Is moving to Colorado really for me? (Denver: luxury, live)

[Vandrade]

I've heard of that story but really it's not always true. While I admit, there are mean and nice people in every city, cities do have personalities that attract similar types of people. I'm originally from Orlando and Miami, Fl and I loved it in both cities. I loved the people, weather, diversity, the plethora of things to do, the nightlife. My bf got promoted and moved out to LA and people warned me about it being different out there. Basically, what I heard made it seem very similar to Miami-I lived in South Beach which is full of superficial, plastic and materialistic people but it never bugged me. I thought the transition from Miami to LA should be relatively smooth and was prepared for new experiences and people.

When I got to LA-I soon learned that the people here were very different and quite frankly horrible and psychologically disturbed. I am now waiting to either get back to Miami or Denver. Denver may happen if my bf gets promoted again in July. Cities can be good or bad, depending on what you like. I guess some people like rude people so LA and NYC works for them.

[ebestul]

I'm originally from Wisconsin, but set out to New York City at 19 for an "exciting" future. What I found was fun the first year... having all of Manhattan at my hands, but then it got to the point where I became overwhelmingly frustrated with the disrespect I saw towards totally strangers, the amount of crime (I was shot at once in Harlem) and the insane prices of virtually anything (the only REASONABLY priced item I found was a slice of pizza across the street from Port Authority on the west-side!) I made a reasonable amount of money and even with my rent cared for (I was a live-in nanny) I still found myself unable to save $100 a month.Far too ridiculous a life for me... and stress? Woah! I worked approximately 70+ hours a week, spent two days a week commuting dealing with frustrating, over-worked, under-paid, angry New Yorkers. Not fun. So five years after I first arrived, I threw together a list of five potential new places to live... Denver was definitely not number one, but when I flew out here it was immediately known that this is where I'd live.
I've been here a year, I have the best friends in the world... have a boyfriend who treats me like a princess and has a job where I literally work a 9-5.
I love it! After being here for over a year, I've saved up enough money for a down payment on a house... My commute is NEVER as bad as it was in NY... The bars close earlier, but there is always something more to do! People are friendly and polite... there's a much lower crime rate... and it's overall amazing.

[jodyr]

If you're serious about packing up and moving to Colorado, there are a few things you can do to prepare yourself, so that you can hit the ground running.
1. On the job front: Join an online group where you can get good, sound advice on job hunting. For example, Liz Ryan is a local work/life expert who runs free listserves and networking groups. (Home | Ask Liz Ryan) She's also got local community listserves that might help you with the next bit. See Ask! in Denver: askindenver : Ask! in Denver (http://tinyurl.com/qbgtux - broken link)
2. On the community front: Decide where you'll consider living. Since Colorado has so many different communities, each with its own flavor and price point, decide what you can afford, and what's important to you. You've mentioned Thornton, which is very reasonably priced, but if commuting bothers you, you might want to limit your search to a town where you're more likely to find work, for example.
If I were you, I'd trust my gut, but there's no way to know for sure whether you'll like it any place until you get there. Best of luck!

[Lucy29]

Originally Posted by jodyr

If you're serious about packing up and moving to Colorado, there are a few things you can do to prepare yourself, so that you can hit the ground running.
1. On the job front: Join an online group where you can get good, sound advice on job hunting. For example, Liz Ryan is a local work/life expert who runs free listserves and networking groups. (Home | Ask Liz Ryan) She's also got local community listserves that might help you with the next bit. See Ask! in Denver: askindenver : Ask! in Denver (http://tinyurl.com/qbgtux - broken link)
2. On the community front: Decide where you'll consider living. Since Colorado has so many different communities, each with its own flavor and price point, decide what you can afford, and what's important to you. You've mentioned Thornton, which is very reasonably priced, but if commuting bothers you, you might want to limit your search to a town where you're more likely to find work, for example.
If I were you, I'd trust my gut, but there's no way to know for sure whether you'll like it any place until you get there. Best of luck!

