Seperating from Military Possible move to CO (Denver, Colorado Springs: houses, job market)

[jason76]

Hello,
My family and I will be seperating from the military in about a year. We are thinking of moving to Colorado (Boulder, Loveland, Littleton, Ft. Collins, etc...) or Omaha Nebraska, where my family is from. Our priorities have changed in life and we are looking for something more stable. I have never worked outside of the military, except for part time, and I am not really worried, but nervous what this adventure will bring. I just graduated with a Bachelors in Management and am enrolling in an MBA program soon. I guess what I am asking is what can I expect if I move to one of these areas (Colorado). We are looking at houses and it seems like to live the way we are now we would have to spend around 300-400k. I dont know what to think about that with the job market that Colorado has to offer. I would hate to downgrade from the way we live now, but anything is worth not having to deploy for half a year and miss my kids and wife. Anyone with a managemet degree and significant management experience, please let me know how you are living or what I can expect as far as salary range. I am sure that someone is going to ask what profession I am considering, but I do not know. I am currently in aviation, but do not want to stay in that area. I may look at Federal jobs as I have a high clearance in the military right now. Any comments, good and bad are appreciated. I will keep searching the forums as well

[Postal]

I recently went throught a very similar experience. I spent 8 years on active duty in the Air Force. I worked in communications. With your high security clearance, you should be able to find a job easily in Colorado Springs. The jobs requiring clearances get fewer and fewer as you get further North. If you are looking for something technical in the IT sector Denver is a good place. The tech center on the south side of the city has alot of high-tech companies. Also, cities to the North like Broomfield have technical companies as well. Sun and IBM have many campuses spread across the suburbs. If you are looking for strictly management, there are plenty of those from CoSprings up to Fort Collins. If you want to stay with the government (so you don't have to give up those years of service), there is the National Business Center (I believe that's what the acronym stands for) that is part of the Department of Interior in Denver. I actually applied and was selected for a project management job at USDA in Fort Collins, but turned it down for the job I have now. They seem to have jobs open all the time up there. Take a look at usajobs.gov for federal government jobs. But if you plan on taking that route, start applying as early as possible. I have jobs I applied for in May that still haven't even started looking at resumes. Some go faster, though, but they still take longer than jobs in the "real world." If you look at monster.com, you'll get a good idea of what options are available outside of the federal government. Also keep in mind that it is better to be referred into a job by someone who is on the inside. That's how I got a majority of my "bites" for interviews. You will apply for hundreds of jobs and never hear anything back, so don't let that get to you.

There's much more we can talk about. I'm sure that was somewhat rambling on as well. But having just gone through this process, it's fresh in my mind. I'd be happy to talk with you offline (just give me a way to contact you), or I'll answer any other questions you have here.