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Old 02-06-2013, 09:24 AM
 
2 posts, read 5,067 times
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Family and I are considering Bozeman. My husbands job is allowing him to open office out west and find talented engineers. I know there is a good university there. Wondering if anyone knows of the workforce there and if people try to relocate there often and if the good engineers would stay in MT if they could but dont cause of no work? Just trying to get an insight of what Bozeman is like.
Thanks!
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Old 02-06-2013, 09:27 PM
 
Location: C-U metro
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Unless you plan on paying the average market wage for engineers, I think it will fail for a number of reasons. Chemical (ChE), mechanical (ME) and electrical engineers (EE) are in high demand and can make a lot of money outside of the state. There is little (EE, ChE) to no (ME) demand for them in Bozeman as the college is the main source of jobs in town and research being done there is good but on a smaller scale compared to other state universities like Washington State or Texas A&M. Private industry is small compared to other places. The travel budgets will have to be quite large as BZN is expensive to fly in and out of most of the year. Civil (CE) wages are really low right now and the there is some construction demand but the cost of office space will drive you out business.

Most of the engineering firms I know of are set up in Billings, not Bozeman. You will get a lot of applicants but won't get any takers for relocation to Bozeman as the salaries will be too low and the cost of living too high. You'll get a lot MCI and a few other firms tried to pull this off with offices in Colorado Springs in the 1990s and it failed miserably. You are trying to convince people who do math and economics for a living to do something financially stupid. You would wind up being the farm team for other firms with high turnover.

MSU's engineering school is quite good. Both MSU and Montana Tech have pass averages over 90% on first time FE exam and taking the FE is mandatory for engineering grads in MT so you are seeing the entire class take the exam. I would recommend hiring MSU and Tech grads but put them in Billings so they have a chance of having a decent retirement and a good standard of living rather than poverty with a view.
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Old 02-08-2013, 07:52 AM
 
Location: Brew City
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I agree 100% with flyingcat2k.
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Old 02-08-2013, 11:20 PM
 
Location: Bozeman, Montana
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I disagree with the two answers posted before mine.

MSU in Bozeman is an excellent engineering school, and many graduates want to stay here, a much better choice of quality of life than Billings.

Move to Bozeman and open your office here. It is an awesome place to live, work, and raise a family.

Contact MSU directly and ask them about the engineers and the high tech businesses choosing to locate in Bozeman.
Montana State - College of Engineering
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Old 02-08-2013, 11:32 PM
 
Location: North Dakota
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I also agree with flyingcat2k 100%.
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Old 02-09-2013, 04:31 PM
 
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Tech at Butte has the renowned school of engineering.

A national firm with satellite office in Bozeman is talking about returning staff to Minneapolis. Spoke with one of the seniors prior to Christmas. Staff prefers city life & opportunity and company found it cheaper to set up field office at project. They have had presence in Bozeman for last six years. M&M also has Boz office and long time associations in state.

In Montana bulk of high dollar projects are superfund cleanups.
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Old 02-09-2013, 06:08 PM
 
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I think it would depend in part on the branch of engineering you're talking about -- computer? Mining? Electrical? The Engineering School at MSU is indeed very good. RightNow Technologies, recently bought by Oracle, hires a lot of MSU grads who then stay in the area.
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Old 02-10-2013, 10:22 AM
 
Location: Brew City
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Quote:
Originally Posted by happiness is View Post
I disagree with the two answers posted before mine.

MSU in Bozeman is an excellent engineering school, and many graduates want to stay here, a much better choice of quality of life than Billings.

Move to Bozeman and open your office here. It is an awesome place to live, work, and raise a family.

Contact MSU directly and ask them about the engineers and the high tech businesses choosing to locate in Bozeman.
Montana State - College of Engineering

I agree that many graduates whether they be from MSU or MT Tech would love to stay in Montana. The fact that wages in Montana lag far behind the national average and Bozeman is one of the more expensive towns to live in MT, it simply isn't feasible. Especially for engineering types who will weigh the risk/reward.
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Old 02-10-2013, 10:34 AM
 
Location: Lehigh Valley, PA
2,309 posts, read 4,383,992 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vegabern View Post
I agree that many graduates whether they be from MSU or MT Tech would love to stay in Montana. The fact that wages in Montana lag far behind the national average and Bozeman is one of the more expensive towns to live in MT, it simply isn't feasible. Especially for engineering types who will weigh the risk/reward.
Having moved from Helena in 2008 after 14 years I will agree 100% concerning Bozeman's cost of living.

Bozeman's cost of living would be comparable to living in metro Denver but with the average income of a rural community somewhere in the south.

You would do much better in Butte financially if you can deal with the trade offs of living in a more hard edge blue collar city.

the two destination cities in MT are Bozeman and Missoula and the cost of living reflects that, choose another city and be better off for it.
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Old 02-23-2013, 07:11 AM
 
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Alot of great info!! To answer some of your questions about the Engineering its research and development. Mostly electrical. Pay would not be an issue, the pay is good. Doesn't matter where the location is, Bozeman is similar in price as here in Raleigh, NC. East coast is just expensive in everything! We are from the west from a small town so we wanted to go where we have always wanted to live and assuming others who like the smaller town feel over a big city would like to come too! However you are right about plane prices! almost double then the major airports like Den, SLC, LAS. So that is the number one draw back! We need direct fast flights and we need them reasonably priced. Why is it that Bozeman and Missoula...Or should I say MT are like that? You would think they would cut prices and try to bring in business to help the economy out in MT instead they over price things turning MT into a rich tourist liberal attraction! We have been talking to the company about it and we might be leaning towards south of Denver area more. Mostly cause of plane prices.
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