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Tech Work in the Boonies?
ERIAMJH asks: "I am a tech working in the metro DC area and my wife wants/desires/requires/NEEDS to move out to a rural area. She can't stand the city/suburb living any longer, and I either go along or she goes without me. I've thought of the telecommute option, or maybe start a small business in an under-served area. I've been doing all kinds of tech work for the last 9 years. I've been slowly moving from the sys admin side to software development. I'm now working on prerequisites for a Computer Science MS. I work for a large defense contractor on a government contract. I would love to work on smaller projects with more individual input, but I worry I will end up working construction or plumbing. Have any of you moved from the hustle bustle of the big city to the peaceful countryside and actually found good work?"
If you're thinking a small town, you could easily set up a small computer shop, and do tech house calls for a relatively large area around the town you're based in.
If you're really isolated (ie. on a farm), then you will have more problems.
boom boom boom
You could try working remotely - systems admin and code-cutting are two IT related roles that can be performed reasonably easily from a remote location.
Systems admin can mostly be done via a VPN connection (unless your VPN gateway is the problem requiring tech support), and code-cutting can be performed similarly.
You might need to check what network connectivity you can get from a non-urban or suburban location, but you should be able to find something reasonable.
Fast, cheap & reliable. Pick two.
Everybody needs a phone. Even someone in the "boonies". That means there are a ton of small to mid-sized telecom companys sprinkled throughout the "boonies". Usually this telecom is also the local ISP. That means UNIX. That means project development. Since they own the copper, they almost always make a profit. That means they have money to spend. This is a good thing.
For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
And you guys wonder why you're single...
Seriously, think about it. Presumably, he loves his wife and wants her to be happy. For whatever reason, she can't be happy in their urban/suburban environment. So he wants to make a move to someplace where she will be happy.
Who's making the most money has nothing to do with it.
And before you say I don't know what I'm talking about.... I made a very similar decision last year. I make almost twice as much as my boyfriend. I was laid off, and the jobs I was seeing in my field were all out on the east coast. Problem is, moving out east would have made my boyfriend seriously unhappy. So I looked for other opportunities. I did find something local, and we're currently living happily ever after. If I'd just said "screw you, I make the big bucks, we'll go where my career says we need to go", I doubt we'd be together. I certainly wouldn't stay with someone with that attitude. A marriage (or any long term relationship) is a partnership, and the person with the biggest salary should not use that to call all the shots.