Pros and Cons of Living in Denver (employment, college)

[Tekkie]

Pros
Mild weather; low humidity
Great public transit
Decent, well-diversified economy relatively speaking
Lot of entertainment options (music venues, sports, etc.)
Outdoorsman's paradise
Plenty of microbrews and distilleries
Vibrant downtown and surrounding neighborhoods
Bicycle friendly

Cons
Unpredictable weather during winter, spring, fall
Expensive housing; higher COL overall
Traffic can be a nuisance, but not terrible compared to other cities
Some infrastructure needs updating to accommodate the amount of people that live here
It's very dry here; can be detrimental to skin and breathing
Easy to get sun-burnt; always have to have access to sun block
Can be very windy
Forest fires are common

[asmith0387]

Denver can be a fun place but the biggest con is the overall lack of jobs. People have sort of touched on this, but haven't gone in depth. Unless you already have a job lined up, I WOULD NOT move to Denver. My girlfriend and I moved here after both receiving degrees from Virginia Tech. I have a B.Sc in Geophysics and she has a B.Sc in Human development. It took me 8 months to finally find a job that I absolutely hate in the oil and gas industry, and she is currently working for a daycare for $11/hr. This seems to be what I'm hearing from everyone that I meet, and a majority of the people I work with share the same experience. While business might have a broader application you also have to consider there are that many more people with that degree applying for the same jobs so everything is pretty much relative. My conclusion is that Denver is a perfect place for someone with a Masters Degree or 3-5 years of experience in their chosen field, but everyone else is left to fight over the scraps left behind. I still enjoy Denver and everything it has to offer, but reality can set in pretty quickly if you don't already have something set up.

[dude_reino]

Pros:
*Great year-round weather, with sunny skies
*The mountains--camping, hiking, biking, etc.
*Good system of bike routes and paths for the responsible rider
*Gourmet Food (if you think it's bad you aren't eating at the right places)
*Music (see Food above)
*Gas relatively inexpensive compared to other cities
*Few condescending attitudes
*Available single-family homes much closer to the city core than other cities
*Micro AND Macro-brews
*Nightlife scene (yes its not NYC but it holds its own)
*Festivals, parades, street fests
*Beautiful parks, riverfront, creek trails
*Dog friendly for responsible owners
*Professional Sports culture
*Skiing (light powder snow)
*Police under budget to pull over a casual speeder
*Good job market
*Variety of flights from DIA

Cons:
*Temperature extremes (summer too hot to drive with windows down, winter too cold)
*Extremely slow/ignorant drivers
*Extremely fast/aggressive drivers
*Traffic signals not synchronized
*Homeless people
*Ignorant bicyclists
*Casual Food is not very unique
*All food is expensive
*An Obama sticker on 1/3 of all vehicles
*No Professional Sports that can actually win championships
*Skiing (traffic, lift lines, overpriced, avy dangers)
*Hippies hanging out in parks in drum/weed circles
*Many irresponsible dog owners
*Expensive housing
*Low wages
*Police under budget to deal with real crime
*Far driving distance to other major cities

[bartonizer]

Originally Posted by AndrewBoBandrew

This is a great list and I appreciate you putting it together.

How common is it to travel within Colorado?

Yes, it was a pretty good list, though you'd have to admit, the cons are not that big of a deal. Except maybe driving distances to other major cities, which is a pain after a while.

From my experience, you do quite a bit of driving around the state if you live in Denver. It's no biggie for people to drive an hour or two and return the same day. Vail is about 100 miles from the city and that's about as far as people travel from Denver on a day trip. Traffic really dies down after that and there's a lot of ground in this state that would require at least a long weekend to get to. I moved to Glenwood Canyon last year, which puts us about 3 hours west and allows us to explore amazing new (to us) places like Moab, Crested Butte, the San Juans, etc. But in general I would say that just about everywhere you go, there are some Denver people representing- the point is that more than many other major cities, people in Colorado moved here to access the mountains, and they like to explore them.

[TrexDigit]

Great list and not to nitpick but how long have you been here?

Originally Posted by dude_reino

Cons:
*No Professional Sports that can actually win championships

We've won several national championships.

[SkyDog77]

Originally Posted by AndrewBoBandrew

This is a great list and I appreciate you putting it together.

How common is it to travel within Colorado?

I travel within the state a lot. There are a lot of great spots within Colorado if you are in to mountain recreation. Aspen, Telluride, Ouray, Silverton, Durango, Crested Butte, Grand Lake, etc.

The mountains are a great place to be during all 4 seasons, but late spring and early summer are my favorite times.

[sammy87]

PROS:
-Weather
-Affordable Compared to other areas
-All major sports teams
-Food, lots of non franchise
-skiing
-plenty of out door rec
-dog friendly
-all yr vacation spots close by
-DIA, can fly anywhere
-Denver is a pretty good town, lots of options
-Jobs, good decent paying jobs

CONS:
-Housing is expensive, lot sizes are tiny and houses are packed on each other
-skiing, everyone else is skiing
-Jobs, competitive job market lots of ppl waiting tables with bachelors degrees-that's everywhere
-hippies, bums
-traffic lights are timed terribly
-DIA is practicaly in Kansas
-Water restrictions, no dogs in resorvoirs, but they're full of geese
-a lot of ppl want to raise taxes and take away the competitive business climate that CO has
-Car registration, $250 for the wifes 2006 vw and over $800 for my suv! UFB!!!!!

Overall it's a good place to live, I am fortunate to have a good job, but no matter how great of a place it is, if you are a college grad and living in a crappy apartment bussing tables, the place will eventually suck.

[Timmyy]

Originally Posted by TrexDigit

Great list and not to nitpick but how long have you been here?

We've won several national championships.

Avalanche in 2001/2002 and the Broncos in 1997 and 1998. It has been awhile and Sunday's game wasn't very encouraging.

Go Avalanche.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by Timmyy

Avalanche in 2001/2002 and the Broncos in 1997 and 1998. It has been awhile and Sunday's game wasn't very encouraging.

Go Avalanche.

DU Pioneers have won the NCAA Hockey Nat'l championship 7 times - most recently in 2004 & 2005.

[guyatwork37]

Originally Posted by asmith0387

My conclusion is that Denver is a perfect place for someone with a Masters Degree or 3-5 years of experience in their chosen field, but everyone else is left to fight over the scraps left behind.

So if I was a double major in college and have 9 years of project management experience with 5 of those years in the commercial lending sector, is that enough to get a foot in the door in Denver or am I just SOL because it's still not enough?

I'm trying to gauge if it's even worth my time to start applying from out of state (which obviously doesn't help, although I'm not expecting any relocation costs nor would I ask for them). Of course, you never know until you try, but thought I'd ask.