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Looks like I have several interviews lined up, is Colorado Springs any different from Denver? (I have read all the threads, but am wondering as of now, 2012).
I think it'd be a nice place to live, the only con being, the increased distance from the slopes...
You're off to a great start, good luck on the interviews. I have to LMAO on your comment though... is COS any different from Denver? For starters, the Denver metro area is about 6 times as large, and probably about 12x as many job opportunities. Unless if you're working for the military or a military contractor, Denver will most likely be the better place career wise. The only real advantage of COS over Denver is Colorado Springs is a lot more scenic-- the whole place looks a lot nicer and has a better sense of place. The climate is slightly better too. Denver feels like it's plopped somewhere in the middle of Nebraska with a mountain view in the far distance; in Colorado Springs you really feel like you're in Colorado. But in terms of "city" things, Denver has so much more. And you are correct, Denver is an hour closer to the ski slopes than COS is. I think for young singles, Denver would be a much better place than the Springs, although there are other, bigger cities which would be even bet yet.
Make that 4, I had no idea that was a lot (to be honest).
Thanks for the help everyone, i've done a bit more research, and it seems like as of now, my DREAM location is boulder or louisville.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wong21fr
Wait, you've had three possible job hits, including turning one down, and you're concerned about the lack of opportunity? That's a pretty good record for a short amount of time (which realistically is less than a year). Just get a position that gives you some career development and allows you to relocate out here. Once you've done that you can develop your local professional network and move on to a better position. If relocation is your main objective, focus on that and place career opportunity as secondary.
update: make that 1 pending (past interview), and 1 pending (interview)...
the problem is, the pending (past interview) is Colorado Springs which I am not sure of.
I just did my research on various resorts, and the times to reach there between somewhere like boulder vs colorado springs is similar.. unless you factor in Eldora resort... that and...
1. I know some people have their beliefs on places like utah, I have a friend from there, it's not bad at all.. (SLC.. Provo...)
2. does this also apply to an area like colorado springs, or is it really that bad? I am single yes, I snowboarded about 60 times this season (school) in upstate ny, and as a full time employee, would at LEAST like to get all weekends at the slopes, but ideally weekdays too, like every other weekday, riding tuesday/thursday/friday/sat/sun would be awesome for me....
My other job hit is in boulder...
edit:
As of now, I don't frequent pubs/bars/clubs, but maybe one day I would like to, I don't mind the vibe it attracts to a neighborhood however, I am just afraid co springs will be a dead.. dead .. town, i am coming from around niagara falls, ny.
update: make that 1 pending (past interview), and 1 pending (interview)...
the problem is, the pending (past interview) is Colorado Springs which I am not sure of.
I just did my research on various resorts, and the times to reach there between somewhere like boulder vs colorado springs is similar.. unless you factor in Eldora resort... that and...
1. I know some people have their beliefs on places like utah, I have a friend from there, it's not bad at all.. (SLC.. Provo...)
2. does this also apply to an area like colorado springs, or is it really that bad? I am single yes, I snowboarded about 60 times this season (school) in upstate ny, and as a full time employee, would at LEAST like to get all weekends at the slopes, but ideally weekdays too, like every other weekday, riding tuesday/thursday/friday/sat/sun would be awesome for me....
My other job hit is in boulder...
edit:
As of now, I don't frequent pubs/bars/clubs, but maybe one day I would like to, I don't mind the vibe it attracts to a neighborhood however, I am just afraid co springs will be a dead.. dead .. town, i am coming from around niagara falls, ny.
Compared to Niagara Falls, Colorado Springs is far from a dead end town.
Over the past 5 years, I've usually been stuck going to Utah 2-3 weeks a year for work. When I am there I have to say it's not too bad. I've adapted, found things to do. Definitely the Mormon church is ever present. The Utah resorts are closer in distance to SLC than anything similar in Colorado. I enjoy Park City and the area up there but it certainly has a different feel and look about it than Colorado resorts and in addition, Utah itself is distinctive from Colorado.
If you have a full time day job on the Front Range in Colorado, you can stamp out your big idea of boarding during weekdays. It's NOT going to happen. Lift lines close at 4 pm usually. Boulder, Co Springs, all of these are 1.5 to 2 hours to any resort of significance. Even if you live in Boulder, Loveland is still an hour and a half away.
