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Old 07-01-2012, 10:24 PM
 
10 posts, read 43,688 times
Reputation: 18

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Hello,
My husband and I are looking to relocate away from Houston sometime in the next year or so. I am hoping someone can help us in our preliminary work of figuring where we want to live. We are planning a trip to Denver soon but have a few questions regarding the tech job market. My husband is a senior software engineer. Does any know what the market is currently like for engineers? Here in Houston, the market is great. There are more positions than people to fill them. I've heard of the "tech center" but I am not really sure what this is. Could someone tell me a little about it and where it is?

We have 2 small kids so we will be looking for a place that is in an area with great schools. We are basically putting our "feelers" out to figure out what we want to do. We have heard that Boulder also has a good market for engineer jobs but since it is a college town, they hire from the university. Any advice on places of employment we could check out and places (towns) that are nice to live is greatly appreciated. I guess I should mention we'd be renting a house for a year or so and would like for the rent to stay under $2500 a month if possible.

Also, I know this is a weird question but does anyone know what a developer makes on average in Denver? I've looked on salary.com and such but I'm not quite sure how accurate these websites are. Thanks so much for any and all help.
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Old 07-01-2012, 11:26 PM
 
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Reputation: 15
I'm relocating to Denver shortly so while I can't give you a great answer now I can tell you that a good resource for scouting out engineering jobs is this Yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rmiug-jobs (Rocky Mountain Internet Users Group). From what I can tell most jobs tend to be in the Denver Tech Center area which is in the southern part of Denver, in downtown Denver, and in Boulder. I do web development type of work and at least for what I do downtown Denver and Boulder seem to be the places. Boulder seems to have more startups which depending on what type of developer he is specifically might be attractive.
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Old 07-01-2012, 11:29 PM
 
6,385 posts, read 11,884,616 times
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Market is very strong with lots of offers likely. Pay is all over the place, will depend very specifically on his experience and what areas he's considered "competent" in. The salary sites are relatively accurate for the range, but the actual salary is market dependent.
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Old 07-02-2012, 04:00 PM
 
18 posts, read 33,941 times
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There are three likely geographic areas that your husband will find employment: downtown, Tech Center, and Denver-Boulder US Hwy 36 corridor. I have worked in the Tech Center and the Hwy 36 areas and have friends that work downtown in IT for energy companies.

If you work in the Tech Center, the easiest commute is to live south of the TC so you won't have to go through the crush [semi official term for I-25 through the city] of the city traffic to get there. I have a friend that lived south and worked north and he hated the drive--but it is nothing like LA where he was from so he did not mind. Ditto if you work north of the city, live north of the city. Arvada, Broomfield, Westminster are nice areas north. Erie is known for great schools or so I am told. $2500/month for rent is not as issue, whatsoever.

Salary: senior software engineer is a little vague. DBA's, Network Admins, Systems Admins, and Web Developers are in demand and fetch high salaries based on experience and certifications. If he has a security clearance, there are plentiful DOD or DOD contractor jobs available. Take the commercial rates and add 10% for Classified, 20% for TS and 30% for "Special" (ahem!). Go to careerbuilder.com and look at the postings and you will get an idea of salaries being paid for his unique set of skills.
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Old 07-02-2012, 05:57 PM
 
Location: Denver
9,963 posts, read 18,497,936 times
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I'd say the market is pretty good. A senior software engineer around 10 years experience in java, c, c++... probably makes around 80-90k here. With a MS in Computer Science, Math or Engineering probably over 100k.
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Old 07-03-2012, 03:53 PM
 
10 posts, read 43,688 times
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Thank you everyone for your input. The information is greatly appreciated.
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Old 07-28-2012, 02:51 PM
 
Location: Pacific NW
303 posts, read 821,662 times
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So I am in Seattle and just got laid off from a support engineer job making 68k a year. My background is mostly Windows System admin stuff and networking. I am non degreed and non certified but have nearly 20 years IT experience. I lived in Denver years ago and want to get back. How is the market for people with my skillset? Is Denver as "degree crazed" as Seattle? A lot of companies here wont talk to you without one and there are tons of degreed people out of work. Is 68k an attainable or insane salary for someone of my skillset. I would call myself an IT generalist for the lack of a better term. Any suggestions?
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Old 07-30-2012, 11:14 PM
 
6,385 posts, read 11,884,616 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by spiritbear928 View Post
So I am in Seattle and just got laid off from a support engineer job making 68k a year. My background is mostly Windows System admin stuff and networking. I am non degreed and non certified but have nearly 20 years IT experience. I lived in Denver years ago and want to get back. How is the market for people with my skillset? Is Denver as "degree crazed" as Seattle? A lot of companies here wont talk to you without one and there are tons of degreed people out of work. Is 68k an attainable or insane salary for someone of my skillset. I would call myself an IT generalist for the lack of a better term. Any suggestions?
For your skill set and background it might be tough. Networking and Windows are not as hot anymore since so much has gone cloud. Everyone is looking for mobile anything, if you could slide into that somehow then you will be employed quickly. Of the positions I have seen most want a degree and the positions get filled quick so probably will not get a lot of calls. Salary with 20 yrs experience would be no problem once you find a fit. Starter position in those areas with 3 yrs experience usually are 55+
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