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Ask HN: Advice on finding an entry level job in NYC?

• EnderMB 8y ago
  I'm very interested in this too (British - have always wanted to move to NYC). A few years back, I sent out some speculative applications to companies in NYC for senior-level roles, but didn't receive anything back outside of one company that said they couldn't sponsor a visa. Some were startups, some were larger companies, and a few agencies using the same stack as I was experienced in. The common route seems to be applying to work for a larger company that can sponsor a visa. I tried this too with some companies on the Stack Overflow jobs page, but again none of them came back to me, even when I took their take-home tests. My uninformed guess is that visas are hard to obtain, even more so nowadays, so that you'd need a mixture of luck and opportunity to get that role.
  • redwood 8y ago
    Coming from the UK with language proficiency, I would recommend getting a job in a company that will later be able to transfer you overseas, of course they will only do so if you really impress them, and when you're first getting a job getting your foot in the door, I wouldn't even bring up that that was a long term aspiration. The reason it's tough to accept a net new applicant from abroad except with those unicorn credentials, is there's that level of risk that this net new applicant won't pan out and all of a sudden the the company has wasted a visa sponsorship on that.
    • EnderMB 8y ago
      I live in a decent-sized UK city, but I think I'd struggle to find any roles where the company has. 1. Has interesting/non-soul-destroying work. 2. Has a NYC office that shares a development department 3. Has an open culture of relocating It sounds like a huge risk to move to a job you probably wouldn't choose otherwise, on the potential possibility that you might be able to move you and your family abroad. Given your company would need to match all three prerequisites above, you'd also probably have slim pickings unless you already live in a major city.
  • mosdl 8y ago
    Just the hassle/cost of flying someone to do an on-site interview is a deterrent.
  • zerkten 8y ago
    I'm British (Northern Irish) and I moved to the US in 2004 on an H1B visa. You are unlikely to have much success applying for roles where you may be competing with folks who may not need visas. It's a challenge for companies to even get visas and they could attempt to hire you, only to be unable to get a visa. I see two paths other than marrying an American: 1. Join an EU or UK (I guess that might matter soon) company which has a presence in the US and actually sends folks to the US. US companies with an EU presence might be another option. It really depends where you end up in a big company so you have to do your research on how you might end up being transferred. There is no point in joining a pharma company to do work in IT when bioinformatics folks are the ones who have the opportunity to transfer, unless you are prepared to make that move internally as a prerequisite. 2. Do work with a US company in some sort of subcontractor, outsourcing, or supplier relationship. This is how I made my move because I was doing development for the marketing department of a large pharma company. I developed relationships on both side of the pond and they worked out the path to bring me to the US since I had become critical to their work. This requires a lot of luck and legwork and the the arrangement on the other side won't be like an international transfer at a large company. I turned up in Philly alone with two suitcases with all the stuff I was going to bring to start a new life. Both of these approaches need more hustle now than they ever did before, but aren't impossible if you are actually motivated enough, work at your credentials (get a master's degree!) etc. If you are Northern Irish, I think you can still have a shot at the lottery (https://www.uscis.gov/greencard/diversity-visa https://www.uscis.gov/greencard/diversity-visa).
• redwood 8y ago
  Realistically, it probably would be your best bet to come over as a student and then once you're here if you are aggressively working hard on the side to build a network and show value in various contexts, you'll be more likely to be able to parley that into a working opportunity. Let's be realistic, New York City is a city of opportunity where everything imaginable is happening all of the time. But getting work sponsorship from afar except for a very exclusive pool of ultra high-demand folks can be quite difficult. A piece of advice: to a native English reader, your written English is dropping articles like "a", "an" and "the"-- I can only imagine how frustratingly arbitrary it must seem but these immediately make your written word appear less ready to go. You don't want to be put in that box and rejected from consideration out of the gate. Something to look out for. Another angle folks will take is to get a job for a US or particularly New York city-based company in Europe, be a go-getter impressing folks to the extent that they'll be willing to give you what you want to keep you then you can make the move.
  • the-dude 8y ago
    Are you allowed to work as a student?
    • iansowinski 8y ago
      From what I have read there are some rules on working time
      • the-dude 8y ago
        I have heard otherwise, and this seems to corroborate it : https://www.hccmis.com/blog/study-abroad/4-ways-to-work-in-the-us-with-a-student-visa/ https://www.hccmis.com/blog/study-abroad/4-ways-to-work-in-t... Very limited.
        • deleted 8y ago
          [deleted]
    • phakding 8y ago
• swebs 8y ago
  Your best bet would be to apply for a permanent immigration visa. It should be very easy if you're from the EU. It's only difficult for people from countries that already have a high amount of emigration such as India, China, or Mexico since there's a per country quota. It is NOT easy to obtain a temporary work visa like it is in many other countries. The United States greatly prefers permanent immigration. Aim for the highest EB visa you qualify for. https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/permanent-workers https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/permanent-worker...