In addition if you go up, you'll probably want to stay for the weekend. The traffic is horrendous going up on Friday night or Saturday morning and a nightmare Sunday afternoon, often taking 3 to 4 hours to get back to the Denver area from Summit County or Vail. In addition you have winter weather and you'll be going over 10000 ft in elevation to get back home and at 10000 ft in CO there is generally 400-500 inches of snow a year. Traffic, ice, snow, wind. I racked up 600,000 miles on these roads over 7 years and I could tell some stories.
From the figures I have seen, people on the Front Range that ski, in general average 5-10 days a year. Even the most hardcore skiers from the front range might only get in 30 days max a year. It's a lot of travel time, accommodation costs and traffic and weather to deal with.
However the Front Range/I-25 corridor is where 90% of Colorado's population is and where the jobs and reasonable cost of living are.
If you want to live the ski town life, you'll need to live in a ski town. Problem is those towns are small(even if they look big due to all the condos and accommodation) and the industry revolves around tourism and 2nd homes, which means seasonal business. Vail Resorts for instance used to have a lot of decent jobs(for the mountains anyways) until the hip new CEO didn't want to move to the mountains, so just about everything got moved to Broomfield, CO. There were good reasons for it, the same reasons actually, why most people live on the Front Range on the prairie with a view of the mountains.
So you'll need to decide coming to Colorado, what is more important to you, being a ski bum or having a career with income growth opportunities? I did the ski town thing for 7 years, personally it did me a lot of good in my personal circumstances, but overall I would recommend focusing on your career and making money. Even if you stay locally in NY it's not that hard to fly out to Colorado for a week vacation. These days I find I get to do more when I visit Colorado because when I was living there I was busy trying to make a living.
To expand on what wanneroo has already said, the ski industry in Colorado doesn't really cater to locals because they're the group that's least likely to stay in the hotels and eat at the restaurants for an extended period of time. Out-of-state vacationers get better deals than the locals.
As for me, I don't ski because I can make an ass out of myself by falling down in my front yard and it'll cost me a lot less than a trip to the ski area.
update: make that 1 pending (past interview), and 1 pending (interview)...
the problem is, the pending (past interview) is Colorado Springs which I am not sure of.
I just did my research on various resorts, and the times to reach there between somewhere like boulder vs colorado springs is similar.. unless you factor in Eldora resort... that and...
1. I know some people have their beliefs on places like utah, I have a friend from there, it's not bad at all.. (SLC.. Provo...)
2. does this also apply to an area like colorado springs, or is it really that bad? I am single yes, I snowboarded about 60 times this season (school) in upstate ny, and as a full time employee, would at LEAST like to get all weekends at the slopes, but ideally weekdays too, like every other weekday, riding tuesday/thursday/friday/sat/sun would be awesome for me....
My other job hit is in boulder...
edit:
As of now, I don't frequent pubs/bars/clubs, but maybe one day I would like to, I don't mind the vibe it attracts to a neighborhood however, I am just afraid co springs will be a dead.. dead .. town, i am coming from around niagara falls, ny.
Once you leave college and enter the adult working world, everything changes. Life just isn't as fun anymore. Unless if you work part time only or have a job where you work weekends and have your day(s) off in the middle of the week, you can forget skiing on the weekdays, period... fuhgeddaboutit. Just ain't gonna happen, and it won't matter whether you lived in Denver, Colorado Springs, Boulder, or Salt Lake City. Not logistically possible-- EVERY ski area closes at exactly 4:00pm (with the one exception being night skiing at Keystone), due to US Forest Service rules and it takes at least 2 hours door to door to drive up from Denver to the ski areas, park/ take shuttle bus to the lifts, get your gear on, and get on the lift. Going up most weekends (well, at least one day out of the two) is feasible if you have enough gas/car expense money, time, and the road conditions permit. Are these jobs you are applying for 9-5 gigs where you clock in, clock out, do they require a lot of overtime, and/or are you salaried? Don't be surprised once you start your adult life if you have to work on the weekends. My job, for example, requires me to work all day on Saturday every week from January through mid April. I'm lucky just to get Sunday off. Sometimes I have to blow my Sunday flying out to clients out of state. And then I have to hope that on my one chance per week, the road conditions are okay, the weather isn't totally miserable, and I'm feeling good. So I end up doing a lot of half day afternoon Sunday day trips to the closer places like Loveland and A-basin, and then just suck up the traffic on the way back.
