Athena, I don’t want to hijack this and turn it into a job board, but I’ve looked for years for good-paying senior development jobs in Denver, with no luck. I love the mountains, and even though Austin is pretty, it cannot compete with the Rockies. Any recommendations on companies there?
JamesCarroll, as a developer I of course agree. Anecdotally, I find that job listings for experienced developers pay higher ranges than network specialists in NT…generally speaking. I am sure MCSEs and CNEs love what they do; many people just find it a lot more fun to invent software.
"Nothing tends so much to the advancement of knowledge as the application of a new instrument. " - Sir Humphrey Davy
What do you consider good-paying? I’m guessing that Denver is at least as well-paying as Austin. Most people at my site are mid- to senior-level developers, and my WAG is that salaries range from about 70K to at least 110K, if not more. I think this is pretty typical for the area, although there are plenty of places who want to lowball you.
Check out the Denver Post (www.denverpost.com). There’s a gazillion jobs. Alternately, check the web sites for Level 3, Lucent, IBM, HP, Qualcomm, and Oracle. I think all are hiring any engineer they can get. There’s also many, many headhunters out here who are hurting for people. I can’t imagine you’d have much problems finding a job out here. You have to work NOT to find one.
Our “senior engineer” makes $120.00 per hour, based out of Denver. Also, my friend who is the instructor, when he does network installs and support, he also averages $120.00 - $125.00 an hour, also based out of Denver. At that rate, they are making $243,400 a year (based on 8 hours a day, 22 days a month etc…) that’s not a bad living.
There are tons of tech jobs available from Ft. Collins down through Denver and to Colorado Springs. However, I wouldn’t suggest looking for a position in C Springs as (sorry if I offend anyone here) there are lot of military people here that work for less money than the average citizen. My landlord/friend, and I have told him this a million times, is a Communications Engineer and is making around $42,000 a year for a local defense contractor. I told him, with the growth of the internet (recently being trained and certified in Cisco routers) could be making at least twice that. However, and I have seen this a lot with the ex-military here, with their government pensions, they are not as likely to seek higher paying jobs… when you get an extra $9600 a year (or more) you can get in a job for less money.
In either case, when I lived in Denver the amount of computer related jobs was tremendous. (moved down here in Aug of 98)
(grumble)…And I have to work at the one place that doesn’t seem to need and tech’s…(sigh)…The only thing I’ll say is that I found it hard to get an interview without something with a bunch of letters in it after my name. (i.e. MCSE, CNA, CNE, MCSD, etc.)…I’ve been a sys admin on several different networks…from Novel 3.1 in 1991, to NT 3.51 about2 years ago…and I was all self taught…but without a certification, or a degree, it’s difficult to make your resume’ stand out amoung a stack of 50-100 that they may get for a job.
I also recomend an MCSD over an MCSE, even having worked on NT 3.51, I found the damn test to be a pain in the ass…I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out what one question asked and then couldn’t figure out why anyone would actually ever do something like that. If you don’t have any previouse expir, best start off as a help desk person or something like that. It’ll give you some time to learn a few things, and decide if you really like that type of work.
I was an applications instructor for NH, and while I don’t want to say anything bad about their technical instructors, I’m also not going to say anything good about them. Of 5 MCT’s they had, not one had any real world expir. They had all just gone through the class’s, and passed the test. Which was great if you just wanted the facts…but let’s face it, you could read a book to just get information. I do not recommend using them to get your training…go to your local community college.
I’m thinking of getting an MCSD in Access…any one out there that can give me some advice on how best to start?
Thanks, TechChick68 and Athena. I am currently overpaid in Austin ($65/hour guaranteed 40 hrs/week) as a Visual FoxPro/SQL Server developer, and would love to be similarly overpaid in Colorado.
My contract is up in a couple of months, so I’ll start looking more aggressively at the sources youse guys have mentioned.