Meet Libby Ediger. She’s the CEO and Executive Director of Atlas School, a software engineering training center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. But in a past life, she was on the ground floor of a booming tech startup in Washington DC. Originally from Stillwater, love brought Libby back to Oklahoma. Now, she’s using what she learned on the East Coast to champion Oklahoma’s burgeoning tech industry and its next generation of professionals. She joined Live in Oklahoma to share a few reasons she decided to make her home state her home again.
I moved back to Oklahoma because I fell in love. I actually grew up in Stillwater, and I loved that small town feel with all of the amenities that come from being really close to a large university. But I left and moved away for college, and I really wasn’t sure if or when I would move back.
Coming home, visiting family at an Oklahoma State University football game, I was introduced to my now-husband. I truly fell in love, like, head over heels. He was living in Tulsa and working in the oil and gas industry. After getting to know each other and dating long distance for two and a half years, I also fell in love with the city of Tulsa and with the things my home state was doing. It felt like a really good opportunity to move home.
Career Access
One of the reasons I love being back in Oklahoma is the access. I feel like you can get further in your career faster. I moved back from the East Coast, where I felt like it was all about paying your dues. It felt like you had to climb some sort of corporate ladder, or that there was a formula that you had to follow in order to be successful.
It’s deeply refreshing to be back in a place where that gets put to the wayside, and it’s just about your excitement and your hunger, your interest, and helping others that matters. There really is a sense of openness and excitement around people who want to get involved.
Oklahoma’s Tech Industry
One of the reasons I love being back in Oklahoma is that we have a booming tech industry. I think it’s something that people don’t expect when they think of Oklahoma, but we not only have companies that are software businesses or tech-driven businesses, but all of our anchor industries have really pivoted and invested in technology too.
Being on the cutting edge of this growing industry for the state of Oklahoma means that there was room to build something from scratch.
Shorter Commutes
Something that could be small, but it really impacts my life living here, is my commute.
Time is such a precious resource and commodity, and I get to spend as little time in the car as possible, which means I’m either spending my time doing what I love here at Atlas School and impacting our students, or I’m out of the office doing the things I love most, like being with my family.
I get to spend less time sitting in a car and having to get from point A to point B and get to spend more time of my life doing the things I love.
I did have to give up my in-depth audiobooks, though. It is very difficult to start and stop a book when your commute is roughly seven minutes long. I’ve had to shift to podcasts.
Affordable Homes
If your pastime, like my pastime, is looking through Zillow on your phone at night, you will not be surprised that the homes here are affordable.
You can find pieces of history. Home from back in the 20s and 30s when the oil boom happened. We have an incredible neighborhood of mid-century modern houses that have been renovated and kept and preserved.
Best of Both Worlds
I live in a city where I get to provide my kids access to music and shows and excellent culture and cuisine, and a lot of the things that I felt like I went out and searched for when I moved to the East Coast. But it also still has that connectedness and the small-town elements where you bump into people at the grocery store and you have a set of people who know you deeply. To be able to provide both of those sets of experiences to my kids really is the best of both worlds.
You have to see the meetings happening over cups of coffee and tour our fantastic museums and eat the best dumplings that I’ve ever had in my life. You have to be here on the ground to really see what it’s like.
If you’re on the fence, just grab a plane ticket. Come visit us. We would love to show you around.
