I too am from Ohio. I myself found it difficult to find a company that had a reputable software department and also pay well. So of course I jumped on my first well paying offer. Now I am somewhat regreting it. I tend to do a lot of work on my own. I have yet to have any real team based software tasks. Also within my first 6 months I was asked to darasticly alter a legacy product that was not maintained and retofit it for a new customer. I had no real world experience before this so of course my branch of the code is showing big problems. With that over my head and the expectation that I need to develop another product from the ground up, I am becoming extremely stressed. I guess a question for you, being from Ohio, are there any places that you believe have a good environment for a aspiring coder?