IT careers in Colorado (Denver, Boulder: job market, salaries, living)

[Allen31308]

Me and my family are wanting to relocate to Colorado when I get my A+ certification. Just curious if anyone knows of some good places to check into for IT jobs.

[BigCheeze]

There are many places in Colorado to look for an IT job. South Denver is considered the "tech center", and there is a high concentration of tech jobs there. However there is a lot of completion there, and if all you bring to the table is an A+ cert, you are probably going to have a challenging time finding a potion.

I would recommend looking at places such as Colorado Spring, but again you may be up against more experienced completion, or even out in the more northern areas such as Ft. Collins/Greeley. You might even look into the more out lying areas, where there is a lot less completion for the available IT jobs, but the salaries may be kind of low.

Remember there are a lot of IT jobs here in Colorado, but there is a lot of completion. So set your sights appropriately, and keep working on getting more experience and higher level certifications. From what I have read, Windows Admins, Unix Admins, and Network Admins/Engineers are in the most demand. And I can tell you from being in InfoSec there is a shortage of highly qualified people in those fields!

[bluescreen73]

Now for the yang to BigCheeze's yin. Compared to other regions there aren't a ton of IT jobs in Colorado. Granted you'll definitely find more than you would in the OKC and Lawton areas, but they're not as plentiful in Colorado as they are in say, Dallas/Fort Worth.

The other thing to consider is the cost-of-living. Colorado living isn't cheap, especially compared to OKC. It'll run you about 18.5% more to live in Denver, so be sure to factor that into any job opportunity.

[I_Want_Snow]

How many years experience do you have? Is the A+ the only cert you will have? Personally I don't think that cert is worth the time or effort. I read the books for it and put a few computers/servers together as practice, but I went right into studying for my Microsoft Server certs.

If you really want to open a lot of doors, get a Server cert like MS Server, and then work on some networking certs like the CCNA from Cisco. Cisco also has some new certs for the CCNA, like CCNA-Security, CCNA-Voice (for VoIP), and CCNA-Wireless. The Cisco certs hold a lot more credibility in the market because they expire every 3 years and you have to keep testing to keep them current. Plus the Cisco exams are not all multiple choice answers, you actually have to do some configuring on routers/switches to pass the exam.

I started out my career 11 years ago and did the whole MCSE track and personally to me it was a waste of time and money. I wish I would have just done a Server cert and then jumped into Cisco from the start. I have read that studies are showing that network security and Voice over IP are going to be the new hot careers in the upcoming years. That is where I am gearing my career towards right now. Qualified Network Engineers make anywhere from $65,000 a year +, then if you learn some security and VoIP it opens a lot more doors. Once I got my CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional) I got a new job as a Network Engineer making about $12,000 more a year than I did at my Server administration job.

Now I am working on my CCVP (Cisco Certified Voice Professional) for VoIP networking and was able to land a job, even though I am not done with my studies, for a Telecommunications company. And they are paying me $20,000 more a year than my network engineering job did. The VoIP stuff is fairly new and there are not too many qualified people for it. So by changing my career path from PC/Server stuff to Networking and VoIP, I have jumped my pay over $32,000 in the past 28 months. I have not updated my online resume in almost 5 months and I still get about 3-8 calls weekly for jobs all over the country. But I am gonna stay where I am at for 12-16 months to get some VoIP experience, then I am heading out to CO myself.

If you look at on dice.com which is a job site for only IT jobs, it shows 580 networking jobs as of today in the Denver CO area, but like the above poster mentioned it shows 790 opening in the Dallas, TX area.

If you have any questions about study material or study paths, feel free to PM me or just ask here. I will try to help you out as much as I can. GOOD LUCK!!

[CUrenn]

Such a nice and detailed reply. I actually can understand only a bit, but will recommend to my husband who is still on his searching of the first IT job since we moved to US.

And all the reply are so helpful and nice. I wish that more IT guys here will give some info from their experience, so we can still feel there are ways to work out, even in the slowndown stage of the economy.

Originally Posted by I_Want_Snow

How many years experience do you have? Is the A+ the only cert you will have? Personally I don't think that cert is worth the time or effort. I read the books for it and put a few computers/servers together as practice, but I went right into studying for my Microsoft Server certs.

If you really want to open a lot of doors, get a Server cert like MS Server, and then work on some networking certs like the CCNA from Cisco. Cisco also has some new certs for the CCNA, like CCNA-Security, CCNA-Voice (for VoIP), and CCNA-Wireless. The Cisco certs hold a lot more credibility in the market because they expire every 3 years and you have to keep testing to keep them current. Plus the Cisco exams are not all multiple choice answers, you actually have to do some configuring on routers/switches to pass the exam.

I started out my career 11 years ago and did the whole MCSE track and personally to me it was a waste of time and money. I wish I would have just done a Server cert and then jumped into Cisco from the start. I have read that studies are showing that network security and Voice over IP are going to be the new hot careers in the upcoming years. That is where I am gearing my career towards right now. Qualified Network Engineers make anywhere from $65,000 a year +, then if you learn some security and VoIP it opens a lot more doors. Once I got my CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional) I got a new job as a Network Engineer making about $12,000 more a year than I did at my Server administration job.

Now I am working on my CCVP (Cisco Certified Voice Professional) for VoIP networking and was able to land a job, even though I am not done with my studies, for a Telecommunications company. And they are paying me $20,000 more a year than my network engineering job did. The VoIP stuff is fairly new and there are not too many qualified people for it. So by changing my career path from PC/Server stuff to Networking and VoIP, I have jumped my pay over $32,000 in the past 28 months. I have not updated my online resume in almost 5 months and I still get about 3-8 calls weekly for jobs all over the country. But I am gonna stay where I am at for 12-16 months to get some VoIP experience, then I am heading out to CO myself.

If you look at on dice.com which is a job site for only IT jobs, it shows 580 networking jobs as of today in the Denver CO area, but like the above poster mentioned it shows 790 opening in the Dallas, TX area.

If you have any questions about study material or study paths, feel free to PM me or just ask here. I will try to help you out as much as I can. GOOD LUCK!!

[afta1]

Finding an IT job in Colorado/Denver should not be a problem.

You should have an idea of what industry is more appealing to you. Financial industry, Healthcare, Govt., etc. Healthcare is more recession-proof than others. There are a fair amount of IT jobs in Boulder/Broomfield area as we.

Good luck

afta1

[YouWill787]

This is a very informative post especially for those who are wondering about the tech world in CO. I was wondering about education standards there since I live in West Palm Beach right now, my associates from ITT does nothing for me here, people here with 4 year and plus and a crap load of experience. I've always wanted to move to CO but always wondered if the tech job market was as hard to get into as here in FL.
It also gives interested people some information on other areas of CO that may have jobs, its hard to find information like that anywhere but from someone who lives there and knows the areas. thanks.