The fact that an already hugely successful SF market is growing ~37% is astounding. 45% growth for a much smaller footprint is not nearly as impressive as the sustained growth of a large market.
The other important part is that IT support is almost never a profit center and will have relatively little business impact on paper. You don't need a John Carmack or Jeff Dean of IT Support in your organization - it doesn't really matter if your IT O&S costs less or performs better than your competitors.
I really have to emphasize not working in a cost center whatever your industry or skillset if you're ambitious and talented to any degree
I think it's largely about the attitude that people have toward their job, and people with similar attitudes congregate in similar regions. People who view their job as a minor annoyance that's necessary in order to support a family, own a house, and travel occasionally are different than people who view their job as an avenue for exploring the topics that fascinate them in life. It's not a bimodal distribution (perhaps more of a spectrum) and I would say that job attitude shifts more towards "support a lifestyle" as people become older.
So yes, San Francisco and West Virginia both have tech jobs, but the reasons for people taking a job in each location are entirely different. Neither reason is wrong, but it explains the fact that certain "kinds" of tech jobs are rare and can only be found in very specific locations.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 30.9 ms ] threadCities are getting high speed Internet as well. A good majority of Lincoln, Nebraska will be fiber connected in the next year http://allocommunications.com/locations/lincoln/
Omaha (the larger city about 40-50 minutes drive away) has its own new high speed options by the two big competitors in town.
There are other interesting things going on like the Do Space too http://www.dospace.org/space
And of course, various accelerators http://straightshot.co/blog/introducing-class-of-2016/
http://www.nmotion.co/ etc
IT support -- although vital, valuable work that large companies absolutely need -- is not the same sort of work as starting up a new idea.
Or designing interfaces for some of the most iconic software and hardware companies.
Most of these centers are creating jobs - but not high paying, technical jobs. Support and cost center staffing in low cost locations relative to SV.
I really have to emphasize not working in a cost center whatever your industry or skillset if you're ambitious and talented to any degree
So yes, San Francisco and West Virginia both have tech jobs, but the reasons for people taking a job in each location are entirely different. Neither reason is wrong, but it explains the fact that certain "kinds" of tech jobs are rare and can only be found in very specific locations.