How Early Exit Disease Stunts the Growth of Midwest Startup Communities

Re:How Early Exit Disease Stunts the Growth of Midwest Start... by klunger on Tuesday November 17, 2015 @02:39PM (#10583451)

Yes yes yes. I am from the Chicago burbs and a UIUC engineering alum ('09). Even though I would have preferred to move back to Chicagoland, there were simply not any relevant/compelling jobs in that area, or really anywhere else in the state. Around graduation, I got offers in several different states and inevitably moved. Most of my classmates - at least the ones who decided to continue with engineering after graduation - did the same.

ps - Chicago might not be famous for counter-culture, but it has amazing live comedy and various other fun cultural trends. It is a generally nice place to live and I would have preferred to move back after graduation, if there had been any good work for me there.

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Re:How Early Exit Disease Stunts the Growth of Midwest Start... by rhino369 on Tuesday November 17, 2015 @04:56PM (#10584262)

I think there is a real opportunity for companies to exploit the talent that is generated from Chicago and nearby universities.

Chicago doesn't just have Illinois, but UW Madison, Purdue, UMich, Northwestern, etc. The Midwest is churning out tons of qualified engineers.

And the cost and quality of life is dollar for dollar the best in America.

Also the engineering culture is more geared to industrial and mature technology companies and less to software. There are ton of engineers doing jobs that are vital but HN would probably consider boring. That might explain why there is less entrepreneurship. Engineers have work experience in and are exposed to industries that don't easily lend themselves to entrepreneurship.

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