I trust my gut, and my gut is sick of NY. And I do like Co very very much. I won't know for sure, you're right, but I have to give it a try, otherwise I'll hate myself for ever. Thanks!!!!

[goolsbyjazz]

mark, I heard the Bay area, though expensive, was quite nice? I too am eyeing Colorado for a possible future location.

[L0ftyKeith]

Hello everyone, I am new to this forum and this will be my first post.

I know this was an old thread, but I'm in a somewhat similar situation as Lucy. So I am hoping that this thread could be revived. By the way, I saw some really interesting responses from some people and most of them were helpful, so a big thank you to that!

So Lucy, did you end up moving to Colorado? If so, how do you like it there? I am a local New Yorker (born and raised) and currently living in Brooklyn. I am 25 years old and my gf is 24. We are looking to move out of NY because of the same reasons. We're tired of the fast paced life, the rush-hours, superficial people, and the list goes on. We are looking for something more laid-back, slower pace of life, with great nature and weather. I love snowboarding and have been sponsored in the past. So snowboarding in Colorado would be a dream come true for me. Although we've never been to Colorado before, I have a really good feeling that this would be a good place for us. We also are thinking of having children in the future, and do not want to raise them in NY.

I am currently working in Higher Education, and have been for the past 6-7 years. To be specific, I am a Financial Aid adviser. I work with students in colleges/universities with their financial aid, loans, grants, etc. My gf is an RN with over one year of experience at New York's well-known hospital NYU (#2 in the state).

I am pretty much concerned about the same things that OP spoke of. Would you think it would be a problem for both of us to look for work? We both have our Bachelor's, and have pretty solid background of work experience.

Another thing that I am concerned about is the cultural shock. My gf and I are both Asian-American. Our parents were immigrants from China, but we were both born in NY. I can be comfortable to say that we are pretty Americanized. We have a really diverse group of friends, and my gf grew up in a predominantly white part of town (Westchester), so she is used to being the only Asian within her group of friends.

Do you think we will encounter racism, within society and employment? Also, which part of Colorado would you suggest? We are thinking about making a trip there for a few days, just to check it out. But I have a really good gut feeling that CO would be perfect for us.

Please note that I am not running away from NYC because I think the grass is greener in CO. I can stay in NYC, but I choose to have a better quality of life for me and my children in the future.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading!

[JD401]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Mark, Lucy, Out of Staters:

No firm wants to hire a distant person unless desperate. One way around that is to get a Vonage phone with an area code for the region you want to be in, which for Denver is A/C 303, or 719 for COLO SPGS.

This way you look local to employers; you should get calls, and you may get interviews. I don't care that some people consider this "unethical" but there are FEW ethics left in this country anymore, especially in the corporate world.

Humor me for a moment - For that to work, I'd need to list the CO number on my resume, a resume that would show all of my work experience out of state. So 1) would you also then be recommending to remove locations from work experience, or 2) tell a white lie, and say that you just recently moved to CO when getting calls back?

Not sure I'm terribly comfortable with this train of thought, but with the federal government budget issues, governmental hiring (transfers) have completely frozen so I'm entertaining the idea of entering back into the private sector.

[brown_dog_us]

It would be interesting to hear from someone who used a Colorado area code and/or address even though they were out of state.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by brown_dog_us

It would be interesting to hear from someone who used a Colorado area code and/or address even though they were out of state.

People HAVE posted on here that using this approach has worked.

[stevman22889]

I would think at this point, with the way cell phones are, there is no reason to have to get another number. For example, I live in Kansas City, but I still have my same cell phone number from when I lived in Pennsylvania. With how prevalent cell phone numbers are nowadays and how portable cell phone numbers are, I feel like your number would be irrelevant.

Another thing to consider - the original post was based in 2009, the height of the economic drought, so times were a bit different. Just some food for thought.