If you're concerned about getting laid off, no, I wouldn't relocate.

The area's not nearly as cheap as it used to be, and has very few of the benefits you'd be used to in a larger city.

Your main dev shops here are O’Reilly Auto, Bass Pro Shops, and Expedia, and there are also a handful of smaller shops as well - between them all they’re almost always hiring, O’Reilly especially. I worked there for a number of years and had a good experience before getting a consulting job for a firm out of town, and working remotely from here has been terrific. Missouri State runs the eFactory downtown, and that provides a nice coworking space and incubator for startups. Most parts of town should have access to fiber internet soon as well. If you like Springfield itself, which I do, then it’s pretty easy to set up shop here.

O’Reilly currently has several remote Software Engineer positions available.

Springfield actually has a lot going on as far as things to do go, and if you are willing to travel an hour or two, there are a TON of things to do around here. There is a huge contingency of our subreddit that thinks "things to do" consist entirely of eating at restaurants and going to shows, and if that's your bag, then you're going to be disappointed in the number and quality of our live shows.

However, if you like to actually DO things, here's a few I can think of right off the top of my head:

1. We have three really strong mountain biking areas right outside of town. Sac River (old school trails, not much flow, and lots of rocks and roots), Two Rivers (newer flow-style trails as well as some classic xc and tech downhill), and Fellows Lake (even newer, mostly flow/xc, but really nice) and I guess you could say Howler is nearby as well, in Forsyth, and it's very techy and has some unusually large jumps. There is a strong gravel bike scene around here too. On weekends I often drive the 1 hour and 50 minutes to Bentonville, and their insane mountain bike trail network.

2. Stockton Lake has some of the best inland sailing in the United States. You can get a cheap sailboat and have a blast there. I sailed for years on Stockton, and it's a lot of cheap fun. The water is clean (it's where we get our drinking water) and clear, and there's no development on the lake, and there's very few billboards on the way there. Very nice.

3. We live within a few hours of some of the very best class I and II canoeing rivers in the whole country. I've canoed all over, and I will put our rivers up against any of them.

4. We have a public indoor skatepark with an outdoor section as well. It's a nice facility, but it does cost $7 to go, but that helps keep the scooter kids away. Not many cities in America have indoor skateparks where you can skate when it's freezing outside. It's a very inviting scene as well, when some skateparks can have a locals-only vibe.

5. We have a pretty cool stock-car race track out by the airport, and it's a lot of fun. In fact, you can get into stock car racing for way less than you would expect, and for not much more than getting into mountain bike racing.

6. We've got a bunch of places to play pinball, and there's quite a few people locally who restore pinball machines. It's a fun hobby, and there are tournaments.

7. There's a big steam and vintage tractor show every year called Steam-O-Rama, and honestly it's the greatest thing. They have grade-school children driving 20 ton steam tractors through crowds, and corn dogs and home-made ice cream. Maybe the best weekend of the year?

That's just what I could think of at the moment, there's a ton more. My schedule is usually so full of fun stuff to do that it's hard to fit it all in. I know a lot of people who are into woodworking, and welding, and vintage car restoration. There's a lot going on, but you kind of have to get out there and go for it. Nobody is going to spoon-feed you entertainment around here like they might in a larger town.

I can’t say I recommend relocating because there’s a lot that goes into that decision. However, I’m a remote software engineer and I like living here well enough. There are a few coworking spaces around town and plenty of coffee shops if you want out of the house. The tech scene is growing here and there’s lots of people here who want to foster that growth. I think Springfield has a lot of potential, but as others have said, it’s not really that much cheaper than a bigger city now and it doesn’t have the amenities that a larger city does.

There are lots of small, local places that hire a handful of devs, but there are also some large companies that have hundreds of devs. We have O’Reilly, Jack Henry, and Expedia here and I know lots of local people who work at those places and like their jobs. I think Bass Pro also has some dev jobs here, as well as Missouri State University.

Lived in STL for 7 years and relocated back to Springfield a few years ago while still working remotely for a company there.

If you're living in a larger city, you will miss things like good grocery stores, restaurants, and other attractions that larger cities bring. Real estate is cheaper when you compare what you are actually getting for your money.

I personally wouldn't count on finding a local job if you are planning to get laid off. Springfield has substantially less jobs compared to metros like KC/STL.

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I just moved here from Portland for an entry level dev job. It was quite the shift from bustling metro city to small town vibes, but if that’s what you’re into you’ll love it. especially if you’re planning on a family or to settle down in general. Local compensation is generally lower than market rate. But it’s way cheaper to live here than Austin. Some cool bars and coffee shops too.

For the love of god, do not ask here.

Also, Springfield has a very low CoL compared to Austin or St. Louis. I'm currently interning as a SWE so I can't say too much about the field, but Springfield is a very good place to be in for remote SWE work

I’m teaching myself front end web dev pls go away/stay away

If you want to live in a totally redneck, Hoosier area, move to Springfield

If you get laid off, and have to look for a Springfield software job, which pays 30k-50k… I’m not sure you would enjoy that.

What’s your specialty, “software engineer?”