I'm living in Detroit (or the Detroit area, I guess, not Detroit proper). The issues with working in software out here in the (so called) hinterlands is few-fo

I'm living in Detroit (or the Detroit area, I guess, not Detroit proper). The issues with working in software out here in the (so called) hinterlands is few-fold. 1. You can work for companies in the traditional rust belt industrial base, but companies like the Big3, Delphi, etc (I'm sure whirlpool and Amway are like this out in western Mich). seem to be just as happy outsourcing IT to the lowest bidder. And why wouldn't they? It's not their core business. GM is trying to change that but their job descriptions still mostly read like the kind that ask for 8+ years in a specific esoteric technology so they can claim they can't find anyone and will just go with an H1-B. 2. You can work for companies that aren't in any way related to the big names. Smaller software companies in the 50-500 employee range exist around the area. The thing is it can be kind of lonely working at one of these places because there's not a huge industry of producing software to sell out here. There aren't a whole lot of them. And the benefits are certainly not Silicon Valley, though the pay adjusted for the cost of living is still pretty good. This is the kind of place that I work in. 3. You can work for a company based elsewhere with a branch that's local. These kinds of jobs can be hard to find since companies don't usually advertise their secondary and tertiary locations. Plus working in the small branch of BIGCO(TM) may mean that you will have the choice of having to either find a new job or move when they close that branch down. There's also the issue that you may not be able to really grow professionally at a small branch office. 4. You can work remote. I am starting to perhaps explore this option.I think there's lots of promise here. But it's still hard to search and find remote jobs. And I'm not sure that remote employees are treated equal to in office ones in a lot of employers when it comes to career progression. 5. There is a local startup scene here. Both in Ann Arbor and Detroit with their own incubators, and I'm sure there are ones strewn about the rest of the rust belt. I think this also holds a lot of promise. But I'm not sure we're there just yet. I don't know if there's been any truly huge exits for startups native to the rust belt.