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Comment by hucker | Hacker News Reader

I have a question, how are the salaries for web engineers with masters in NYC, and how much is the rent? (I understand that both these questions are hard to answer, but a rough guess?) I'm asking because I like the idea of working in NYC for a while, and would love to see some numbers to compare with the market back here in Norway.

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Based on anecdotal evidence from my friends and my own renting experience:

Salaries: between 60 and ~100k for 0-2 years out of college (those are my friend's age ranges).

Rent: Highly dependent on where you live. Assuming you want to live decently in Manhattan, expect to pay anywhere from $1k (in Washington Heights) to $2k/mo (in, e.g. UWS) to unlimited for other areas for a 1-bedroom apartment (or equivalent). Obviously, this can be cheaper or more expensive depending on if you want roommates, location, quality of building and quality of apartment.

Living expenses: Obviously depends on how you live. Take what you pay right now and add 30-40%.

Thank you for a swift reply! Salaries are a bit lower than starting salary in Norway if 60-100k is the norm, but 1k a month for rent is cheaper than I thought! I don't know if Washington Heights is a dodgy place to live, but that is great news. I (still a student) pay nearly 1k for my share of an apartment which I share with a roommate quite a way from campus here in Trondheim, Norway, and that seems to be about the norm for students here by my observations. I know NYC is expensive, but if you can out-Norway Norway on living expenses I'd be impressed [1].

One last question though, how hard is it to get the appropriate visas etc for work if you are a Norwegian citizen and speak fluent English?

[1] http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/06/0622_most_expensive_...

One k a month is at best a studio, by the way, in Manhattan. And that would be way uptown.

Anywhere in midtown, village, it's going to be at least 1600 for a studio for the most part. Just spent a month looking for a place in greenwich village. And it's hard to find a place without using a broker, who's going to take 15% of the annual rent (almost 2 months of rent) as a broker fee.

"it's hard to find a place without using a broker, who's going to take 15% of the annual rent (almost 2 months of rent) as a broker fee."

What about apartment hunting on sites like Craigslist?

You'll find that 95% of the ads are fake just to get you to call the broker listed, or are mislabeled as "no fee". But if you get lucky, you can find something. Padmapper.com (no connection to me) puts a nice googlemaps interface onto craigslist as well.

Edit to add: When you get into the higher price ranges, and start looking in doorman / elevator buildings, it gets a little easier since you can deal with the management company directly. but that's like ~2200 and up or so probably.

In NYC, I'd say 60k is too low for an entry-level computer science position, even for a kid coming out of a bachelors, unless you're at a startup / ad agency / other similarly interesting job. Even the first year investment bankers usually make at least 50k base - and that's the "don't worry about the number you'll make more in bonuses" number.

You say you have a Masters - assuming it's in computer science and you have any internship or "real programming" experience at all, I would be surprised to see you getting something less than a mid-level or strong junior position, and a salary of at least 80k accordingly.

"Even the first year investment bankers usually make at least 50k base - and that's the "don't worry about the number you'll make more in bonuses" number."

Don't rely on the bonuses!

I've been in and known of too many companies which work your ass off with the promise of a big bonus, but when it comes time to deliver the bonus they always have some excuse for either giving you a low bonus or none at all.

Many Wall St firms are also like revolving doors and sweatshops, which treat a many of their employees like crap with the rationale that you're lucky to be working there at all. This is especially true of entry-level employees. But if you can tough it out to senior level, you'll probably do a lot better.

Good advice. I only mentioned it to give a lower-bound on the expected job salary.

The only Wall St firms I know that don't treat their entry-level employees like revolving doors, are also the ones that pay much higher than 50k for base (and don't make as big of a deal about bonuses, even if they do have them.)

Washington Heights is not that dodgy (neighborhood by neighborhood) - the problem is that it could be a 30 minute subway ride to midtown add another 10-15 to downtown.

For less than peak rents, consider the cities along the western shore of the Hudson River. Hoboken, Jersey City can be a 15 minute ride to midtown.

"the problem is that it could be a 30 minute subway ride to midtown add another 10-15 to downtown"

This is actually quite a reasonable commute, by NYC standards.

It's not uncommon to have a 1 hour commute each way.

I myself used to commute in to the City 2 hours each way. That's 4 hours of my life pretty much wasted every weekday.

In comparison, commuting from Washington Heights would have been a blessing.

One of the nicest commutes I had was from Brooklyn Heights, which was just a 4 minute subway ride from Wall St. Very nice neighborhood too. I would highly recommend it, if you can afford the rent.

As another data point, you can find some great deals with a 30ish minute commute in Brooklyn. Yes you can easily pay as much as UWS/Tribeca but there are more deals out here.

Another pro tip: ride a bike and save $5/day on your commute!

I have heard Brooklyn was cheap. I am looking around that area for the fall.

Brooklyn is a great idea. Also "Long Island City" in Queens. Hoboken, Jersey City. If you live near the subway in those places you can have a 20 min ride to midtown/downtown NYC.

I lived in Hoboken for three years while working in NYC. First, I'd recommend living very close to the PATH station. The buses are very hit or miss, depend on traffic, and don't run frequently on weekends.

Also, if you're out in NYC on a weekend and want a cab home to somewhere like brooklyn, it'll only cost you like 15 bucks. However, if you want one to Hoboken, it'll cost you around 50-60... Really a pain when the PATH only comes every half hour after midnight.

Hoboken's where I live and I love it. Rent about 50% of what it'd be in the West Village, just across the river. PATH train makes for a quick commute and runs 24 hours. City is walkable, Fresh Direct delivers, Grimaldi's and Maxwell's are here...

As long as you can walk to the PATH, the loser factor on weekends (Jersey's finest comes to party) is the only real downside.

There are areas of Brooklyn that rival Manhattan prices, but generally speaking the further away from Manhattan you go the cheaper the rent gets.

If you want the ultimate in NYC luxury, find an apartment within walking distance of your job ... you can pretend that the $100 / month you save on a Metrocard makes up for the rent increase. A 5-10 minute walk-to-work commute is probably the single greatest quality of life improvement money can buy.

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