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

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

#171

Post by lotsofpulp »

RHSeeger wrote: post #170
lotsofpulp wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The time, effort, and stress of commuting easily offsets any gains from living outside of NYC. Any city with decent neighborhoods will be at least a 60 minute commute door to door, plus you have to budget another 30 minutes for delays and whatnot because the public transit is terrible. It's very difficult to plan anything on work days if you're commuting into NYC, and you get to pay super high rents and property taxe…

On the other hand, for NYC most of your commute is by train. Resting on the train is a lot less stressful than driving.

Wouldn't be bad if the train was reliable, but if you monitor njtransit.com, it's late all too often, and if you have connecting trains then it will add to the stress.

If it was like Japan and you could actually make plans, then it wouldn't be so bad.

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

#172

Post by adrianparsons »

longerthoughts wrote: post #166
adrianparsons wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

pg has some thoughts on what a "startup" is [0]. I used Warby Parker as an example because their business model is disruptive, they're high-growth, and they leverage technology. I think the disruption and innovation are really important aspects. 0: http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html

Note that PG is addressing startups generally and not limiting his discussion to tech startups. From the third sentence in the post you linked: >"Nor is it necessary for a startup to work on technology..." I absolutely agree that Warby Parker has a disruptive business model and see them as a shining example of an innovative startup, I just wouldn't call them a tech startup because tech is not their business.

Ah, gotcha. That makes some sense to me.

Would you call pre-streaming Netflix a tech startup? It feels like a startup to me, but at first it was just Blockbuster through the mail.

Maybe the difficulty in categorizing is that every company today has to use technology. When Netflix started out, getting a DVD in the mail was pretty novel. Nowadays, e-commerce doesn't have quite the "wow" factor it used to.

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

#173

Post by steveklabnik »

ropans808 wrote: post #158
tashoecraft wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Please tell me where anyone is paying 1k-1.5k for an apartment in NYC. I am paying 2700/mo for 650 sqft, 45 minute commute from midtown, and I haven't seen anything better without a longer commute. Studios in my neighborhood are 1.6k+, and I am not in a happenin' place.

North Brooklyn is slightly higher than that range, but lower than 2700/month, and should be roughly the same commute time.

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

#174

Post by zintinio5 »

stevepike wrote: post #154
zintinio5 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Our careers page is https://www.sevenfifty.com/careers/full_stack , but we really only use it as a link our team members can send personal referrals. Our main pipelines are Hired, Vettery, HN who's hiring post, recruiters, and referrals. Posting on job boards has historically never led to anyone stellar and a disproportionate number of candidates who couldn't pass fizzbuzz. Recruiters have been a mixed bag. They're v…

The job description is to-the-point and doesn't ask for anything out of the ordinary. Other than mentioning a CS degree, I give it two-thumbs up.

Hiring is definitely a tough nut to crack. Personal referrals are by far the best source to get solid people quickly, but it's also a finite pool. Recruiters are definitely a mixed bag. I would suggest also sending a representative to a job fair (face-to-face still works!). It sounds like you're doing the best you can besides creating some really unique opportunity.

We had some luck bringing in people interested in functional programming, but ended up having to go heavy on junior devs since that's what's easy to hire for. We had some mid-level and a couple senior people which were hard to come by.

It's going to be a grind no matter how you approach it. All I can suggest is to make a really compelling offer, technologically, financially, or otherwise. Also consider finding older developers interested in part-time or remote work.

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

#175

Post by humanrebar »

longerthoughts wrote: post #110
humanrebar wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And an effective manager given engineers who can't write a for loop will produce $0 worth of value (or worse). I don't find this line of thought convincing. A better answer is "that's the market clearing price for good managers".

>And an effective manager given engineers who can't write a for loop will produce $0 worth of value (or worse) No, an effective manager given engineers who can't write a for loop will replace those engineers with more talented ones.

I keep reading that there's a big shortage of those, though.

