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Questions for those few living in New Mexico: How is the job market for a SW engineer? Do you all pretty much live in ABQ, or is anyone is Santa Fe?

by ninetax 14y ago

RK 14y ago
My impression from talking to people in the area is that the investor money is in Santa Fe, but most of the programming jobs are in Albuquerque. Of course Albuquerque is about 10X the size of Santa Fe.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- ninetax 14y ago
  Thanks!
nealabq 14y ago
I'm in Las Cruces, 3 hours south of Albuquerque (where I used to live, hence my name). Not too many SW jobs down here, but the few there are are very good.
- fusiongyro 14y ago
  I'm tempted by Cruces, but I think my family would disown me. Also, it's a bit Texas-y for my taste. You do have lots of great eating and the best furniture store in the state though, so it's tempting.
fusiongyro 14y ago
Strangely, I've never been able to get a job in Albuquerque, but I have worked here in Socorro and in Española, of all places. I did contracting in Albuquerque and started my failed business there. You can certainly make a decent living at it, but if you're motivated largely by money, your friends in Chicago and the Bay will ruin your self-esteem. There are always openings around. Rural ones, too—we're looking for a group lead software engineer in my group at the NRAO right now. Most of us are working for less than industry rates, some substantially less, depending on the location and the kind of work. People working at the labs and Boeing make probably the best money but put up with the most crap. There are a few medical/dental firms in Albuquerque, Xilinx and some other random stuff. I honestly have no idea what they're like. Aerospace. A lot of government contracting, a lot of Manpower-type contracting too. The right skills seem never to go out of fashion—Windows, Oracle, .NET. It's funny, because the southwest used to be kind of a big unix shop. With specialized skills, you could be "the guy" in Albuquerque without being terribly special—Rails, Node.js, etc. Last time I went to a Barcamp up there about 12 people showed up and most of them were essentially designers. If you want to work as a software engineer in Santa Fe, I'm sure you can find a position there, but you may need to be resourceful to find it. State government is there, for instance. They outsource nearly everything but I'm sure they have a few developers in a basement somewhere. There's the eponymous Santa Fe Institute. There are colleges, most in the spectrum past non-technical and into unreality, but a surprising number of kids show up at NMT from Santa Fe with a strong background in CS. They have to be getting it somewhere there. I'd imagine there's small businesses. Santa Fe has one of the higher costs of living in the state, so maybe the pay is closer to industry standards, but it's just a wild guess. There are resorts up there with expansive web presences that need to be maintained. The casinos always have strange openings too, but they tend to be recycled frequently due to political upheavals. It's a good question. It's a pretty rarefied market. If you want to be here, I'm sure you can make it work, but if you're in it for wealth do a stint in the Bay and bring it back with you. :)
- ninetax 14y ago
  Thanks for the response! I was thinking that if I couldn't find anything I wanted to do out there I could work remotely for half the year and be in the bay area for the other half. I have friends in NM and you can't beat the skiing and green chilies. What did you work on in Española if you don't mind me asking? I ask because that is specifically where my friends live.

Questions for those few living in New Mexico: How is the job market for a SW engineer? Do you all pretty much live in ABQ, or is anyone is Santa Fe?

by ninetax 14y ago

Questions for those few living in New Mexico: How is the job market for a SW engineer? Do you all pretty much live in ABQ, or is anyone is Santa Fe?

RK 14y ago

My impression from talking to people in the area is that the investor money is in Santa Fe, but most of the programming jobs are in Albuquerque. Of course Albuquerque is about 10X the size of Santa Fe.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
ninetax 14y ago
Thanks!

nealabq 14y ago

I'm in Las Cruces, 3 hours south of Albuquerque (where I used to live, hence my name). Not too many SW jobs down here, but the few there are are very good.

fusiongyro 14y ago
I'm tempted by Cruces, but I think my family would disown me. Also, it's a bit Texas-y for my taste. You do have lots of great eating and the best furniture store in the state though, so it's tempting.

fusiongyro 14y ago

Strangely, I've never been able to get a job in Albuquerque, but I have worked here in Socorro and in Española, of all places. I did contracting in Albuquerque and started my failed business there. You can certainly make a decent living at it, but if you're motivated largely by money, your friends in Chicago and the Bay will ruin your self-esteem. There are always openings around. Rural ones, too—we're looking for a group lead software engineer in my group at the NRAO right now. Most of us are working for less than industry rates, some substantially less, depending on the location and the kind of work. People working at the labs and Boeing make probably the best money but put up with the most crap. There are a few medical/dental firms in Albuquerque, Xilinx and some other random stuff. I honestly have no idea what they're like. Aerospace. A lot of government contracting, a lot of Manpower-type contracting too. The right skills seem never to go out of fashion—Windows, Oracle, .NET. It's funny, because the southwest used to be kind of a big unix shop. With specialized skills, you could be "the guy" in Albuquerque without being terribly special—Rails, Node.js, etc. Last time I went to a Barcamp up there about 12 people showed up and most of them were essentially designers. If you want to work as a software engineer in Santa Fe, I'm sure you can find a position there, but you may need to be resourceful to find it. State government is there, for instance. They outsource nearly everything but I'm sure they have a few developers in a basement somewhere. There's the eponymous Santa Fe Institute. There are colleges, most in the spectrum past non-technical and into unreality, but a surprising number of kids show up at NMT from Santa Fe with a strong background in CS. They have to be getting it somewhere there. I'd imagine there's small businesses. Santa Fe has one of the higher costs of living in the state, so maybe the pay is closer to industry standards, but it's just a wild guess. There are resorts up there with expansive web presences that need to be maintained. The casinos always have strange openings too, but they tend to be recycled frequently due to political upheavals. It's a good question. It's a pretty rarefied market. If you want to be here, I'm sure you can make it work, but if you're in it for wealth do a stint in the Bay and bring it back with you. :)

ninetax 14y ago
Thanks for the response! I was thinking that if I couldn't find anything I wanted to do out there I could work remotely for half the year and be in the bay area for the other half. I have friends in NM and you can't beat the skiing and green chilies. What did you work on in Española if you don't mind me asking? I ask because that is specifically where my friends live.