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!
There are multiple meet ups every weekday night in NYC. You can connect and network with people quickly and efficiently. And for free. The economy is booming. And like everywhere else there's always a need for good smart people.
Do not listen to the OP. If you really want to move to NYC then do it. The worst case is that you don't manage to find something by the time your tourist visa is running out and you have to leave. But you would have hopefully made some contacts/connections for the future and had a life experience in the process.
OP: don’t listen to the neigh sayers, come to NYC! I always thought I’d end up in Chicago, I’ve lived in Boston and a bunch of other places similar to what others are suggesting, and there’s truly no comparison.
Last thing: as a former Midwesterner (a region known for its friendliness) I can say New Yorkers are the friendliest people in America. It’s a city that draws people from all over the world who are excited to be here and passionate about what they do. If you want to be here you’ll figure out a way!
[0] https://www.google.com/amp/amp.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014...
Have you been to china town? Yeah, sure, if you compare whole foods to other upscale groceries, that can be the case ... but even Trader Joes is cheaper.
There are two groups of people in New York. Those who get it and those who don't. And those who don't, pay twice as much for everything, including groceries.
Bloomberg’s point was that it’s cheaper than all grocery stores, not just the “upscale” ones... I live next to a C Town and the WF is much cheaper. A lot of the street vendors in Chinatown have produce that is less expensive than certain items than a(ny) grocery store, but they’re not grocery stores, and that’s what I was responding to. And unless you’re planning on eating your durian and bok choy solo—or planning on using some toilet paper after—you’re not really “getting it”.
It’s also cheaper to just eat at Vanessa’s every day, but again, you’re missing the point.
What exactly are you arguing? That the poor and middle class of NY shop for their food at WholeFoods? Are you bonkers?
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.
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.
London just has a very screwed up market.
(Though LDN is WAY bigger than Chicago, about the same size as NY.)
"London" city limits were expanded to contain all of its suburbs (and even some un-settled farmland) in 1965, so the present-day city population of ~8 million is substantially the same as its total metro area population. The current London city limits aggregate what used to be 33 county governments, plus countless towns and villages.
NYC hasn't expanded its city limits since 1898! The 1898 city expansion aggregated three county-level governments, and formed new boroughs from parts of two more, to create the current five boroughs. The modern-day NYC metro area population is ~21 million people, ~27 million if you count the distant exurbs, but only 8.5 million live in the 1898 borders.
Chicago's last expansion, excluding the airport, was just a few square miles in 1930. As a result, its current metro area population is about ten million, even though only 2.7 million live in city limits. (Chicago's metropolitan statistical area is unusually small because it is cheek to jowl with other cities, tho)
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.
The trains don't go everywhere, but train + bus + bike share + Lyft make it very easy (and probably more convenient) to not own a car.
Only problem is that rent is more expensive near the subway. But we have buses and many many international workers and students. Very livable without a car.
I have one...but I have one because my girlfriend and I have two dogs and my family lives out of state.
This is as far from truth as it gets. Having a car in Chicago is a liability and one can go anywhere from anywhere within city limits and even to suburbs with public transport.
I have seen the chicago public transport being put above NYC in many rankings
I agree that losing an extra 10 minutes to a sit-down train vs. a car is a big deal.
However, the New York subway is jam-packed and failing, so you have to stand 24 hours a day, dodge other riders...
You can't do work on the subway, so subway is basically equivalent to the car, except the car is much, much less likely to break down.