  • cletus 8y ago
    This advice is grossly incorrect. EB (Employment based) immigrant visas are employer-sponsored apart from Eb-1A (people of extraordinary ability). And they take years to get (EB-1A is an exception that takes less than a year typically).
    • swebs 8y ago
      I never made the claim that they are not employer sponsored.
• lefstathiou 8y ago
  Our company is NYC based and has (and continues to be open to) sponsoring people to move and work in NY. Can only speak for our perspective: The clearest path for us is to 1) have a skill set that is relevant to us and 2) be good at it. If you can add value to our team it’s a no brainer for us. My family immigrated to the US and I think there is a lot to be said about someone who is willing to drop everything they know and are comfortable with and bust their ass to make it somewhere else. Make no mistake, this is not going to be an easy journey for you. From our perspective, I have observed that some of our most loyal and bought in employees are the ones we brought over. Part of it is attitude, part of it is work ethic, part of it is the principle of reciprocity. We also know there is far less risk of an employee we are sponsoring to walk away and work somewhere else for a few extra dollars. That’s my two cents. I suspect principal decision makers will be aligned with the above. It’s not that much extra work to sponsor someone and I think most people will do it for the right person. I would not do this for an untested totally entry level grad most likely.
  • MoBattah 8y ago
    Do you ever have issues with (US) candidates not wanting to live in the NYC area?
    • lefstathiou 8y ago
      In theory I’m sure we would but we are a small company and clearly state that it would be a non starter for us so anyone with that preference would not bother applying. We leverage remote workers for specialized consulting (such as legacy IE browser debugging) but we not for full time hires.
      • MoBattah 8y ago
        I don't understand this strategy. Isn't NYC in the top 10 most expensive places to live? If you're a small company, wouldn't you want to downsize expenses and not pay for excessive salaries, commercial rent, taxes, etc?
• jbob2000 8y ago
  Hey, no offense, but NYC has a few very large arts colleges and the city is teeming with arts majors looking for work. If you want to immigrate there, you'll need to really stand out from students that were hand picked from all over the world to study arts there.
  • gt_ 8y ago
    Well, they weren’t “hand picked”. More often than not, they just came from families wealthy enough to cough up for expensive art school and the cost of living in NYC. A lot of my social circle falls in this category. That said, parent makes an important point. The US is full of art majors in general, but NYC is overflowing with them. But, US arts jobs are now almost entirely freelance; especially if entry level. While the cost of living makes it more difficult, NYC is still one of the only places with such an abundance of work that this is feasible. You can probably get freelance work there but moving into a full-time position will be a matter of upper-class networking.
• chuckgreenman 8y ago
  One of the best pieces of advice is to not go to New York City. Everything, from rent to groceries is at least double what you'd pay anywhere else. If you're dead set on living in a city, Chicago and Boston are flooded with technical growth at the moment. If budget is a big factor, consider Cincinnati. It's smaller but growing and dirt cheap to live quite well!
  • kadabra9 8y ago
    I'd second Chicago and Boston (haven't been to Cincinnati) and also recommend considering Philadelphia as well. Philly is substantially cheaper than NYC (both in rent and general cost of living) but only an hour and a half away, so you can quickly get to NYC should you need to. There's an expanding tech scene as well.
    • dmuth 8y ago
      I will also recommend Philadelphia. Between Uber and SEPTA, you won't need a car even if you live in the suburbs (source: Me), the city is well connected to NYC and DC via Amtrak, and the tech scene is solid here (N3RD Street, etc.).
      • zerkten 8y ago
        There are also a ton of employers here in Philadelphia who are outside the traditional tech scene, but need tech skills and are possibly able to facilitate visas. The OP jumps from entry-level job to engineering degree which is possibly an assumption that they'll be working in a pure tech company. There are more opportunities if you cast the net wider. You ideally want to avoid the "body shops", of which there are plenty, but I found visa and entry to the US was more important than how perfect the role was. If you can demonstrate the skills people need I've found people here don't care so much about where you are coming from.
  • misiti3780 8y ago
    true --- NYC is more expensive than the cities mentioned, but all of the cities you mentioned require a car (yes I know Chicago has a train, but it's not super convenient, the other two cities absolutely require a car). A car requires a car payment, an insurance payment, gas, maintenance (tires, oil, general problems). Not to mention while your sitting in traffic, you cant work or a read a book or study math, learn a new language etc. Long car-based commutes degrades your lifestyle. I think most people that have this perception NYC is outrageously expensive, but they do not take into account the expenses they endure when they live in other locations. Groceries are not double the cost of other cities here either. If you go to whole foods, that might be true but there are a ton of options to find fresh, reasonably priced food.
• drngdds 8y ago
  >I know that housing is very expensive It is, but don't have to live in the city to work in the city. It's extremely common to live in cheaper areas near NYC and take public transportation for a 1-1.5 hour commute.
