic about long-term survival in small towns is the lack of many jobs. No jobs, no mortgage payment, no point.
Although if I was up for relocation right now, I'd look at Colorado (Denver/Boulder) or Baltimore...
I was recently in Oklahoma City for a JS conference (ThunderPlains), and there was no shortage of jobs. There was a shortage of devs though - the folks there felt very comfortable moving or losing jobs because there might only be a dozen jobs opening a day, but there were almost zero people applying.
For those many years, one valuable lesson I learnt is, being a sheep and following other people, in a lot of cases, aren't optimal, but ROI is not bad. Being cynical might make oneself seem smart and level headed, but you can also miss valuable opportunity. Don't assume the crowd know the best, but when there are a lot of people, that often indicates it is where the money is at.
I'm happy that OKC has jobs. That's wonderful. No sarcasm. I'm glad to hear it. But it's not rural. :) OKC is a big city compared to everywhere I used to live.
Where I am from most recently, there were 5 employers (in the tech field).
Two universities. They were doing a lot of outsourcing.
One engineering firm, which I worked for, which itself about 90% of all the local jobs.
Then 2-3 smaller firms about 1/10 the size of the firm I worked for. I hear that there's another firm in town these days.
Local pay was, after you did cost of living adjustments, about 30% under what you'd get elsewhere. New jobs that weren't in the big firm showed up about one-two a month, and a lot of that was skeevy MBA types wanting a startup.
This was a big city compared to where I grew up, which had 1-2 web site consultancies, a very-much-not-software engineering firm, and a consultancy I never really looked at.
The biggest challenge for economic development is getting the word out. It seems in my experience that people have it in their mind that cities are the only place you can find work, so they don't even bother looking for jobs elsewhere.
Correct.
There's no networking without working your arse off in those locales.
And if there are only 3-4 employers in town, you better believe that you don't want to lose your job, ever.
I can not recommend, in today's economy, a software engineer ever moving to a place without knowing there is an existing job creation engine running. It's too risky.
On the other hand, I'd move to Detroit if the employer was willing to 100% financially derisk the move (full relo, golden parachute on departure for any reason, massive funding of retirement, massive pay). :)
I don't see that being a big concern. There are several cities within easy commuting distance that are known for the tech industries. If worse comes to worse, I can still get to major tech hubs without any real hardship.
Although I also think that tech industries within small towns are vast underestimated by, again, those who don't know to look. You'd be surprised what companies are writing their own software. I continually am. I recently learned even the little mom and pop funeral home in my town has their own custom-built software (and were, when I learned about it, looking for a developer to work on it). It is not just Facebook and Google who need developers.
But the best part about small towns with more jobs than people is that employers will literally hire anyone. They aren't in a position to be choosy. You don't have to limit yourself to software engineering. You can do just about anything that is needed. If you really cannot find work as a developer, you can go do something else. No problem.
I agree that you probably shouldn't move to any random town, but with careful planning you can have the best of all worlds.
I'm not sure I agree with the risk premium either. With the numbers showing that there are more jobs than people, something that is definitely not the case in the city, you are comparatively better off as you can walk into virtually any job out there. If you are hung up on doing one specific job, that may be a different story, but I'm not sure someone at McDonalds is only willing to work at McDonalds.
Can't tell if the 'town you hail from' is the town you are currently in (then please ignore my question) or were previously (possibly raised) in.