Category: Talent

Run into Devin McGrew in downtown Sioux Falls, on the recreation trail or in a nearby state park and chances are her German shepherd, Cash, will be alongside her.

“Sioux Falls, for the size it is, is one of the most dog-friendly areas I’ve been in,” said McGrew, who moved to town at the end of 2023.

“We are out and about almost every weekend — we hit up one of the parks, or we’re downtown. He was previously a little country dog and wasn’t used to being around people, so we’re doing socialization, and he’s in day care a couple days a week. I like to bring him downtown, and they have water bowls and dog treats at businesses everywhere. They’re so dog-friendly.”

The community’s friendliness quickly has allowed both Cash and his dog mom to feel at home.

McGrew moved to Sioux Falls following a year in West Virginia and before that spent a decade in Florida. A new regional human resources role for C&B Operations drove her moves, and she’s now ready to move with her leadership colleagues into the company’s new downtown office at The Steel District.

“They encouraged everyone who is a director and above to move to Sioux Falls,” she said. “Prior to taking the role, I’d never given South Dakota a second thought.”

But her first week at work in 2023 brought a trip to Sioux Falls with it, followed by multiple additional work travel opportunities to the city.

“Working with this team is just phenomenal. They’re amazing,” she said. “And you have this nice city, but then it’s also like little small-town America, which is so fun for me. I would tell people to come visit. Once you visit Sioux Falls, it opens your eyes to so many things available here.”

After browsing homes to rent, she found one she liked on the far west side closer to Tea.

“I’ll probably end up buying within the next year,” she said. “I wanted to get to know the area. I love downtown, but Cash really enjoys a big yard, so I’ll probably stick with a house so he has that.”

She appreciates that despite living on the edge of the city, it’s about a 15-minute commute to her job downtown.

“Everything is so walkable downtown,” she added. “You have the river, and it’s just so cool because the cost of living compared to where I came from is very comparable, but you get so many more amenities here.”

Her new office, which will open this fall, will be directly adjacent to Falls Park and the recreation trail.

“I’m so excited for it,” she said. “We did a tour recently, and it’s absolutely gorgeous inside. It’s going to be unreal. We’ll have outdoor lunch space, which is so nice when you’re in an office all day, plus we’ll be able to easily go outside and walk.”

The new C&B office joins many other business expansions in various industries offering outstanding opportunities for newcomers to Sioux Falls, said Denise Guzzetta, vice president of talent and workforce development for the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

“Corporate relocations are a big reason why people move to Sioux Falls, and Devin’s experience is an amazing example of what you’ll find here,” she said. “You’re going to find forward-looking employers who understand the environment employees are looking for, combined with a community where you’ll be able to afford and enjoy a fantastic lifestyle.”

Plus, “there’s the added bonus of no state income taxes, so you get a little bump in your paycheck if you relocate to South Dakota,” McGrew added. “So that’s always a plus for people.”

As she settles into the community, in addition to spending time with her dog outdoors, McGrew has been enjoying Siouxland Libraries.

“I love to read, and I’ve done some of their activities, which is nice because I love to support libraries,” she said. “The ease of use is great with an app, and the interactions I’ve had with everyone have been wonderful. I did an art activity that was totally free, all the supplies were there, and we painted little floral planters, and it was a good way to make connections in the community.”

Most importantly, she has felt welcome here, McGrew added.

“It’s stood out to me how nice and friendly everyone is,” she said. “I’m a single person, and I was trying to lift chairs into my car at Walmart, and someone right away came up to help. I know a lot of people talk about Southern charm, but this is bar none.”

Are you ready to make your next work-life move to Sioux Falls? Email deniseg@siouxfalls.com to get connected.

After living for two years in Manhattan and one year about 45 minutes north, Torrel Moseley was ready to trade the New York City area for something entirely different.

“I was looking at doing the digital nomad life for the next year or so and heard good things about getting residency in South Dakota, so I checked it out,” said Moseley, a Colorado native who has spent the past several years working as a software engineer.

A “digital nomad” is a remote worker who chooses to travel from place to place and work from different locations along the way. One day, you might find the person in a coffee shop; the next, a different state in a co-working space.

“I had been looking at places where digital nomads were operating,” Moseley explained. “I learned that in South Dakota, even if you stay one night, if you establish a mailing address here and have the intent of staying, you can get residency just after staying one night. It’s unique, and it’s not complicated.”

Intrigued by the idea, he started looking further into South Dakota, and YouTube videos led him to take a closer look at Sioux Falls.

“It seemed like a nice place to be, so I thought I’ll spend a few days here for a week and get residency and maybe come back at some point as I do the digital nomad thing,” Moseley said.

That was in early June. And, instead of moving on to the next town and plugging in somewhere new, Moseley decided he liked Sioux Falls more than he expected.

“I thought, ‘It’s nice enough here, why don’t I give this a go?’” he said.

“It’s great. Being from Colorado, often people are very impressed by mountains, and I love Colorado, but (Sioux Falls) brings up a certain feel that is present in some of the towns and cities on the front range of Colorado. That as a backdrop I love — the Big Sioux River running through and nice trails. Those are the things I look at.”

He’s now living blocks from downtown in a temporary lease at least until the end of the summer.

“I really appreciate the trail system and the parks and being in a place where you’ve got the amenities of the city and you don’t have the traffic or stress of a big metro area,” Moseley said.

“I feel like the downtown offers most of what you could want or need. It’s very walkable, and it’s also very friendly and accessible, with a trail running straight through to Falls Park. Those two things colliding — good infrastructure and nature — that’s what I like about the city.”

He mostly has been job-hunting with some freelance work and is interviewing with multiple companies that would allow him to continue working remotely.

He discovered Startup Sioux Falls downtown while searching for coffee shops “so I walked around and struck up a conversation with someone on the back patio and took advantage of a day pass to go work there when I had a presentation to work on for a company and just hit it off chatting with people there.”

As Moseley further connects with Sioux Falls, he’ll continue to have those kinds of experiences, predicts Denise Guzzetta, vice president of talent and workforce development for the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

“We see this all the time — people discover something about Sioux Falls that draws them here, and then they quickly begin building community,” she said.

“While we are an outstanding place for remote workers thanks to our favorable tax structure and cost of living, someone like Torrel with a software engineering background is going to find so many ways to use those skills in Sioux Falls if he chooses. We have such a variety of exciting, growing companies that will want to connect with him, and we’re here to help facilitate those connections.”

For now, Moseley is thrilled to discover that “within a 10-minute drive of my apartment, there are eight or 10 coffee shops,” he said. “I can hang out and work, and they’ve got good-quality coffee, and it’s a friendly place to be with a laptop for a few hours, not to mention the downtown library is a fine place to go too.”

Sioux Falls’ friendliness in general has stood out, he added.

“The thing I really appreciate about Sioux Falls is that you go out and the people you run into on a day-to-day basis are just nice, polite, they smile, they say hi on the sidewalk, and for me, that counts a lot,” he said.

“The politeness and friendliness of folks in the area is beyond compare. If you want to come here and have this as your home base and live the digital nomad life, it’s very amenable here. I came at the right time because it seemed like a great place in general, so why worry about being a nomad anywhere else?”

To learn more about building your career in Sioux Falls, reach out to deniseg@siouxfalls.com.