Help a fellow Ferrari owner relocate to the Rockies.

Hey gang, I could really use some FChat help. It seems there's no task too small for FChat so I figured I'd give this a try. Since graduating college in '94, I've wanted to get out west to the mountains. Unfortunately, the jobs I was offered were always somewhere else. I've been in Alabama the last 12 years, which has been fine, but I'm really not a fan of banjo music. After budget cuts and a loss of R&D funding, my company has placed me into a position that I isn't even in my field and it's time to find another employer. This time, I want to go where I really want to live. I don't really care which state, as long as it's next to the mountains. Colorado is obviously the most likely location given my field of expertise. I'm a physicist who's been working on space and defense R&D programs to develop radiation hardened optical components and systems. If anyone has any contacts in the optics, radiation effects or aerospace communities out west, I'd appreciate any networking help you could provide. Shoot me a PM and I'll send you my resume.

Thanks,
Richard

 

Thanks for all the input and encouragement gang! FChat can do it all. I have several applications in at Ball Aerospace in Boulder and I have a contact there that is putting a good word in for me. I've also sent in applications to several small companies in the Colorado area as well as a couple in Oregon. I've talked with the owner of a small tech company in Jackson, WY of all places about partnering on some proposals in the future (wouldn't THAT be a nice place to live!). I'll check out Space Dynamics Labs in Utah as well. I'm not as familiar with Utah companies as I am with those in Colorado. I know ATK very well in my dealings with NASA programs.

I spent my teenage summers in Alaska, and that put the hook in me. Since college I've been saying "some day" about getting out west. I'm tired of saying "some day". Today! Plus, if I fly off for one more climbing trip and leave my 7 year old son behind, he's going to stop speaking to me. He had his backpack loaded the night before I left for a British Columbia climb last fall and was heartbroken when I told him he couldn't come. My 9 year old daughter isn't too happy about being left out either, nor is my 4 year old daughter. Plus, one climb a year just isn't cutting it.

Anyway, thanks for the tips and I'll let you guys know how it's going.

 

Wow, exellent lead! That job is right in my wheelhouse of experience and capabilities. Thanks!

 

UPDATE: I have a phone interview today with Ball Aerospace in Boulder. Wish me luck!

 

Well, the conversation went well I think. We talked for over an hour. Unfortunately, as seems to be the case with me and this job hunt, I have 90% of what they are looking for, but that other 10% is a big part of the job. So I don't feel too confident that I'll get called in for a face to face interview.

In the mean time, I'm busy planning a summer family vacation to the Silverton-Ouray-Lake City area for camping, hiking, climbing and fishing. It's my sales pitch to the family on Colorado. This time next year, if I'm still stuck in this miserable NASA job, maybe then I can convince the wife and kids to sell it all and move out there.

 

I got a call back from Ball. They want to fly me out for an onsite interview in the next few weeks. I need to do some technical review to prep. I don't want to have a blank stare after a question. I've been through that before and that's not a fun feeling.

 

Actually, I thought Dave had sold his GTB last year. I thought I remember him listing on FerrariAds back when there were like 3 GTBs all up for sale at the same time.

Princeton climb? As in mountain climb? I'm all in.

My interview with Ball is scheduled for the 14th (a week from Monday). Hopefully, I can convince them the experience that I lack isn't something I can't pick up quickly.

 

Looks like fun. The only 14ner I've done is Crestone Needle. I've been climbing in Montana mostly the past several years, but last fall I went to BC and climbed with a former guide. He buried me physically on the first day, but I learned a lot about class 5 climbing.

Hopefully, things will work out and I'll be dragging the wife and kids out there this summer to stay.