You will find some unusual vacancies on Venture Capital Jobs in Wyomingthe state’s newest jobs board. Generative AI product manager, for example, or machine learning engineer.
Not only are the job categories surprising, the salaries are also generally above average. They followed in the wake of a new crop of startups in Wyoming, created thanks to a $58.4 million allocation to Wyoming from the U.S. Department of the Treasury for the State Small Business Credit Initiative.
The money is venture capital to invest directly in startups in Wyoming. The Wyoming Business Council focuses the money on new businesses that can make a difference for the state in terms of diversification or economic impact.
“What we saw after we made some of these direct investments in Wyoming companies is that they had difficulty finding good talent from Wyoming,” Bert Adam, managing director of the Wyoming Business Council and Wyoming Venture Capital, told Cowboy State Daily. “And that’s part of the lens that we use to make sure that these are good investments for Wyoming, the economic development agency for the state.
“How do they recruit? What is the economic impact, where are the jobs, what are the wages and capital expenditures that they can put into Wyoming?”
Fighting back against brain drain
The new jobs board will only list positions that are physically located in Wyoming or that are remote jobs that Wyomingites could fill.
“These are some of the jobs that we might not think about as much,” Adam said. “Like there are some really interesting jobs that you might not find anywhere else. The generative AI product manager, for example. How many companies in Wyoming are hiring AI product managers or machine learning engineers?
Highlighting these diverse positions that were not normally available in Wyoming is something Josh Dorrell, CEO of the Wyoming Business Council, hopes will catch the attention of recent and future graduates of the state, as well as Wyomingites who may be considering have left the state for greener pastures, but would. happy to return
“This can only broaden people’s views on the types of jobs available in Wyoming,” he said. “And that’s important, because our students usually leave and people feel like they can’t come back. So opening up these new opportunities broadens the idea of what jobs are available in Wyoming to continue to address the talent exodus.”
That exodus of talent is quite significant, Dorrell added.
“By the time people are in their 30s, so late 20s and beyond, we’re losing 65% of those people,” he said. “And there’s only one other state with a bigger exodus, and I think that could be West Virginia. So we’re trying to reverse that trend and make sure people are aware of these opportunities and not only stay, but come back.”
Versatile effort
Transplants, meanwhile, are nowhere near keeping up with the loss of talent, Dorrell said.
“The only demographic that’s really growing in the state of Wyoming right now is the 65-plus (category),” he said. “So those demographics are growing, but typically they are not part of the workforce.”
Wyoming has several ongoing efforts to understand these trends and try to mitigate them, Dorrell said.
That work suggests it may not just be the problem that salaries in the state are not competitive with opportunities in surrounding states.
“We’re going to dig into that to really understand what those impacts are,” Dorrell said. “Because (salaries) can be part of it. I think the availability of opportunity, and the idea that you may be able to get a comparable salary if you match the cost of living in a community, but this may be the only opportunity you have. So if it doesn’t work out, you’re kind of stuck.”
That’s where he thinks the job board for startups can be useful, by highlighting some of the unusual new opportunities Wyoming is creating.
“People want to have options in addition to that salary,” Dorrell said. “And then also community facilities that improve the quality of life.”
Renee Jean can be reached at [email protected].