Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tech takes over: New York is the sector's second city

crainsnewyork.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 209 posts

Re: Tech takes over: New York is the sector's second city

#121

Post by caraeisenpress »

code4tee wrote: post #70

In my experience the NYC tech scene is far more grounded in reality. Far far less hype, uber for lawn gnomes nonsense and a lot more companies focused on real solutions and, often, with real customers. Silicon Valley has become, well, Silicon Valley while NYC is and feels much more like a true business hub. Seems to be a lot of B2B stuff that’s driven by the overall diversity of NYC’s economy, which is far more diver…

Great point. One quote that didn't make it in was that NYC doesn't have an "infrastructure of crazy," i.e., there aren't mentors/peers here who might tell a founder not to take a risk, not to take that offer from Google for $30 billion...

Re: Tech takes over: New York is the sector's second city

#122

Post by p-funk »

mden wrote: post #111
p-funk wrote: post #99

I'm sorry if this is off topic, but I'm just looking for some advice I guess. I'm currently an electronics engineer in NY and I've been trying to switch to something in software for about a year now because there are essentially no electronics jobs here in my field. I've had a hard time convincing employers how my electronics experience is relevant or how well it would translate to a software role, because, basically…

Some companies in NY hire for software engineering without requiring a comp-sci degree. Used to work at Bloomberg and a lot of the people there were hired without a classical programming background but still with some programming experience even if not professional; a lot of physics, biology, and mathematics people for example. Then they put them through a 4 month internal coding course teaching them C++, JS, git, et…

I guess it might be easier at a bigger company like that, so I could focus more on those types of roles. Thanks for the ideas. Just have to keep at it I guess.

Re: Tech takes over: New York is the sector's second city

#123

Post by tashoecraft »

timothycrosley wrote: post #95
whack wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the criteria you chose seem like bad proxies for the things that really matter. I would count the following as the fundamental metrics that really count. - Average (high-end) programmer salary - Amount of VC funding - Total number of full-time tech workers The 1st and 2nd criteria determine how attractive the city is, for employees and founders respectively. The 3rd criteria determines how much clustering/network…

You sort of prove the cherry picking argument. Average salary means nothing in a vacuum without cost of living considered. And when it is... Unsurprisingly NYC comes in at the bottom of the list, https://www.codementor.io/blog/best-cities-software-engineer... Seattle is actually #1

I can’t trust any of these comparisions because it’s difficult to compare apartments across cities. Average apartment costs in new york are meaningless. I know of no one paying 3k per month. Usually it’s between 1k-1.5k, which completely changes this graph.

Re: Tech takes over: New York is the sector's second city

#124

Post by clairity »

replicatorblog wrote: post #61

"official" FTEs is one way to slice it, but kind of dumb. Seattle is home to two of the five biggest tech companies in the US. Boston has had an IPO every year for the last ten years that exceeds any in NYC history. LA has had the only 11-digit IPO in the last five years, outside of the bay area. It's also capturing the zeitgeist in a way that NYC no longer does (that's subjective, of course, but I'd debate it). Just…

in my head (a totally unscientific read of the zeitgeist), it's

  1. SF/SV (by a very wide margin)
  2. LA, NYC, boston (3-way tie)
  3. seattle, austin (2-way tie)
  4. atlanta, chicago, and everywhere else
obviously this is US-only since i don't know much about the international startup scene other than china in general has been exploding with competitive startups (although that seems to have cooled a bit?).

Re: Tech takes over: New York is the sector's second city

#125

Post by p-funk »

lallysingh wrote: post #101
p-funk wrote: post #99

I'm sorry if this is off topic, but I'm just looking for some advice I guess. I'm currently an electronics engineer in NY and I've been trying to switch to something in software for about a year now because there are essentially no electronics jobs here in my field. I've had a hard time convincing employers how my electronics experience is relevant or how well it would translate to a software role, because, basically…

Do any FPGA work? There's demand for that.

Not really. I'm in audio, so mostly analog with a bit of microcontroller experience.

