Recent College Grad Looking to Move to Denver (Boulder, Craig: apartment, rental)

[MarkJ1]

I recently graduated from college and am looking to relocate to Colorado. I am from California and am looking for a city with relatively affordable rent, great outdoor opportunities and a decent job market. Colorado is a gorgeous state with rich culture. I've been to Denver/Boulder four times and absolutely loved it each time I visited. I have cousins who live in Boulder. I was accepted to CU-Boulder (my first choice), but unfortunately could not afford the high out of state tuition. I ended up attending a school that is very similar to CU both culturally and academically. I love to hike and ski. I graduated with a BS in Economics/Finance.

How is the job market in the Denver metro area? Even for the first 6 months to 1 yr, I'd be willing to take a lower level job because I am determined to start a career in the beautiful state of Colorado. I have saved up some money, so I would likely be able to afford rent for about 6 months without a job.

I was thinking that living in the DU area of Denver might be good fit for me, considering my age. Is $1,000-1,200 for a 2 bedroom/1-2 bath appt a realistic price range?

Thank you in advance for your help!

[vegaspilgrim]

Originally Posted by MarkJ1

I recently graduated from college and am looking to relocate to Colorado. I am from California and am looking for a city with relatively affordable rent, great outdoor opportunities and a decent job market. Colorado is a gorgeous state with rich culture. I've been to Denver/Boulder four times and absolutely loved it each time I visited. I have cousins who live in Boulder. I was accepted to CU-Boulder (my first choice), but unfortunately could not afford the high out of state tuition. I ended up attending a school that is very similar to CU both culturally and academically. I love to hike and ski. I graduated with a BS in Economics/Finance.

How is the job market in the Denver metro area? Even for the first 6 months to 1 yr, I'd be willing to take a lower level job because I am determined to start a career in the beautiful state of Colorado. I have saved up some money, so I would likely be able to afford rent for about 6 months without a job.

I was thinking that living in the DU area of Denver might be good fit for me, considering my age. Is $1,000-1,200 for a 2 bedroom/1-2 bath appt a realistic price range?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Read this recent thread: //www.city-data.com/forum/denve...-soon-cpa.html. Also this one: //www.city-data.com/forum/denve...e-we-come.html. I took some heat for telling people the truth.

The job market here is better than Southern California, it's better than a lot of other cities in the western US, Denver has a wide diversity of industries, I'm not sure if it's better or worse than Northern California or Seattle, but regardless, it still sucks. Everybody's experience is going to be a little different, of course. My experience is this: I graduated with a Master of Accounting degree from USC a year ago. I'm from Denver and came back here. It took me four months later to get my first job offer in Denver. I actually ended up taking another job in Reno which seemed more lucrative at the time. Six months later when that gig ended, I came back here again. It's been over three months now and I've been getting a lot of interviews, but no actual job offers yet. And I'm in accounting, which is more versatile of a career field than finance.

Also, staffing agencies are absolutely useless. I've met with a half dozen of them, they are all promise the world, but then when I check back with them each week about new jobs, they have nothing.

Even for the first 6 months to 1 yr, I'd be willing to take a lower level job because I am determined to start a career in the beautiful state of Colorado.

What do you mean by "lower level job"? Like working retail, etc? Do you have continuous, stable, recent experience working jobs like this? Are you going to be able to take off the college part of your resume when you apply to those jobs? Because if not, you'll likely be considered "overqualified." Jobs are very difficult to get at all levels of the market.

I was thinking that living in the DU area of Denver might be good fit for me, considering my age. Is $1,000-1,200 for a 2 bedroom/1-2 bath appt a realistic price range?

That price range sounds a little high for a two bedroom in Denver. I bet you could find a 2bed for more like $850-1000 range. Is it two of you moving to Denver? If it's just you, I'd suggest finding a month-to-month room rental on Craigslist. It's what I did when I moved to Reno and I'd highly recommend it. Or walk around the DU campus and find roommate wanted fliers posted around. You should be able to find a living arrangement where your total share of the rent + utilities is around $400-500 a month.

Your idea of living near DU is a smart idea. It's also fairly centrally located, a good location to be based out of while you job search.

If you have parents, etc, who you can fall back on after 6 months if you still haven't found a job by then, then I'd say just do it and move to Denver. It sounds like you know what you want, so at least try your very best to get it. If you don't have a "plan B" like that, then you're going to have to do some serious soul searching.

If you are willing to forego the outdoor adventures part, there are cities in the next tier of states over to the east with even lower cost of living than Denver and even better job markets. And from the information I have, the Washington DC/ MD/ Northern VA area probably has the best job market in the country right now-- although with cost of living that's on par with CA.

[80skeys]

Originally Posted by MarkJ1

How is the job market in the Denver metro area? Even for the first 6 months to 1 yr, I'd be willing to take a lower level job because I am determined to start a career in the beautiful state of Colorado. I have saved up some money, so I would likely be able to afford rent for about 6 months without a job.

The job market is slow in Denver. As a recent grad, you'll be competing against other young folks and older, more experienced people who are unemployed. You should expect to get some sort of job in 6 months, but it may not be in your field.

[goyanks57]

First off-welcome to the forum. You'll find a lot of valuable information in a lot of these threads.

Compared to California, living in Denver is cheap, but it is still a lot more expensive than other major cities in landlocked states. A 2-bedroom apartment that is within your price range is very do-able, and you might be able to find one cheaper than that if you want to live in the suburbs.

One thing that I will suggest is that once you find a job, move into an apartment that is close to where you will be working. Traffic in Denver can be very frustrating at times, even with the new T-Rex project that was completed. They do have a light rail system, but it only serves a small portion of the metro area.

IMO, the November election is going to be a defining moment for not only Denver, but the entire state of Colorado. Right now, most of the state is in the midst of a budget crisis, and it is trickling down to effect the economy of the entire state. In recent years, Denver has passed several bills that have resulted in onerous taxes and inflated living costs.

All in all, if you can find yourself a decent job, I think you'll do very well in Denver. The challenge, of course, will be finding that job...