3 ms·

Really good article - didn't come across as preachy and condescending as a lot of "big media organisation interviews poor white people" stories tend to go. I m

Really good article - didn't come across as preachy and condescending as a lot of "big media organisation interviews poor white people" stories tend to go. I myself would love to buy a house in a small town. It's a much more realistic option for me than buying in a city. And I'm sure as a programmer I could find a job. But then what happens when - or if - that employer shuts up shop? It's a massive risk.

randomdata 8y ago
I’ve spent my almost 20 year career as a developer in a rural area and found that there are plenty of places trying to hire developers, not to mention that remote work is also available. I personally have never seen it as being all that risky. The very worst case is that you move back to the city, which is exactly where you’d be if you never left.
- HumanDrivenDev 8y ago
  What sort of places want developers in rural areas?
  - randomdata 8y ago
    There are lots of tech companies, relatively speaking. But also I've found software developers in some less obvious and surprising places. For instance, the mom and pop funeral home in town maintain their own software. My first development job was at a warehousing business on their inventory management system.
souprock 8y ago
Worst case: You move again. Sure, that sucks, but you moved there in the first place. You can move again. It's not that big of a deal, and that negative is balanced off by all the nice things about being out of the urban environment. In many cases, you won't actually need to move.
S_Bear 8y ago
I moved to a small town in Middle-of-Nowhere, MN last year. It's great. My wife and I bought a small house for $40k. Our house will be paid for in no time, then it doesn't matter what we do. We do miss some things about living in the city, but having nature so close and neighbors who can keep an eye on things for us is fantastic. Even though we're making less than we were in a bigger metro (St. Louis) we're saving a lot more and our quality of life is much better.
- HumanDrivenDev 8y ago
  Nice job, remote work? I fantasize about doing similar, but I live in NZ, so even if I branched out to somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Australia I'd probably be looking at at least 100k USD for a decent place. Still, sure beats 300k USD minimum for a place in a city.
  - S_Bear 8y ago
    No. I'm a librarian that teaches computer skills to the elderly, so I'm actually in pretty high demand in rural areas. My wife works in an office doing invoicing. Childfree, so that helps quite a bit.

randomdata 8y ago

I’ve spent my almost 20 year career as a developer in a rural area and found that there are plenty of places trying to hire developers, not to mention that remote work is also available. I personally have never seen it as being all that risky. The very worst case is that you move back to the city, which is exactly where you’d be if you never left.

HumanDrivenDev 8y ago
What sort of places want developers in rural areas?
- randomdata 8y ago
  There are lots of tech companies, relatively speaking. But also I've found software developers in some less obvious and surprising places. For instance, the mom and pop funeral home in town maintain their own software. My first development job was at a warehousing business on their inventory management system.

souprock 8y ago

Worst case: You move again. Sure, that sucks, but you moved there in the first place. You can move again. It's not that big of a deal, and that negative is balanced off by all the nice things about being out of the urban environment. In many cases, you won't actually need to move.

S_Bear 8y ago

I moved to a small town in Middle-of-Nowhere, MN last year. It's great. My wife and I bought a small house for $40k. Our house will be paid for in no time, then it doesn't matter what we do. We do miss some things about living in the city, but having nature so close and neighbors who can keep an eye on things for us is fantastic. Even though we're making less than we were in a bigger metro (St. Louis) we're saving a lot more and our quality of life is much better.

HumanDrivenDev 8y ago
Nice job, remote work? I fantasize about doing similar, but I live in NZ, so even if I branched out to somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Australia I'd probably be looking at at least 100k USD for a decent place. Still, sure beats 300k USD minimum for a place in a city.
- S_Bear 8y ago
  No. I'm a librarian that teaches computer skills to the elderly, so I'm actually in pretty high demand in rural areas. My wife works in an office doing invoicing. Childfree, so that helps quite a bit.