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IT's Last Hope — a Job In the Boonies?
GMGruman writes "Offshoring, cloud computing, automation, 'do more with less' — all of these have been chipping away at US IT workers' ability to have a job. But some companies now dangle a new possibility: Move to rural areas for lower-paying 'onshoring' jobs that can compete with lower overseas salaries. InfoWorld's Bob Violino talked to IT workers who've made the move and discovered that although it's no 'Green Acres meets Big Bang Theory' experience, a move from the big city to the hinterlands appeals mainly to just some IT worker segments, even as it provides new opportunities for others."
You might need to re-evaluate your notion of life in the boonies. Everyone I've known who has grown up in Bum Frick Nowhere has the same story... the only thing to do is drink and have sex. By the time people are done with high school, they have pretty much slept with everyone else in town. Although come to think of it, moving to the boonies would have the benefit of fresh meat syndrome. You'd be the one person everyone hadn't yet slept with, so you'd have your pick.
I don't think that the article is talking about the real boonies though. Any place that is large enough to maintain a good sized IT operation isn't the kind of boonies that I'm talking about.
Oops...supposed to be "and a chick population that hasn't been exposed to as many STD's as city girls (have) ???
Either way you say it, you truly must never have visited the heartland... clean water and untainted women are NOT its strong suit.
If you're not tied to the high-density lifestyle, making the change can be nice. I had a 20 year career in Silicon Valley and moved my family to the "boonies". Well, the suburbs of a small city in "flyover territory".
Housing is much cheaper ( 1/3 the cost), don't have the same crime or traffic. Energy is cheaper, groceries a little less. Much less "foot of government" regulation on our backs here. Taxes are comparable (by %).
Where we are, people are generally friendly. An hour to river-rafting or snow skiing, depending on the season. (we have actual seasons). Wide open spaces. Good schools. Surprisingly good food of all kinds.
On second thought, it's horrible here. You wouldn't like it. Trust me. Stay on the coasts.
The employees have nowhere else to go, and you can pay minimum wage and really screw them over.
Worse than that. If the plant closes, everyone scrambles to move to another town. Housing values plummet. The only way to move is to let the bank foreclose on your house. Now your credit is ruined too.
It's a chain reaction seen over and over again in the Midwest. It's why so many country songs are about getting out of a small town.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
I work in IT for a company that is located in a rural area. They started their business here and as they have grown over the years, they remain here for their HQ, even though they are global now. It's terrible. Sure the lack of traffic is nice, but that is about all.
Here are some realities:
1. They want you to work as if you are in some overseas sweatshop.
2. They run beyond lean but with global reach that means essentially 12-20 hour days are the norm. No comp time.
3. They do not attract top talent because of their location, while some want to get away from the city, many do not.
4. They generally are looking to avoid things like unions and costs like healthcare... I was told by HR to not even use the healthcare and instead use the clinics in Walgreens, etc. (I am expected to work 50+ hours and travel like mad, and accep tthat even if I pay for healthcare I'd be better off at some pharmacy clinic for my health.)
5. Free parking. That's another plus. FWIW.
I've been in IT for over 15 years and the writing is on the wall, this industry has become a joke. If you value any semblance of a normal life and family it's almost impossible with 24x7 on-call, travel, running so lean there is nothing but bone, extreme pressure, slashed budgets... I could go on. I value my life and time more than a paycheck, and it's coming close to the point where I make a move out of IT and into something a bit more sane.
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I live in Harrison, AR, population 12,152. We have several large businesses that need true IT help - FedEx Freight's home office is here, along with Claridge Products' headquarters, and several large manufacturing locations for various corporations.
This is the kind of town the OP is talking about - it's small, quiet, fairly low-income in general, but with good-paying IT jobs that no one is here to fill. In addition, you can get to Branson, MO in 30 minutes, or Springfield, MO in about an hour, so you're not totally deprived of the benefits of living in a larger community, if that's what you want.
Oh, and I hate it here some days. The current big issue is all the local churches trying to prevent the repeal of a ban on liquor stores in the county. Some of these people forgot that it isn't 1930, and "temperance" is not exactly a popular movement.
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