You can go home again, maybe to a high-tech job,in Southwest Virginia

by Heather B. Hayes
for Virginia Business
March 2007

Keith Brown always wanted to move back to Southwest Virginia. After leaving home in 1983, however, the computer systems analyst assumed that the rural area would never offer jobs requiring his skills.

That perception changed when Brown heard about the Return to Roots campaign. Begun in September, the program hopes to locate former residents of eight localities around Russell County, now home to high-tech firms Northrop Grumman and CGI. Return to Roots encourages former residents to apply for open positions in the area and move back home.

The program’s Web site allows companies to advertise jobs and job seekers to post resumes. “For the first time ever, we have jobs in large numbers that pay wages that are competitive with the larger metropolitan areas,” says Ed Whitmore, a Smyth County supervisor.

Northrop Grumman has an IT operation in Lebanon, and CGI has a software development and systems integration facility. However, they have struggled to fill new jobs requiring skills in software development, engineering, consulting and project management.

There’s a dearth of high-tech skills locally, and it’s a hard sell persuading workers in metro areas to move to a rural area without a mall or a Starbucks. To address the labor challenge, local officials decided to appeal to the area’s native sons and daughters.

“We’ve been exporting our best and brightest for years, and many of them left here with the knowledge that once they got a high-tech degree, they could never come back,” says Whitmore. “But that’s no longer the case, and we think a lot of them would like to move back and raise their families here.”

The program already is seeing some success. Brown, for example, is now a senior developer with CGI, and his wife, Julia, works as a technical writer for the company. The couple and their 2-year-old daughter moved in January from Cincinnati. Other former residents are posting their resumes on the Web site.