It depends a lot on industry and experience. Finance tends to pay the best, though a lot of the higher salaries end up being in bonus money. I'd say 40-50K entry level finance stuff unless you're doing ibanking or luck into something that's more than basic back office/customer service rep. ibanking slaves make, like 100-200K a year, I think. But they work 100+ hours a week doing mostly grunt work. I have a friend who through a combination of experience and really good connections (and being a pretty smart kid) managed to get an actual arbitrage analyst job right out of school. No idea how much he makes, but I'm sure it's a ton.
Other industries are different. Entertainment and publishing jobs are really desirable but tend to start at 25-30K per year. I think advertising is a bit more. Really, outside of finance, salaries are a bit higher than other places, but don't pay for living here. I think people make do through some combination of 8 roommates the landlord doesn't know about, credit card debt, the Bank of Dad, or sucking it up and (back when the industry was booming) getting a finance job. I think 75% of the people I know in New York work for one of the big wall street firms. (and that doesn't include the people I know at work, since that's just not fair)
Of course, a lot of people live in Brooklyn or Queens, which is cheaper. Some neighborhoods there are as pricey and ritzy as Manhattan, others are cool and a bit cheaper. There's still some (relative) deals to be had in the outskirts of the major brooklyn neighborhoods, astoria or long island city in queens, north of 96th street in Manhattan. Basically people like me are suckers for paying the rent we do, but living with a significant other (and only needing one bedroom for two people) can really help.
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Date: 2008-05-10 11:08 pm (UTC)Other industries are different. Entertainment and publishing jobs are really desirable but tend to start at 25-30K per year. I think advertising is a bit more. Really, outside of finance, salaries are a bit higher than other places, but don't pay for living here. I think people make do through some combination of 8 roommates the landlord doesn't know about, credit card debt, the Bank of Dad, or sucking it up and (back when the industry was booming) getting a finance job. I think 75% of the people I know in New York work for one of the big wall street firms. (and that doesn't include the people I know at work, since that's just not fair)
Of course, a lot of people live in Brooklyn or Queens, which is cheaper. Some neighborhoods there are as pricey and ritzy as Manhattan, others are cool and a bit cheaper. There's still some (relative) deals to be had in the outskirts of the major brooklyn neighborhoods, astoria or long island city in queens, north of 96th street in Manhattan. Basically people like me are suckers for paying the rent we do, but living with a significant other (and only needing one bedroom for two people) can really help.