Moving to COLO after Engineering Exam (Golden: transplants, rental, house)

[Galaxie Girl]

Current City and State is Orange County, CA

Currently holding back from moving as husband will be taking a professional licensing exam for engineering next year, and we want to have at least our first child here near family, plus we'll have to sell our properties here (1031 our rental into a new rental, and then sell our house and buy one there).

We're thinking of taking an exploratory trip to COLO next year after my husband's licensing exam.

[wong21fr]

^Why in the heck would your husband wait to take his PE in California and then deal with the hassle of transferring it to Colorado?

[Galaxie Girl]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

^Why in the heck would your husband wait to take his PE in California and then deal with the hassle of transferring it to Colorado?

SE exam (structural engineer). We both already have our PE's. I already passed the SE, but he isn't eligible to take it until next spring (he graduated college after me due to changing majors, so he's behind me). You have to work under a licensed SE in order to sign up to take the SE exam, and he promised himself he'd take and pass the CA SE exam. Of course, he made that promise back when CA had its own (more difficult) SE exam (we now have the same one as the rest of the country... except I think WA has something extra for theirs). But since he's now eligible and already here, he may as well take it here. Also, based on what research I've done, it looks like CO doesn't have a state license for SE, just PE (civil), but they do appear to offer the new SE exam, so maybe that's changing? I dunno.

[wong21fr]

^You are correct. They offer both exams, but there is no license for SE. Since they now do both, I'd guess that the requirements might just change. Not that I know that much; I work with engineers, but I am not one.

[Galaxie Girl]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

^You are correct. They offer both exams, but there is no license for SE. Since they now do both, I'd guess that the requirements might just change. Not that I know that much; I work with engineers, but I am not one.

Thanks for the confirmation. I thought it was funny CO has a Structural Engineers Association, but no structural engineers, lol.

[jazzlover]

Colorado is a state that both graduates a lot of engineers and has a lot of enginneering transplants to the state. So, the market is very competitive for the jobs that may be available. A great example: a friend's son graduated with honors with a civil engineering degree from one of Colorado's best engineering colleges. After a year of job searching in Colorado, he moved to Texas where he found an excellent engineering job within in month.

[Galaxie Girl]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Colorado is a state that both graduates a lot of engineers and has a lot of enginneering transplants to the state. So, the market is very competitive for the jobs that may be available. A great example: a friend's son graduated with honors with a civil engineering degree from one of Colorado's best engineering colleges. After a year of job searching in Colorado, he moved to Texas where he found an excellent engineering job within in month.

We definitely wouldn't plan a move until my husband had a job lined up (I'll be a stay at home mom by then, maybe working part time from home if I want). I couldn't imagine moving somewhere, just hoping things would work out. I'm way too much of a planner!

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Colorado is a state that both graduates a lot of engineers and has a lot of enginneering transplants to the state. So, the market is very competitive for the jobs that may be available. A great example: a friend's son graduated with honors with a civil engineering degree from one of Colorado's best engineering colleges. After a year of job searching in Colorado, he moved to Texas where he found an excellent engineering job within in month.

You just said the magic word: civil engineering. There is an overabundance of civil engineers in Colorado due to the high-growth days of the mid-90's to mid-2000's and the subsequent bust in the housing and retail markets. If you are a material engineer, CS engineer, or a petroleum engineer you're on easy street. But civil? That's still a recovering sector with a temporary oversupply.

"One of Colorado's best engineering colleges."? There's only one engineering college in Colorado that's "the best" and it's in Golden. All of the others are pretenders, especially for one of the basic engineering disciplines such as civil.

[Galaxie Girl]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

You just said the magic word: civil engineering. There is an overabundance of civil engineers in Colorado due to the high-growth days of the mid-90's to mid-2000's and the subsequent bust in the housing and retail markets. If you are a material engineer, CS engineer, or a petroleum engineer you're on easy street. But civil? That's still a recovering sector with a temporary oversupply.

"One of Colorado's best engineering colleges."? There's only one engineering college in Colorado that's "the best" and it's in Golden. All of the others are pretenders, especially for one of the basic engineering disciplines such as civil.

Civil is an extremely broad major. Are you referring to general civil (land development, grading, etc.) specifically? What about geotechnical, or structural? Those are also parts of civil. FWIW, I found a company in CO that does structural and geotech, and they have openings, according to their company website. Too bad we aren't ready to move yet.

[wong21fr]

^I was referring to general civil, but I've also heard that structural is also still struggling.