  • gautamnarula 8y ago
    In this sense, I find NYC to be more affordable than the bay area. The better public transit means it's a lot more viable to live in neighborhoods with cheaper housing and commute to work than it is in SF.
  • chatmasta 8y ago
    That’s a three hour commute round trip, and much of it will be standing in a sweaty subway carriage with no room to even move your arms.
    • yazan94 8y ago
      How long you spend in the subway is entirely based on where you live in relation to Manhattan and where your office in Manhattan is. If you live in Brooklyn or Queens, you don't have many options outside of the subway. If you live farther out in Long Island, upstate NY, CT, or NJ you would take the train which often (but not always, it depends on which train you take) has considerably more elbow room. And if you take a train from those places, you can transfer to a subway and get to almost anywhere in Manhattan within 30 min. Yes this is a long commute, but while $2k will barely cover rent of a tiny studio with a roommate in Manhattan, $2k elsewhere can cover the rent + utilities for a 3 bedroom apartment but with a 90 min commute each direction. I think its fair to say that COL is inversely related to your distance to Manhattan
  • hapless 8y ago
    Perhaps counter-intuitively, the suburbs of NYC are much more expensive than the outer boroughs. You can rent an apartment in Queens or the Bronx for _half_ as much as Westchester or Long Island, due to horrifying zoning restrictions on multifamily housing.
• adamqureshi 8y ago
  A few start ups in NYC ( myself included) are moving to kingston , New york (upstate). In NYC everyone is hustling. If your young and ambitious and can sell yourself your skills, you will find a job. I don't know about the visa stuff. Housing IS damn expensive yeah but you can live in greenpoint, Brooklyn with roommates or move uptown ( Washington Heights) then you have jackson Heights ( Queens) or sunnyside , Queens it's cheaper then living in money makin manhattan if you have 0 connects. When you make friends you will want to network with them to find an apartment or work. You will build a network of friends and those friends who are working at companies will get you into a job. That's how it works here. People are always moving out / changing jobs. Companies are always hiring. The experience will be unforgettable. Nothing like it. After some time you'll get burned from the grind and may want to bounce somewhere else. You'll never know till you get here! and Plenty of front end jobs. Good Lucky!
  • lukka5 8y ago
    I usually read that in NYC and California the is a LOT of job changing constantly. But when I see a LinkedIn profile there isn't that much job changes in the experience section. I imagine 20 jobs i.e but I usually see more around 7 or at most 10. Is this really a reality down there? At least for NYC?
  • hapless 8y ago
    Kingston is a charming town, but it's bucolic. It's not a great place to network or recruit.
• hapless 8y ago
  The "normal" way to do this in the technology industry is via either an H1B or O1 visa. You do not qualify for either one. An H1B typically requires a specialized degree. You don't have one -- your BFA will not qualify, especially in today's political environment. An O1 requires you to be world-renowned in your field. Widely published, a long history of invitations to speak, etc. That's not you, either. That leaves you with the considerably less desirable visa options. L1 is an intra-company transfer. It is a temporary visa that is not dual-intent -- you cannot immigrate. But you can stay for several years. If you can find a European firm that wants to send you to the United States, this is often the easiest way to experience the U.S., at least temporarily. F1 is a student visa. If you apply, and are accepted for a graduate program in the United States, an F1 will allow you to stay here for several years, and work under certain circumstances. If your graduate program is relevant to your field of endeavor, internships and externships under your F1 can be the link you need to an H1B. The reason the F1 is not all that desirable is that it is very, very expensive to be a student in the United States. You will not be permitted to work a real job off campus to fund your tuition. You must have either very extensive funding from your university, or independent means of your own.
• asickness231 8y ago
  Well as a recent college grad, in America here's what i have to say. Good luck. For us Americans fresh out of university it's a total crap chute. There is practically nothing out there. Most jobs outside of cities require a car, and if you think you can afford a car and place to live (not to mention food and whatnot) then you will be sorely mistaken. Increasingly i personally see people with higher end degrees from good institutions taking near minimum wage jobs in the service or other industries. A college degree in America means next to nothing. With a diploma in BFA (bachelor fine arts correct?) your highest hope would be a job as a barista or a waiter. unless you are in that .01% of everyone in the arts field and able to somehow get a job out of that. Your next best bet is work that is ancillary but requires a degree. you can find a paper pushing job somewhere but it is unlikely at entry level that they will sponsor you. My advice if you are serious about coming to the usa is to start on a student visa and come here for schooling. Good luck paying for that. my other advice is why does it have to be NYC. there are other cheaper cities that are just as nice if not nicer. NYC is quickly becoming far too overpriced even for the richest, and with its sprawl you will spend a lot of your time just navigating subways. Philadelphia is a very affordable and fun city. There is also Boston, Miami, DC and many others not on the east coast. I really hope you do make it here and do get a job. But realistically these are the challenges you face. I have known many people who came here on student visas, graduated got jobs and are now leaving because of king carrots new immigration issues. but that's just my two cents.