Univ of Wyo jobs (Laramie, Boulder: apartment, university, wage)

[paintedeagle]

Is the Univ of Wyoming a pretty tough place to find IT work? I've been long thinking about moving to Wyoming over the past few years. It is close to family in Utah but far enough away to be nice. Plus, I love the high prairie areas. Love the wilderness areas, the state attitude, the mountains, etc. I love to go shooting, too. Twice a year we travel through Wyoming and we all like it quite a bit, and even vacationed there once. A few weeks ago I took a vacation to Utah and stopped in Laramie for a few days and just looked around. I like that area quite a bit and have been a Cowboy basketball fan for a while. It's got a lot going for it. Small college town with some shopping, close to bigger cities(such as Fort Collins/Denver), views, and not too far from my family in Utah. Looking at Trulia, though, the housing looks to be old and quite expensive.

[branDcalf]

Sounds like Laramie might suit you since you already like the high prairie and such. I don't know about IT work or working for the University.

For housing costs, you may have better luck searching for a local realty company and viewing the MLS. I've found that to be more accurate than Trulia.

[ElkHunter]

It really depends at what level of IT work you are interested in.

Are you looking at babysitting personal PC's in offices, small systems for business'? You can just just about any of Wyoming's towns that have a population of 15,000-18,000 or more. As long as you have reasonable rates, I think you'd do ok. Where I live, we have a couple shops that will take you for a ride and people really don't have a choice. I've seen them charge $120. to remove a virus and it took them less than 5 minutes. If they had had to go in and clean up the computer and "fix it", I could understand it, but I watched them clean the lady's computer by running a scan and it auto fixed and they were done. The lady could have spent $79.95 and been protected all year. If you walked into this town and had the backing to set up a shop, charged rates where you could make a living and not want to win the lottery from each customer, you'd probably do fine.

If you are capable of large systems, it really doesn't make any difference where you live. I have a good friend that maintains 8 or 10 lan systems, and he does it from home. The systems are in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. He fly's out about once a year to get hands on, do major updates, etc and is at each place for 2 or 3 days. The rest of the time he is here, at home. If they have major problems that he can't fix from home, he has to fly out there. Not sure how he sets up his pricing, but he does very well. He is well educated and can handle just about anything that comes up. I do know for a while, he contracted local IT guys in the areas of his customers, and if something came up, he'd call the local guy and they'd send somebody out. He stopped doing that because he couldn't rely on them responding immediately, and they kept trying to get his customers away from him.

So what are you hoping to do in the IT world? That might help narrow down some alternatives. One thing I learned a long time ago, the term IT can cover a "lot" of different positions, systems, etc...

[jody_wy]

just over the mountain
Home | NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC)


my Son sure loved the tour

[paintedeagle]

Supercomputing for them...most of the IT is done in Boulder. Some at Univ of IL. This really seemed like a good deal for the Univ of Wyoming. Seems I read they have some contracts with NCAR.

Originally Posted by jody_wy

just over the mountain
Home | NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC)


my Son sure loved the tour

[paintedeagle]

Right. IT encompasses a lot. I've done desktop, too. I'm past the desktop phase in my life, but I do work with the desktop people on my team to help them with technical problems and strategy. At my company, I am a technical advisor. I often work with VPs to help them understand technology, set the technical direction of IT in scientific areas, develop/train other IT team members, manage vendors, lead projects, perform server administration, troubleshoot issues, write a lot of documentation(for the government), develop ITIL standards/processes, and consult with infrastructure, desktop, and business teams to help them understand needs and requirements. I keep my hand in coding(.NET, C#, IronPython, etc) so as to keep abreast of the technology.

My job is more hands on. I have others working on my team that are able to work from home(such as load balancer specialists) but I have to meet with people.

Originally Posted by ElkHunter

It really depends at what level of IT work you are interested in.

Are you looking at babysitting personal PC's in offices, small systems for business'? You can just just about any of Wyoming's towns that have a population of 15,000-18,000 or more. As long as you have reasonable rates, I think you'd do ok. Where I live, we have a couple shops that will take you for a ride and people really don't have a choice. I've seen them charge $120. to remove a virus and it took them less than 5 minutes. If they had had to go in and clean up the computer and "fix it", I could understand it, but I watched them clean the lady's computer by running a scan and it auto fixed and they were done. The lady could have spent $79.95 and been protected all year. If you walked into this town and had the backing to set up a shop, charged rates where you could make a living and not want to win the lottery from each customer, you'd probably do fine.

If you are capable of large systems, it really doesn't make any difference where you live. I have a good friend that maintains 8 or 10 lan systems, and he does it from home. The systems are in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. He fly's out about once a year to get hands on, do major updates, etc and is at each place for 2 or 3 days. The rest of the time he is here, at home. If they have major problems that he can't fix from home, he has to fly out there. Not sure how he sets up his pricing, but he does very well. He is well educated and can handle just about anything that comes up. I do know for a while, he contracted local IT guys in the areas of his customers, and if something came up, he'd call the local guy and they'd send somebody out. He stopped doing that because he couldn't rely on them responding immediately, and they kept trying to get his customers away from him.

So what are you hoping to do in the IT world? That might help narrow down some alternatives. One thing I learned a long time ago, the term IT can cover a "lot" of different positions, systems, etc...

[paintedeagle]

"Reasonable rates" is an interesting term. Many companies just want foreigners here on a visa and that slave wage is their "reasonable rate". This is one key in the Senate Bill 744. Companies, like Microsoft and Oracle, are paying Congressmen a lot of money to get it passed in order to bring down the "reasonable rate", and hire foreigners over Americans. Someone here on a non-green card is easily more controlled by a company than an American. They can pay them less and keep them in the job...because if you don't have a green card you can't go elsewhere.

Originally Posted by ElkHunter

You can just just about any of Wyoming's towns that have a population of 15,000-18,000 or more. As long as you have reasonable rates, I think you'd do ok.

[paintedeagle]

Forgot to add...yes...your son looks like a bear in a honey jar. All smiling and thumbs up from the tour. He must be a CS or CE major.

Originally Posted by jody_wy

just over the mountain
Home | NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC)


my Son sure loved the tour

[MRVphotog]

Much better to actually contact the UW HR dept to answer your questions.
Human Resources | University of Wyoming

since the UW is a state university many jobs are listed on the state job site, I worked a couple of jobs while attending and after graduating.

judging the housing stock thru pics on the puter is not going to give you a very accurate assessment. Several good suggestions posted. Compared to Vermont, where I live now, housing in Laramie is practically brand new. lol When I moved back after 23 years in Wyoming I rented an apartment in a 150 year-old Victorian. It was awesome...just cause it might be old do not right it off as a possibility.