Colorado Springs definitely doesn't have as much action going on as Denver or Boulder, but it's not dead either. Their downtown is actually pretty nice along Tejon St-- although it is small.
If bars and clubs are a part of your vocabulary, Salt Lake City-- or anywhere in Utah is not even a consideration. Great place to live if you're a family man, or if you live a quiet, low key existence. If you enjoy drinking and need night life, you will be bored out of your mind.
vegaspilgrim hit the nail right on the head--there is the dream, then there is the reality. The reality is going to be much harsher for the current young generation than some of us who are of older generations--just like my parents, who came of age at the beginning of the Great Depression, that had it much tougher than did their parent's generation. The days of soft living, job security, relatively young retirement ages, not having to work in retirement--all of that is already pretty much over, especially for anyone under the age of about 40. In fact, a whole lot of things that the Boomers, and even their children, pretty much took for granted are going to be the things that the younger generation will be only able to read about in history books. That's the long overdue "reset" to reality that we're about to get.
What I continue to read in this forum is young people having unfulfillable dreams about living in working in Colorado that (as just one of many unrealizable fantasies), for most of them, simply is not going to happen. Unfortunately, they are often encouraged by older posters who just haven't gotten their arms around the idea that the world has changed and the younger generation is not going to have it as easy as they did. Some of those "oldsters" sit around with their trophy houses, fat pensions and 401k's and refuse to acknowledge that they are the last generation for a long, long time--if ever--who are going to have those blessings. Remember, the people who usually yell "Go for it" the loudest are usually the ones who don't have any of their chips on the table.
If you can secure a decent job in Colorado Springs it would be well worth considering. In this economy any job might be, anywhere, but even if not Boulder, Colorado Springs has its attractions. Besides which, doing so gets your foot in the door vis a vis Colorado.
On the bright side, the drive to major ski areas in Summit County would not be all that different than from Denver; it is roughly 1.5 hours from Denver to Breckenridge, and 2.25 to there from Colorado Springs. The weekend traffic from Colorado Springs—entirely bypassing I-70—may not be all that bad. No idea. But most everyone can vouch for how gnarly I-70 is during peak periods.
If you really want to ski, by far the best option is to work for one of the ski areas on their mountain, such as ski patrol. Although I knew a guy at A-Basin with exactly that position who resigned because he was getting married, and well . . .
So if it's a solid career, most likely you'll end up with most everyone else along the Front Range. Skiing will have to be something you sneak in as possible. In knowing also—or you will soon find out—that weekend skiing sucks. It is only for tourists who must.
With that in mind, you might want to angle for a position in Boulder. Nearby Louisville will be somewhat cheaper, although the entire area is pricey. But a nice place, particularly for those with a liberal bent. One big plus in doing so is proximity to Eldora Mountain Resort, just outside of Nederland. You might just as well call it Eldora, because that grand name is misleading. In size it cannot compare with Winter Park or other major ski areas such as Keystone. But still a nice area with a decent hill. With the decided advantage that from Boulder you are practically there, with this an option when not in the mood to fight your way up I-70.
All this may seem more relevant when and if you actually visit in person.
If bars and clubs are a part of your vocabulary, Salt Lake City-- or anywhere in Utah is not even a consideration. Great place to live if you're a family man, or if you live a quiet, low key existence. If you enjoy drinking and need night life, you will be bored out of your mind.
In Utah they have actually changed a lot of the liquor laws to make it much more consistent with the rest of the USA and surprisingly to me there are a lot of attractive ladies in SLC and Park City(you better be ready to go Mormon though). I don't think it's for most people, but it's worth looking at just to see.
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My job, for example, requires me to work all day on Saturday every week from January through mid April. I'm lucky just to get Sunday off. Sometimes I have to blow my Sunday flying out to clients out of state. And then I have to hope that on my one chance per week, the road conditions are okay, the weather isn't totally miserable, and I'm feeling good. So I end up doing a lot of half day afternoon Sunday day trips to the closer places like Loveland and A-basin, and then just suck up the traffic on the way back.
Skiing from Colorado Springs, etc.
