

Ask HN: Is NYC a good place to get a job as a Web dev? - venturebros

I landed a summer internship in New York but I want to go to NYC afterwards.<p>I have been looking at craigslist and indeed it seems like there are plenty Web developer positions open. But I have no clue how many are actually applying for these jobs.<p>So is it an employer or employee market out there? Will I have trouble landing a job?
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carterac
NYC is an insanely hot market for web engineering talent. Every founder I know
complains about finding great engineers. As CEO of a tech startup here, I
personally spend ~80% of my energy dedicated to finding the absolute best
engineers in the city, and often I have to recruit people from other parts of
the world and convince them to move here (which isn't that hard given how
beautiful this city is).

Another data point: a friend who wanted to move from Microsoft to NYC had
multiple job offers within a week of posting his resume to an NYC tech mailing
list.

If you're interested in speaking more, please email me at carter@art.sy. Even
if you're not interested in Art.sy, I'm happy to intro you to other NYC
startups you might be interested in.

[edit] Here is a link to the Quora thread of all NYC startups that are hiring:
[http://www.quora.com/Startups-in-New-York-City/Which-
startup...](http://www.quora.com/Startups-in-New-York-City/Which-startups-in-
NY-are-hiring)

~~~
frankdenbow
+1 to Carter'd thoughts.

Some other resources are these:

\- FindAHacker.com (mostly NYC focused, email list of opportunities)

\- HireLite.com (video chat speed dating for hiring)

\- InsideStartups.org (email list of job opportunities)

There are many places looking, so things are certainly in your favor in NYC.
Plus the city is awesome!

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venturebros
thanks for the resources!

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sbisker
Oh, it's venturebros, the guy with the cool name! :)

Once you're in NY, drop Hackruiter[0] a line. They're YC alums [EDIT: and
apparently YC funded again as recruiters] and based out of NYC, doing
recruitment for startups (mostly YC alumni themselves). They got me my current
contract and they're all-around great guys that, as both recruiters and
engineers, understand the scene as well as anyone. They also run a weekly
meetup called BrainDump[1], which is about as techy as a meetup can get (in a
good way), and a mailing list "LinkedList".

They seem to be all about meeting smart, motivated people and making
meaningful connections, as opposed to just playing matchmaker - so even though
you're not looking yet, I bet they'd be up for a chat. Heck, if you're
interested, I'll point them to this thread.

[0]<http://www.hackruiter.com/> [1]<http://www.hackruiter.com/about>

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venturebros
Cool, thanks! I will contact them when I am at the end of the internship.

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adrianparsons
I just completed a job search and can say the market really is in your favor.

Stop using Craiglist. If you're going to use a service, use Indeed, Authentic
Jobs, the 37 Signals job board or something else. "Inside Startups" is a great
newsletter that lists jobs weekly.

Ideally, though, you want to meet people in person. There are multiple
parties, events, and meetups every week.

To start, go to any of the tech meetups listed on Meetup.com. Garysguide.org
has a lot of events listed as well. (Those Meetup groups have email lists,
watch them for job postings.) Get business cards and follow up with people.

You're going to get offers faster than you expect. Decide what you want (big
company, small company, front-end, back-end, python, ruby, etc), and learn to
say "no". Before saying "yes", ask other nerds about them (at the Meetups, for
example).

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venturebros
Oh thanks! BTW is there any reason to stay away from Craigslist?

And what are some good meetups to join?

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sbisker
Essentially, you stay away from it because of the low signal to noise ratio.

For employers, the deluge of candidates who think that technology is HOTHOTHOT
means that they have to look at far more resumes to find people who are worth
bringing in to interview. Skipping Craigslist, for many companies, acts as a
low-pass filter - the bet being that you'll ignore more noise than you will
signal. After all, the good employer probably only needs one good employee,
not 100 mediocre ones ( _especially_ in engineering.)

For employees, a similar phenomenon occurs. Once you've been burned once or
twice in your career, you start to notice that managers at worse jobs tend to
rely heavily on Craigslist, Monster and the like. These companies know that
technology is HOTHOTHOT, but they not be savvy (or even care about technology)
enough to go to meetups and post jobs in ways that engage the tech community.
So again, many of the best employees will only use craigslist as a last
resort, because they don't want to deal with the poor postings. Ignoring it is
a low-pass filter for employees as well - after all, they only need one job.

There are plenty of more tech-specific sites with "elite" job boards, where
the sheer knowledge of knowing _about_ the job posting site - and
understanding the technologies and discussions around them - is enough of a
filter to encourage both good employees and good employers to show up. (Hint:
check out HN user whoshiring.) But at the end of the day, the best jobs are
almost always filled the old fashioned way - by word of mouth. And that's why
it makes sense to get out there and meet people early and often.

(In a happy coincidence, it also turns out you'll learn a lot more in general
by meeting and talking to people and frequenting tech sites instead of sitting
in front of Craigslist.)

Obviously this stuff is wild generalization - and as with any low-pass filter,
you take a risk by ignoring Craigslist. I usually go to Craigslist once in a
while myself. In my experience, it's worth checking on them once in a while
(if only to see what you'll find), but not _relying_ on them.

