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I'm new here but I was just thinking about something.
I was looking at job openings on CollegeGrad.com, a entry-level job posting website for new college grads, for finance/economic jobs in NYC.
Getting my bachelors in Economics, even with experience with internships, it looks like the best I can do with a min. of 2 yrs experience is a entry-level at a large company and hope to work my way up.
What I'm getting at is that most jobs I looked at in NYC only paid around 35-45k per year. (+health/dental/401k). How do they expect someone to live off that in the city??
Then I started looking at apartments fairly close to the major firms/companies. Most of the jobs were in Midtown with a couple in the Fin. District.
I was looking at 1 bedroom (no roommates) apts. around Midtown west/Hells Kitchen, West Village, and Chelsea. They were all around $2000-2500.
Ok, ok enough rambling. My main question is, how do these companies expect people to live here off that kind of salary???? I don't see any way around it.
Yup, NJ Chutzpah nailed it. The recent grads that make REAL money in the finance industry have MBA's from an Ivy. The rest of the "normal" grads in NY live with roommates or live in a borough.
The simple answer to your question is:
They DON'T expect you to "make it" here if your definition of making it includes you living in a $2000/mo apartment on a $40k salary. You will realize very quickly that the middle class does not live in Manhattan and that 22 year olds living in a nice area of Manhattan while making $35k are getting help from Mom and Dad.
With that being said, I think the figure you stated is a bit low. I would expect it be more along the lines of $45-55k even for an entry level job with a major bank/fund/whatever. NYC is cutthroat, if you prove yourself you can move up quickly, if you don't you will most likely tire of the burdens of living here and will go elsewhere. The low starting salaries are probably just a weeding out measure to see who has the "cojones" to hack it at the company.
Yup, NJ Chutzpah nailed it. The recent grads that make REAL money in the finance industry have MBA's from an Ivy. The rest of the "normal" grads in NY live with roommates or live in a borough.
The simple answer to your question is:
They DON'T expect you to "make it" here if your definition of making it includes you living in a $2000/mo apartment on a $40k salary. You will realize very quickly that the middle class does not live in Manhattan and that 22 year olds living in a nice area of Manhattan while making $35k are getting help from Mom and Dad.
With that being said, I think the figure you stated is a bit low. I would expect it be more along the lines of $45-55k even for an entry level job with a major bank/fund/whatever. NYC is cutthroat, if you prove yourself you can move up quickly, if you don't you will most likely tire of the burdens of living here and will go elsewhere. The low starting salaries are probably just a weeding out measure to see who has the "cojones" to hack it at the company.
I think I did state them a bit low. Most I am seeing now are more around $50k. "first-year".
I don't come from an Ivy league school. And I can't see my parents paying that so it looks like my best bet would be to commute. I really don't want that unfortunatly. I would love the idea of going out my apartment and walking 20 min. to work everyday. In my dreams.
Can you recommend any good priced, safe areas outside Manhattan, but close enough?
Check out Astoria, Queens. 15 minutes from Midtown on the subway and a TON of young people moving into the area. It's safe and has plenty of amenities. Also check out any area within a few stops of Manhattan in Brooklyn as well as Hoboken (that place is practically like a college dorm moved into the real world). I would suggest places further into the boroughs that I think are very nice neighborhoods but I understand the desire to want to get the city experience when you first move here and all of the areas mentioned will give you that.
I'll give you some specific hoods to check out. Get out a map, a subway map, and the craigslist rental page and start cross-referencing to see what one meets your price range:
Astoria Queens, Hoboken NJ, (the rest are in Brooklyn since most new transplants move there) Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Fort Greene, Williamsburg, Greenpoint.
I'm sure I'll get chastised by the board for recommending these neighborhoods since they are usually the "I MUST move to Brooklyn and ONLY Brooklyn will do" type of locations but they should give you an idea on costs and are basically the places outsiders think of when they think of desireable Brooklyn neighborhoods. Once you've been here for a while you'll discver the other great, "off the beaten path" areas but you can at least start there.
