About a month ago the Des Moines Business Record published an article called Luring IT Workers, by Jason Hancock. The jist of the article was the fact that Iowa’s growing IT industry does not have enough labor to fulfill IT needs. It’s a simple supply and demand issue. There are several reasons why – of which many can be associated to the so-called “Brain-drain” that Iowa suffers. That is – we lose our best and brightest because they want to get out of Iowa and head to a coast. I used to be the same way until I decided to stay.
Aside from the fact that we lose our young talented IT professionals because they want to get out of Iowa – they could be leaving because we have no cool jobs in Iowa.
In order to validate my thoughts I decided to peruze job boards for Des Moines, IA and compare them to their counterparts in Seattle or Silicon Valley. The differences, other than a major pay increase on the coasts, are the jobs there are for cool, innovative, cutting-edge companies – not insurance companies.
The jobs are for creating rich internet applications, mobile applications, RSS based applications, video and blogging sites, new media, etc. They are not for doing code-monkey work like sitting in a cubicle all day heads down staring at COBOL code for the local insurance company – making decent money but never doing anything fun with your skills.
So the game plan should be to foster an entrepreneurial technology landscape to make it easy for cool startups to form. Once those cool startups form there will be plenty of cool jobs. Once there are plenty of cool jobs we’ll start seeing less people go to those jobs and more people coming to them.
That’s my two cents…
Tags: Iowa, Des Moines, Jobs, IT
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I can vouch for the major reason I left Iowa was that I didn’t want to work at an Insurance or Banking company. But lately I’ve been getting a lot of calls from companies back there asking me to come interview. But they usually back down after they hear about the benefits I get. I’m willing to take a pay cut to get back to the midwest, but the companies there aren’t even able to come close to the sort of benefits we are getting here in SoCal.
Andy,
I couldn’t agree more! If the state is serious about attracting talented people to stay in the state, move back, or invite new-comers, they need to be involved in helping foster a startup-friendly environment.
I would love to work with some like-minded people to form some sort of — I really hate to use this word — “committee” to put together ideas, needs, plans, etc. and try to work with both the state, investors and philanthropic organizations to start laying a foundation for this.
There is an abundance of talent and creativity all across the state, but I think there needs to be a concerted effort to help create an environment where that talent can thrive economically.
I could write a book on this… ’nuff for now. :)
Great post!
Excellent comments. We should start a petition of IT / Web Professionals and hand it over to the Iowa Economic Development / TAI / anyone who will listen.
I doubt it would work but it sure would let them know we are out here and that we are having conversations – with or without them.
I think if the petition had some sort of “action plan” involved it would stand a better chance of growing legs… but yes, I agree… we need to start getting on their radar more often.
Cj B, was hoping you could clarify what some of the benefits are that companies out there are offering that are different from what’s offered in the midwest? Thanks!
Also – the original post here is excellent but there’s one point that should be expanded. A “major pay increase on the coasts” can be offset by a major increase in the cost of living. NYC’s cost of living is over 200% of the national average; San Francisco’s is over 172% of the national average; Portland, 121% over national average. Meanwhile, Des Moines’ cost of living is just 90.5 percent of the national average. So while the dollar figure of a coastal salary may sound astronomical to a Midwesterner, it can cost more than twice as much to live in those cities.
Obviously, salary is just one aspect of a relocation – benefits, quality of life, amenities, etc. all play a role as well.
~ Janet
Janet, I agree with you about the cost of living. I make a pretty good salary here, but can’t even come CLOSE to affording a house. I’ve been looking at condos, but the ones in my price range are CRAP! If I were to move back to Iowa, I could afford a decent house on half what I currently make.
As for your benefits question. My major benefits which most companies in Iowa haven’t been able to meet are:
1) Profit Sharing and bonuses – Even with a 401(k) match, I wouldn’t be able to save as much in a retirement account as what my company currently fully provides.
2) Full healthcare at NO cost. I get 100% of my medical bills, prescriptions, eye doctor, dental, even over the counter drugs paid for by the company. No co-pay, no nothing. Even Laser eye surgery is covered after one full year on the plan (can’t wait for my one year anniversary!). There is a limit to your total costs each year, but you’d have to be in a serious accident or something to reach that limit.
These first two are Major for me.
3) Flex hours. (Some companies have been close on this, but not to the same extent). I can come into the office pretty much whenever I feel like, or just work from home. Last minute vacation? No problem, call up the boss the night before and tell him I’m out for a week. (Granted I only get 2 full weeks of vacation, but I can always just put in more then 40 hours one week and use that time later)
4) Various perks. Including, new laptops (I’ve been getting a new one every year since starting here), weekly happy-hour, etc.
Maybe I’m just being spoiled by working at a dot-com. The first two are fairly substantial though, I’d hate to have to take a pay cut of nearly 40% and then have to pay for medical and retirement!
Excellent conversation…
Janet – You made a very good point that I should have elaborated on when mentioning the salary difference. Cost of living is a very big factor when weighing in salary. Salary was just one difference I wanted to note.
Cj B makes another great point of benefits but there’s also the little perks he eluded to. I’ve posted about the work environments at companies like Yahoo! and Google where the atmosphere is conducive to having fun which is a great envrionment to work in. I’ve worked at some startups in Des Moines that had those perks early in the business but once it was established they definitely waned.
Most of the ‘cool jobs’ I’d like to see would inherently come with cool and fun environments to work in.
I hear that crop insurance is pretty sweet.
Cj B, thank you for the complete and thoughtful response about benefits – the medical insurance in particular is a huge one. Appreciate the additional info!
Andy – great conversation – thanks for the opportunity to weigh in!
~ Janet
Maybe it’s time to move back now:
http://www.kcci.com/news/13529310/detail.html
Looks like the cool jobs might be on their way.
Wow CjB… Thanks for linking that article. Thats very interesting.
“Even Laser eye surgery is covered after one full year on the plan (can’t wait for my one year anniversary!).” I think you have it pretty good compared to what my benefits package.
Flex hours – I do have these but its more in half hour intervals.. There is no way I can take a vacation on the fly with less than a months notice. Too many pointless meetings etc.
There are my two sense… I think you have it pretty good if you ask me.
Yes let’s hope Google’s move to Iowa spawns more innovative tech development. Maybe I’ll have to take them up on their interview, although they still don’t have any of the software division out here.
Our governor said he hopes this helps to turn Iowa into the Silicon Valley of the midwest. That sounds wonderful but what will the State do about it?
It’s my dream and why I stayed. We’ll see what happens.
WOW! Solid convo here! I’m disappointed that I couldn’t chime in sooner!
As much as I hate “committees”… put me on the short list if you decide to brainstorm. I think we rely too much on the public sector. If we’re going to create stuff, we’re going to have to do it in the private sector.
That being said, the public sector should take on the role of support… not leadership. The times have changed and competition is changing too quickly to not follow entrepreneurs like yourselves.