NYC or Bust!

Maz and I have gotten quite a few questions lately and I thought I would answer them all in a post for everyone to see rather than e-mail responses to individuals…

When it comes to our jobs here Maz has a real job and I am currently working remotely for my job in Wisconsin. Maz doesn’t have a college degree or any certifications, but years and years of experience in IT. He got his current IT job through a recruiter. He started the interview process when we were still in Wisconsin, but knew we would be moving soon. He had his first in person interview 3 days after we moved here and was offered the position soon after. He said that if he didn’t find a full-time position he would have consulted by finding gigs on Craigslist etc. I have a bachelors in Environmental Science and a Master’s in Sociology. Currently I am still working for the consulting firm I worked for in Wisconsin. I will be with them until I finish the project that I started back in April so I should have work until December. I was lucky in this aspect that my boss in Wisconsin wanted me to stay on to finish the project. On the down side I am no longer salaried and am paid hourly for approximately 20 hours a week. I have been looking for full-time work out here without much luck, though very soon I am starting a contract project with a NYC based social service consulting firm. So we didn’t have jobs when we got here. We took vacations from our jobs in Wisconsin in August, came here to find an apartment, and then went back to Wisconsin, I put in my two-weeks (actually 2 1/2 weeks) notice and we moved here.

As for what to do first…. I think that really a tough one. We did the apartemtn first, though we wanted to get jobs first. Personally I feel that the best way to go about moving here is to save a bunch of money (at least enough to cover security, broker’s fee, and six months rent so at least $7,000), get the apartment, then look for a job. I figure that you can always go work at Starbucks, a temp agency or some place similar to make rent while you are looking for a better job. While it may be tough to find an apartment when you do not have a job in NYC, I think it would be harder to find a job when you do not have an apartment. In fact many of the job ads I have seen do not want you applying unless you live in the NYC area. I think part of it is the whole “we’ll believe it when we see it” at places probably get so many applications/resumes from people saying they are planning on moving to the area…

Many people have asked for basic tips, I have posted once with some tips and I will keep adding them as I think of them. Also check out the comments people leave as many of them give tips of their own. (Those of you that have given us tip, thank you!!!).

Last…. so far we LOVE IT HERE. It is much different from where we came from in some bad ways, but in many good ways. Maybe I will write about that after we are been here longer. But this city is fantastic so many people, places, and things to do, I dont; think I could ever get sick of it! And last week I was near Herald Square and Charles Schwab was giving out free $2 bills and Maz and I wandered in to a movie theater to see if anything intersting was playing and we got free tickets to a movie screening! Who wouldn’t love a city where bankers give out free money and theaters give you free tickets!?!

Thanks for the questions and keep them coming…

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 at 8:42 pm and is filed under NYC . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.