Just be ready. You'll probably be able to afford a small studio *at best* on the $50k salary range and may want to seriously consider a roommate. Making these sacrifices is what you have to do as a recent grad unless you're really making some $$$. Just keep your nose to the grindstone at the job and make sure you keep yourself on a short financial leash and you will see it payoff. You can move up the salary ladder here fast if you apply yourself but this city is where the Big Boys play so expect to work for everything you get here.
Yeah the deal is that most people in their twenties in this area either:
- Share a tiny apartment with lots of roommates
- Live with their folks until they have been working for a couple of years
- Are from out of the area and get cash from their rich parents ('trustafarains')
- Geniuinely have a good job and somehow get by one their own (mostly hedgefund/wall st/doctors pull this off)
All apartments in nice areas of Manhattan are going to start at around $2,000. You can find some really small studios for slightly under that, but they are going to be really small.
Well they hire mostly from the ivy leagues, so their parents are rich
.
I don't know where you get this absurd idea. I attended Ivy league schools, but my parents were FAR from wealthy, my classmates' parents were, on the whole, NOT wealthy. Most of us were paying off loans long after we graduated. We were SMART, not wealthy.
Your envy is most unbecoming.
Why should an employer pay an enormous salary to someone with minimal or no experience? Would YOU pay someone right out of school, perhaps with a so-so internship, the same as one of your seasoned staff? I suspect you wouldn't.
Why should an employer pay an enormous salary to someone with minimal or no experience? Would YOU pay someone right out of school, perhaps with a so-so internship, the same as one of your seasoned staff? I suspect you wouldn't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffcon0
With that being said, I think the figure you stated is a bit low. I would expect it be more along the lines of $45-55k even for an entry level job with a major bank/fund/whatever.
its presumptuous to believe that 45-55k is the norm for all graduates.
As with what Viralmd said, its really depends what the background of the recent grad. (school, grades, internship, experience, type of career, etc). With many people, if someone grad from a lower tier school with no little internship, you are lucky to even get a chance at a 25k job.
I have friends who started as low as 18k salary level & moved their way up over the years. Personally I went to a near Ivy level (no, I don't have rich parents either) with lots of internships and started in the upper level of compensation of recent starting graduates at the time.
its presumptuous to believe that 45-55k is the norm for all graduates.
I agree except for the fact that he specifically was talking about finance. I assume he does not mean working in a mail room for Citigroup but it would help if he gave us more specifics about what kind of job.
Believe me, I agree with you. It is presumptuous to think that *every* new graduate is going to make upwards of $50k. I know people who don't make that 10 years out of college and they have masters degrees. Unfortunately they are masters degrees in fine art, english, etc.
NYC is a difficult place to get your start in. Entry level jobs rarely pay enough to live comfortably on (though maybe that could be said of any entry level job anywhere, you've got to start somewhere). I always make the recommendation that unless you are going to come in and immediately be marketable (Ivy league finance guys for example) it is better to go work somewhere more manageable for two years and get some experience under your belt. It certainly helps you get a leg up on the thousands of new grads that pour into this city each summer.
The rest of the "normal" grads in NY live with roommates or live in a borough.
I will simply amend Jeffcon's statement to read that, in many cases, "The rest of the "normal" grads in NY live with roommates AND live in a borough."
At 45K you might bring home 2,500 a month. Depending on whether you have any student or other debt, even a studio in Park Slope can leave you with little left after you've paid rent and all the utilities on your own.
Back in 1999, I was working for a nonprofit organization and I loved the job and the mission but they paid like 26K. There were two kinds of people, it seemed, working there in those jobs. One kind had local roots and came from relatively modest backgrounds. All those people were living in the Bronx or deep into Queens or Brooklyn. One girl came in every day from Wayne, NJ. Then there were the ones (22-24 years old, mostly just out of Harvard or Yale) with well-off parents in an affluent suburb of Chicago or LA or whatever (Yes, I know not every Harvard or Yale grad is in this situation but these people were). The second group of people lived in the Village or Brooklyn Heights and their rent was often more than their pay. They weren't paying it themselves. And while their intentions were good and they took lower-paying jobs to help others, it got frustrating at times that the same level of sacrifice was not required of them that was required of others without that support system.
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