IT/Software jobs in Omaha?

[Bostonian]

Hi. As part of my research on different cities to relocate, I am going to be looking at job sites and calling recruiters. I have worked at software companies and a few financial places doing software testing and related activities which I dont want to get too technical about here. I'm just interested in hearing first hand accounts from people who may work in the field in Omaha or know people who do. Also are there are any software company office parks sprouting up anywhere? Like a mini silicon valley or something? Or have companies there just shipped it all over to India?! Yes I know the industry has been hard hit everywhere but "they" say it's slowly coming back. Where though I don't know.

If my wife and I decide to relocate to Omaha we would love to live at the Rows at SoMa but uh I would need a job to do that!

Thanks!

David

[eomaha]

Omaha's IT jobs are spread throughout the metro. Back in the 80's we used to call the Old Mill area at 108th and West Dodge... the Silicon Ditch (with the Papillion Creek running alongside)... but First Data has since relocated most of it's jobs to other metro locations (Transaction Systems Architects...formerly Applied Communications, a powerhouse in ATM software... remains there).

I haven't been out in the market for quite some time... from what I've heard from friends/former colleagues... it's not too bad. Union Pacific has been filling the largest number of open positions... as they are relocating many jobs from St Louis. The next biggest opportunity may come from military contractors (largest being Northrop Grumman) in Bellevue which is seeing a surge from expansion of Offutt Airbase's role (headquarters to Strategic Command which relatively recently took Space Command under it's umbrella). Of course Omaha has an unusually large number of F500 headquarters here... more than KC... add to UP... Mutual of Omaha, Con Agra, Kiewit Construction, and Berkshire Hathaway (although Berkshire doesn't have much of a workforce in Omaha... being purely a holding company). Other biggies include First National (largest private bank!)... Commercial Federal (top 10 public thrift bank!)... Ameritrade (largest online trader!)... Werner Trucking (one of largest trucking companies... very cool truck tracking systems they develop in house!)... Oriental Trading Company, First Data of course, PayPal, InfoUSA, numerous other insurance/financial services companies.

As far as find these jobs... Omaha has a very good resource in http://www.careerlink.org ... you'll find thousands of jobs here.

Good luck!