Job market for mechanical engineers around Denver

What's it like out there? I live in Charlotte currently. Looking to move out west, but I've found it tough to land an interview as a non-local. Any advice here or via email would be appreciated!

I'm in the same boat and would be interested in hearing what some locals have to say. I think most companies recruit in state, depending on the experience level they are looking for. I think the best bet is to just save up some money and make the move.

I'll apologize up front because this isn't the answer you want, but I'm afraid that the only real way to guarentee employment in the rocky mountain west is to change career paths to software.

I'm a recovering ME that switched to software, and I have worked with a bunch of other software developers that all started out as something else - lots of former ME's, EE's, chemists, metallurgists, etc. all switched to software.

As Willie Sutton said, "because that's where the money is."

Did you go back to school?

I had several bites when I was sending out resumes and cover letters a couple months ago, but nothing solid enough for me to pay for my own flight to interview. I'm sure I could find something if I moved.

Some "back to school", some "on the job training", but mostly self taught. Internet is full of free tutorials on software. Almost no need for taking traditional classes anymore. I dont have a degree in software which is the case for most of the other converts that I know.

ME's can sometimes pull good pay doing supervision/site check work in the oil industry. There's a reasonable amount of oil work around CO.

JLP wrote: ... keep in mind nobody cares if it's written well, it just has to "work". Go buy one of those Idiot's guides, they'll get you well into 80-90% of anything anyone actually uses - the rest is data sheets, Google and reusing code.

Theres a decent market around here for engineers in oil and gas, either with an operator directly, or 3rd party (pump shops, support services, etc). I'd start there, look at their job sites. I know, for instance, that Samson is looking for people right now.

Bump. Officially making the move in three weeks. I took some of this advice in this thread and started programming in my own time. I knew a good bit before, but never really took it seriously until now. Really enjoying it. I'm looking for mechanical engineering and web development contacts, if anyone would be willing to speak with me.

ME skills: Pro-E, Solidworks, AutoCAD

CS skills: Python, Django, SQL, JavaScript, JQuery, HTML, CSS, C#, Git

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