Bakari Levy, Full Stack Software Developer

Originally from Brooklyn, New York. I went to Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. I was a math major there. Currently, I'm a full-stack software developer.

One thing that I noticed about Ohio is that it seems to be a hub for a lot of other, you know, states and cities that are outside of Ohio. So I have noticed in my personal experience, a lot of people coming from Washington, D.C. I've seen people coming from Chicago, Detroit, all sorts of areas around here. I wasn't really expecting it, expecting downtown Columbus to be pretty similar to home. I think of it as downtown, similar to downtown Brooklyn in many ways.

But, if you're the type of person who you want to be challenged by your work and you want to experience, you know, working in a fast paced environment, but you don't necessarily wanna deal with the certain associations and culture that comes with being in a Silicon Valley, then there are great opportunities here in Ohio. There's something for everyone here. From a technology standpoint as well as a cultural standpoint. I'm a big proponent of encouraging people back home who I know to come and at least go to school out here because it's a different environment.

In Ohio, I found adventure.

Iulia Poe, Digital Marketing Specialist

I moved here about three years ago from Romania. We decided to stay in Ohio just because it's a central location and it has great higher educational programs. It's really close to Cincinnati, it's really close to Cleveland, and a lot of bands also come here, so it's really easy for us to catch as many concerts as we can. 

I'm a digital marketer. I mostly work with email marketing and PPC. I found a lot of community here, and just a sense of belonging. And, everyone is included. That was a nice change. There are so many groups here, and there's such an amazing community support for growth and entrepreneurship as well. I've actually recently went to a few for machine learning and its helped me kind of figure out some other areas to expand in.

In Ohio, I found home. I found a supportive community that understands that the best way to get to the top is together.

Louis John Murray, Lead Data Analyst

I was originally recruited to come here to come play rugby. And then, got the job as kind of a bonus of coming to Ohio. I'm the data leader at Futurety. I mainly focus on data visualization and data analysis, driving business insight based off of the data that a business has. In general, from what I've seen, Ohio tends to have a lot more opportunity when it comes to marketing and data analytics, specifically. You do have this growing economy, a lot of smaller companies that are looking for talented people straight out of college. And then, that gives you the opportunity to grow however you see fit.

Living in Ohio, you do have an opportunity for great work-life balance. For me, personally, that it's really easy to go straight from work to the gym, to rugby practice or anything that else I wanna do. And then, still have more time to spend with friends, family, things like that. I've got my mom in Louisville and then my sister in Indianapolis. It really is easy on a weekend, or anything like that, if you wanna shoot back home.

Rich Hill, Leader of Strategy & Architecture

My Ohio story is I was born and raised in Cincinnati. Lived my entire life in Ohio. I think my career in Ohio has been fantastic. I think Ohio offers some really unique opportunities. We've got some of the worlds biggest and strongest companies all based out of Ohio and many of them based out of Cincinnati.

At the same time, you got a great work life balance where you've really got the opportunity to do great things from a career perspective. But also, I think the standards and values are really around making sure that you can balance that with that's important to you personally. Whether that's having a family, whether it's going out and hiking, whether it's sports. I think Ohio's really special for the community and for the sense of collaboration. The people here really love being here and they really also care about each other.

In Ohio, I found opportunity.

Charles Green, Software Developer

I wasn't raised here. I'm actually from Bluefield, West Virginia. What made Ohio special was the fact that it's very welcoming to veterans. One of the things that Ohio allowed me to do was establish residency right out of the military. I am developer for Salesforce CRM platform, customer relationship management, as well as a military veteran.

Even if you don't really wanna go to school, I feel as though Columbus is really pushing for even alternative ways of actually getting into this industry. Say, for example, they have apprentice programs, also bootcamps, Tech Elevator. Everybody's reaching out so you can do software development, get into the industry in a nontraditional way.

Coming to Ohio, it just felt comfortable.