Anyone on here live in Colorado?

[Nitemare]

Was thinking about moving there to escape the humidity where I am at now(North Carolina)

Area we are looking at is Colorado Springs or South Denver area.

How bad are the winters there and would it be easier to find a job there than in the RTP, NC? I am in IT and wife is a jack of all trades, mostly HR and Real Estate.

 

[pyonir]

i have a couple friends that live there. One is an Engineer for Excel Energy and the other is an Advertising Rep for some marketing company.

The engineer says that the winters are awesome compared to Minnesota. It doesn't get as cold and if it snows it can be gone in two days cause it will hit 60 degrees. and he didn't have much of a problem getting a job. Don't know about the IT field and all that though.

 

[notfred]

Laust does. I've been there

 

[vi edit]

From what I've heard, Boulder is where the tech jobs are. The Springs is a cool area, but the traffic SUCKS! And it's only getting worse. I pray for anyone who has to drive Academy.

 

[fishingeek]

I live in Denver and its a great place to live but the job prospects are bad right now. I am looking to leave soon. The price for housing is terrible also, expect to pay $250,000 for the average house here right now.

 

[pyonir]

Qwest is based in denver. you can always be a customer service rep.

 

[Hoober]

The market here isn't doing too well at the moment, unfortunately. You can't beat the weather, though. I live in Springs and work as an IT trainer at the local private college. My wife and I just bought a house and I was surprised at the prices compared to what I was used to in the midwest. I'm originally from Indianapolis.

I'm not sure what the job market's like in North Carolina, but it's generally bad all across the country. The tech industry has been heavily hit here of late, but I think that's pretty standard for the nation. There are jobs to be had, but you'll need to look.

Send me a PM if you have more questions. I'd be happy to answer them.

 

[Hoober]

Originally posted by: pyonir
Qwest is based in denver. you can always be a customer service rep.

Hey now, Quest is "in the spirit of service" now. Hadn't you heard?

 

[Alternex]

Originally posted by: fishingeek
I live in Denver and its a great place to live but the job prospects are bad right now. I am looking to leave soon. The price for housing is terrible also, expect to pay $250,000 for the average house here right now.

That's terrible? My wife has several friends working at HP over there and they say you could buy a house after working only one year there after college. That's unheard of where I am (boston)

 

[TheOtherBob]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
The Springs is a cool area, but the traffic SUCKS! And it's only getting worse. I pray for anyone who has to drive Academy.

I have two sets of in-laws that live there and while I really like the area......... you're right...... the traffic SUCKS!!!!! I couldn't believe how long it took to get anywhere there. It seems like the city is growing faster than their road-system..... ugh....

And their winters are weak........ but then again I'm from Minnesota.......

 

[CrazyDe1]

HP also pays really really well....
Ft collins is also really really cheap....

The problem w/ colorado is all these people moving in=P
It makes the slopes all crowded and traffic really really suck...
As for the jbo situation my dad got laid off from qwest a year and a half ago and still can't find anything...
In fact, tons of people got laid off from qwest and they're all looking for jobs

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: Hoober
The market here isn't doing too well at the moment, unfortunately. You can't beat the weather, though. I live in Springs and work as an IT trainer at the local private college. My wife and I just bought a house and I was surprised at the prices compared to what I was used to in the midwest. I'm originally from Indianapolis.

I'm not sure what the job market's like in North Carolina, but it's generally bad all across the country. The tech industry has been heavily hit here of late, but I think that's pretty standard for the nation. There are jobs to be had, but you'll need to look.

Send me a PM if you have more questions. I'd be happy to answer them.

We were in Colorado Springs on the 3rd and saw alot of companies there, Intel, Cray, MCI, a logistics company...We picked up a Sunday paper as well(not many openings)

The job market in NC sucks as well, been with IBM as a Software Engineer for going on 3 years now. About 8 years work experience with computers, building, maintaining and support....bout 3 and a half years on AIX and other forms of UNIX, a year or so of software testing. I heard about springsjobs.com any other place you can recommend?

Housing costs are less than here...170k will buy you a box here an about 1/8-1/4 acre.

 

[Hoober]

Originally posted by: Nitemare

Originally posted by: Hoober
The market here isn't doing too well at the moment, unfortunately. You can't beat the weather, though. I live in Springs and work as an IT trainer at the local private college. My wife and I just bought a house and I was surprised at the prices compared to what I was used to in the midwest. I'm originally from Indianapolis.

I'm not sure what the job market's like in North Carolina, but it's generally bad all across the country. The tech industry has been heavily hit here of late, but I think that's pretty standard for the nation. There are jobs to be had, but you'll need to look.

Send me a PM if you have more questions. I'd be happy to answer them.

We were in Colorado Springs on the 3rd and saw alot of companies there, Intel, Cray, MCI, a logistics company...We picked up a Sunday paper as well(not many openings)

The job market in NC sucks as well, been with IBM as a Software Engineer for going on 3 years now. About 8 years work experience with computers, building, maintaining and support....bout 3 and a half years on AIX and other forms of UNIX, a year or so of software testing. I heard about springsjobs.com any other place you can recommend?

Housing costs are less than here...170k will buy you a box here an about 1/8-1/4 acre.

You can also try here. I'm not real sure how good that site is, though. I haven't tried it.

Edit: Actually, now that I look at that it looks like it's just a site for the city, with city jobs only.