Re: Tech takes over: New York is the sector's second city

#126

Post by Cd00d »

longerthoughts wrote: post #103
adrianparsons wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely agree. I also love the influence NYC industries have on tech startups. Warby Parker is tech+fashion, Buzzfeed is tech+media, Betterment is tech+finance.

Seems like it's time to stop calling companies tech companies just because they hire software engineers and leverage some degree of modern technology to provide their product or service. Warby Parker sells glasses and Buzzfeed is a media company - I have a hard time seeing how either of these qualify as tech startups.

There's a meet up group here in NYC called Tech in Motion, and a few years ago launched an annual awards event. The company that won 'Best Tech Company of the Year' was Casper, and my only thought was 'selling mattresses through the mail is considered technology'?

Re: Tech takes over: New York is the sector's second city

#127

Post by p-funk »

Skeletor wrote: post #105
p-funk wrote: post #99

I'm sorry if this is off topic, but I'm just looking for some advice I guess. I'm currently an electronics engineer in NY and I've been trying to switch to something in software for about a year now because there are essentially no electronics jobs here in my field. I've had a hard time convincing employers how my electronics experience is relevant or how well it would translate to a software role, because, basically…

Build a website and an iOS (and/or Android) app and get them up and running and give them away for free. It may be a lot harder and take a lot longer than you think to convert hardware -> software skills. If you do it in your spare time as a hobby you will ramp up at your own pace and have something to show future employers.

Thanks for the advice. This is basically what I've been doing for the past year, every spare second I've had devoted to side projects. I don't think my expectations are too out of whack because whenever I've gotten a code challenge from an employer, it was pretty easy and I made it through to the next round. But it probably takes longer to build up a portfolio that is actually meaningful.

Re: Tech takes over: New York is the sector's second city

#128

Post by ikeyany »

giantsloth wrote: post #78
cddotdotslash wrote: post #5

The best part about tech in NYC is that it isn't a non-stop, in-your-face bubble the way that it is in SF/SJ. I work in tech but enjoy having friends in fashion, finance, real estate, advertising, etc. The conversations here are much more diverse. Interestingly, that same diversity helps improve the tech sector.

I find statements like this both cringe and problematic. The heavy emphasis on industry defined identity is creepy, extremely impersonal, and backwards. I've been a software developer in advertising, various startups and have friends in fashion and finance. While sure you can get some interesting insights into their industries, for example Gucci's new operating room spread is dope af, or the fact that hedge funds yea…

Hey that's not true.

There's plenty of upper middle class Asians too.

Re: Tech takes over: New York is the sector's second city

#129

Post by tootie »

caiob wrote: post #28

> On Wall Street, new computer engineers get hired at $120,000, but senior managers can make $400,000 plus the bonuses Wall Street hands out every winter This always bums me out. Why do managers make so much more money than engineers?

Difference is accountability. Managers are taking on responsibility for their teams delivery and usually owning some budget and timeline that's critical to the business. In finance, that could be worth millions or even hundreds of millions. Managing Directors at top tier investment banks absorb a ludicrous amount of pressure to earn their bonuses.

Re: Tech takes over: New York is the sector's second city

#130

Post by vthallam »

zintinio5 wrote: post #80
stevepike wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To chime in from the employers perspective, we've found it hard to find full-stack web developers in NYC with more than a years' experience in a dynamic language (we use ruby, but are happy to train people on the specific stack). There's a lot of talent at the recent boot camp grad level and experienced folks in finance. Would love any tips on attracting solid mid-senior talent in NYC.

First, what does your careers page look like? Sometimes the job description is unclear or you might be filtering out qualified people. Second, mid-senior is really tough to hire for, I just experienced it first-hand while hiring for my last employer. Regardless of experience level, you are forced to compete on two fronts: interesting work, or high compensation. Mid-senior devs can afford to be very picky and if somet…

>what does your careers page look like?

This also applies to all the companies in general. If a company uses Applicant Tracking Systems like Taleo, Workday you can rest assured anyone with an existing job would not apply. It's really time consuming.

Also, mid-senior is definitely rare, like it means they have a good job already and unless there are really good perks like flexible WFH etc apart from the compensation, it's definitely hard.

Post reply on HN