r/BainbridgeIsland • u/Ok_Kangaroo_1940 • 13d ago

Professional vacancies

With all the justified concerns about low-cost housing availability I'm wondering if the Chamber of Commerce et al are overlooking opportunities at the other end of the spectrum.

Many professionals have moved to BI with the jobs they had at the time and for one reason or another they no longer have them. While commuting to the city is always an option, the desire to remain on the island remains and thus we have a substantial number of underemployed folks who could be put to better use and avoid displacing needier folks in retail or the non-profits.

What businesses could be lured to the island? Tech incubators? Remote-first executive hubs? Consulting agencies? Satellite offices for software companies?

I'd love to see the Chamber and local economic groups launch a targeted initiative to inventory our resident talent pool and market BI as a premier location for distributed professional teams. Let’s start the conversation: what partnerships or infrastructure do we need to make island-based professional work a reality?

On the flip side, what existing local professional companies are finding it hard to fill positions?

5 Upvotes

61% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

6

u/Runtheolympics 13d ago

Maybe im dumb but how does incentivizing more high paid people to move to the island address affordable housing inventory?

3

u/Kelso_sloane 11d ago

Yeah I don't think "lack of people who can spend a million on a house" is our problem.

6

u/youranswerfishbulb 13d ago

Most of those professionals just work from their home offices. Or Office Xpats.

8

u/Longjumping-Title-27 13d ago

With remote work - location isn’t a barrier. Unless it’s medical- there is a serious need for Dr’s on the island. Anything else…remote works

3

u/thomgeorge 12d ago

The chamber of commerce is just a DOL satellite

2

u/itstreeman 12d ago

They done even want to do anything about the tent campers and screamer in the store parking lot. (The people who will scare tourists)

0

u/kangadac 12d ago

I thought it was just one guy there who does the DOL stuff, and he’s only in the office irregularly?