 

[amnesiac]

Some things about Colorado Springs:

- Weather sucks
- Job market is abysmal for EVERY industry, especially tech / clerical / education
- Very, very heavy conservative Christian influence.
- Co. Springs drivers can't drive worth sh1t.
- Expect nice but outstandingly stupid people. It's hard to explain.

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: amnesiac 2.0
Some things about Colorado Springs:

1- Weather sucks
2- Job market is abysmal for EVERY industry, especially tech / clerical / education
3- Very, very heavy conservative Christian influence.
4- Co. Springs drivers can't drive worth sh1t.
5- Expect nice but outstandingly stupid people. It's hard to explain.

1. Do they get 2 feet of snow at a time, ice storms that knock out power for weeks. 95 degree days with humidity so high you don't want to leave the house(thunderstorms on most of these hot and humid days that sometimes spawn tornados)
2. think our unemployment is up to about 6-7% now
3. In the middle of the Bible belt now, can't get much worse.
4. RTP drivers can't drive worth a crap either, plus way too many soccer moms hogging the left lane
5. The Andy Griffith Show's Mayberry was modeled after Mt Airy, NC...still have towns here like that too.

Thanks for all the feedback so far.

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: Nitemare

Originally posted by: amnesiac 2.0
Some things about Colorado Springs:

1- Weather sucks
2- Job market is abysmal for EVERY industry, especially tech / clerical / education
3- Very, very heavy conservative Christian influence.
4- Co. Springs drivers can't drive worth sh1t.
5- Expect nice but outstandingly stupid people. It's hard to explain.

1. Do they get 2 feet of snow at a time, ice storms that knock out power for weeks. 95 degree days with humidity so high you don't want to leave the house(thunderstorms on most of these hot and humid days that sometimes spawn tornados)
2. think our unemployment is up to about 6-7% now
3. In the middle of the Bible belt now, can't get much worse.
4. RTP drivers can't drive worth a crap either, plus way too many soccer moms hogging the left lane
5. The Andy Griffith Show's Mayberry was modeled after Mt Airy, NC...still have towns here like that too.

Thanks for all the feedback so far.

I can help with one of these. Front range towns will get snow, but don't generally get snowed in. In the event of a heavy snow, they're equipped to deal with it (unlike the southeast as you and I well know). It can get very hot in the summer, but there's generally almost no humidity at all. Cools down nicely after the sun goes down as well.

 

[spwango]

I've lived in Colorado all my life, I will make the following comments:

Jobs: Job market sucks right now, no doubt--however, it sucks everywhere--the population of Colorado is still increasing, thus, jobs will be around for some time. Colorado's economy should hold up better than other states.

Housing: Housing is on the high side, but not universally--$200K can get you a nice home in most areas.

Weather: Colorado's winters are generally mild--we are in the midst of a severe lack of moisture right now, but a normal winter would involve several feet of snow over the span of the winter...however, because of the mountains and the wind flows, you never get that several feet on the ground at the same time--The biggest storm we've had recently dropped two feet on us in 1993. Past that, anything over six inches is rare. I dislike the summer weather more--we are very hot, and very stormy. Northern colorado has one of the highest rates of severe hail storms in the country, and Weld county (near Ft Collins, but does not include Fort Collins) has the highest average number of Tornadoes per year. However, unlike the midwest, it is exceptionally rare for Colorado Tornadoes to be of devistating strength.

Pluses:
--Mountains
--Big city with everything you would want in a big city
--Areas of sparse population (mountains and plains)
--Major international airport makes travelling easy (though flights over the rockies are often bumpy)
--Big name sports town--Denver has all four of the big stick and ball sports and just added a champcar race downtown this year.

I've lived here all my life, so, as folks often do, I thought I hated it...as I've entered my mid twenties and have gotten to see some parts of the country, Colorado is great. As far as your location, ColoSprings and South Denver is a popular area--before the bust, it was filled with Telecom and tech jobs--you should be aware, however, that the cost of housing in that area is substantially higher than places to the north. If you want to be close to denver or boulder (why? Boulder s*u*c*k*s), you should consider Longmont, Loveland, perhaps even Greeley or Fort Collins.

 

[Maverick]

Been here for the past 12 years. I lived in Fort Collins for 9 years, Boulder for 4 years, and now I've been living in Southeast Denver (Aurora) for about 8 months.

Colorado is great as far as standard of living goes. Beautiful place, people are friendly, and there's a lot to do. Schools are okay...definitely not as challenging as in other parts of the country. In general things are really easy going out here. Workplaces are generally a lot more laid back than in other places.

Bad parts are mainly that there is not much diversity (but it is getting better) and its pretty conservative in parts other than Denver and Boulder. Housing is also pretty expensive (at least in Denver). You basically can't get any 1400+ sqft house built within the last 5-8 years below $230k. For a single person, buying anything better than a 10 year old condo is not an option.

But all things said, having seen other parts of the country I honestly wouldn't live anywhere else.

 

[amnesiac]

If you move to colorado, Denver / Boulder would be a MUCH MUCH better choice.

The Colorado Springs area is expanding way too quickly for it's own good. The local economy is in ruins from the tech fallout, MCI, etc.. but for some reason gigantic housing developments are springing up left and right. There's a gigantic influx of people as well. This means too many people, not enough resources, and not enough jobs.

 

[Maverick]

I've been to CO Springs and I honestly didn't find it to be all that great. Its kind of like a halfway point between Denver and Ft Collins. More conservative than Denver, but bigger than Ft collins. There's some cool places to visit down there...but its not the best place to go in Colorado.