~~~
shurane
I got 3 interviews via Craigslist with decent companies (startup, SEO company
startup, magazine) before I got a chance to even look somewhere else to apply.
A week later, I began interning at the startup.

Also, I started looking for internships after I got out of school (late May,
early June). That's pretty late, I think.

That said, there are probably better places to look, but Craigslist is pretty
ubiquitous. I don't think _everyone_ recruits through HN or StackOverflow or
any other similar site. It'd be nice, but a lot more people know about
Craigslist... right?

Although, word of mouth is hands down better in every way. So you say there
are lot of these meetups, eh?

~~~
sbisker
Awesome! :)

The nice thing about tech is that there are enough jobs that if you're good,
Craigslist will do you just fine. :) I think it depends on where you live, as
well as what type of company you want (the three-person YC startup doesn't
have the man-power to sort through Craigslist resumes, so they might just post
here first - and in a place like NY or Boston, hooked-in companies might get
more than enough people through their sites and connections to bother with
Craigslist)

Wow, did I get you to make your first post? That's pretty cool. :) But your
city isn't in your profile, so I can't point you to any particular meetups.

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awarzzkktsyfj
New York is still full of schemers, compared to SF Bay area. I lived in
Mountain View for two years, San Francisco for three, and NYC for two -- I am
in the process of moving back to Mountain View. I love NYC as a place to live,
but found it frustrating for tech work. The job offers I've had in the SF bay
area always seemed reasonable to me. In New York, I've received ridiculous
low-ball offers, and have had a few friends have the same experience, but only
in New York. They all have moved to San Francisco now.

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sbisker
To answer your question more directly: There are a _ton_ of people applying
for these jobs. Like, crazy amounts. And why wouldn't there be? It's a great
field to be in right now.

But thanks to things like the Mythical Man-Month[0], engineering is a field
where people would rather have 1 incredible engineer than 10 mediocre
engineers for the same price. So for someone with talent and the right
reputation, there's arguably no better field to be in than engineering.

So basically, if you're good at what you do, engineering is one of the hottest
job markets in the country. (In NY, the hotness is particularly exaggerated,
because the startups there are the companies most likely to want to keep their
teams small, and hire the best - and they have to compete with the financial
sector, which provides large numbers of engineers a steady job with high pay.)

If you're not good at what you do (or even if you just want to get better at
what you do), don't assume the hotness of the market will get you a job. The
market is hot for engineers, but I'd say it's only hot for _good_ engineers,
again, due to the Mythical Man-Month effect.

But don't be discouraged. Just by being proactive getting internships and
participating on Hacker News, you're probably better than 80% of the
applicants your age out there. That's why so many of our answers are assuming
that you're a good candidate - because odds are, you probably are. :)

[0] If you haven't read this, take a few moments out this summer to do so.
It's a quick, breezy and incredibly informative read.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month>

~~~
venturebros
Frankly, I don't think I am good enough to work at startup where I am at right
now. I have a better chance at landing a job at Interactive agency with my
background then a startup. I will still try but I don't think it's going to
happen.

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peacemaker
It seems for web devs a great place to be, but how about for embedded/real-
time programmers? I've over 10 years experience in defence and gaming
industries mainly doing C++ and I'd love to work in NYC but just assumed it'd
be far too difficult to land a position. Anyone have any idea?

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onassar
It's def. a good market. Top #5 in the US no doubt. I'd say make the decision
on where you want to live over whether or not you could get the best job
there. Tough finding that balance, so if you like the city, run with it..

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pavel_lishin
We're hiring for a web developer right now. When I was moving here - six
months ago - I easily managed to snag four interviews over a two-day trip
specifically to try to find a job.

So yeah.

~~~
libria
Who is "we"?

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pavel_lishin
Netomat, Inc, in New York.

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ayb
There are plenty of opportunities in NYC - from startups, to big brands, to
finance. All of them are competing for the same talent.

When you are ready to start looking, change your LinkedIn profile to say
you're a <whatever> consultant located in NYC. You will start getting
contacted by headhunters within a few days.

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gsiener
If you're already in NYC for the summer you'll have no trouble finding a job.
Plan on spending your non-internship time building relationships with startups
that are getting things done. This is tough because they don't necessarily
hang out at the more prominent meetups but you will find them.

~~~
venturebros
I am actually 2 hours away from NYC for the summer. I have to find out my
hours to see if I can get anytime to go to the city and get some connections.

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brandonkm
NYC is an excellent place to find work as a developer. You have a ridiculous
selection of awesome startups and larger companies to choose from. The last
Brooklyn.js meetup I went to had more people looking to hire front-end
developers than people looking at a ratio ~5:1.

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mbubb
My company is looking for Ruby developers as well as backend engineers:

<https://careers-collective.icims.com/jobs/intro>

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markbao
I'll freaking hire you right now.

Just kidding, but yeah, if you're good and you're in NYC, you'll be slurped up
by the startups here. Everyone has problems hiring in NYC.

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bherms
Check out CrowdTap... Hot startup hiring in NYC.