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

#176

Post by technofiend »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #49
technofiend wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't help but wonder if the recent tax changes will have any effect in consolidating East Coast tech jobs. Previously you could live in NJ and work in Manhattan and write off the respective taxes of each. Now it's my understanding you'd be better served (for example) living and working solely in New Jersey. See [1] for an actual discussion on the tax law changes State and local taxes. Taxpayers can deduct a maximu…

I don't see what the federal tax changes would have to do with commuting from NJ to NY? The change in federal law has to do with deducting the total amount of state and local taxes paid, which is, going forward, capped at $10k. New Jersey credits any tax paid to New York, which is staying the same.

> New Jersey credits any tax paid to New York, which is staying the same.

1) I was concerned that may no longer be the case, so thanks for that, but 2) if your net tax burden is > $10k because of double taxation then doesn't it make sense to exit one of the two places taxing you, thus lowering your overall burden? I.E. Even if NJ Tax is $6k and NYC is $5K that still means there's a $1k incentive to no longer work in one place and live in the other. That's my point.

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

#177

Post by vonmoltke »

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…

> And then they go to Google once they are all trained up :)

So true. My team has lost two to Google and one to Amazon in just the past 18 months.

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

#178

Post by longerthoughts »

adrianparsons wrote: post #172
longerthoughts wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that PG is addressing startups generally and not limiting his discussion to tech startups. From the third sentence in the post you linked: >"Nor is it necessary for a startup to work on technology..." I absolutely agree that Warby Parker has a disruptive business model and see them as a shining example of an innovative startup, I just wouldn't call them a tech startup because tech is not their business.

Ah, gotcha. That makes some sense to me. Would you call pre-streaming Netflix a tech startup? It feels like a startup to me, but at first it was just Blockbuster through the mail. Maybe the difficulty in categorizing is that every company today has to use technology. When Netflix started out, getting a DVD in the mail was pretty novel. Nowadays, e-commerce doesn't have quite the "wow" factor it used to.

>Would you call pre-streaming Netflix a tech startup?

Startup, but not a tech startup.

>Maybe the difficulty in categorizing is that every company today has to use technology.

Yep, this is exactly what I was trying to get at. That being the case, it seems more accurate to shape a definition of "tech" companies based on output (i.e. products/services offered) rather than input (i.e. tools employed).

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

#179

Post by lotsofpulp »

technofiend wrote: post #176
lotsofpulp wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see what the federal tax changes would have to do with commuting from NJ to NY? The change in federal law has to do with deducting the total amount of state and local taxes paid, which is, going forward, capped at $10k. New Jersey credits any tax paid to New York, which is staying the same.

> New Jersey credits any tax paid to New York, which is staying the same. 1) I was concerned that may no longer be the case, so thanks for that, but 2) if your net tax burden is > $10k because of double taxation then doesn't it make sense to exit one of the two places taxing you, thus lowering your overall burden? I.E. Even if NJ Tax is $6k and NYC is $5K that still means there's a $1k incentive to no longer work in…

"Double taxation" would be if you paid income tax in full to both NJ and NY, but that's not what happens since NJ provides a dollar for dollar credit for the income tax you pay to NY. Therefore, you only ever pay the maximum of either the income tax you owe NJ or the income tax you owe NY.

You're right that the new federal tax law could incentivize people to move from places with higher state and local taxes to places with lower state and local taxes, but the differences between NJ/NY/CT are negligible. The only big difference would be moving out of New York City, as that would save you up to ~20% (federal tax rate) of 3.5% (NYC income tax rate) of your income, but I doubt many people are willing to trade in their quality of life in NYC just for that.

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

#180

Post by RulingWalnut »

ropans808 wrote: post #158
tashoecraft wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Please tell me where anyone is paying 1k-1.5k for an apartment in NYC. I am paying 2700/mo for 650 sqft, 45 minute commute from midtown, and I haven't seen anything better without a longer commute. Studios in my neighborhood are 1.6k+, and I am not in a happenin' place.

I lived in Harlem 30 minutes from Midtown in a 2bdrm with a roommmate for 850, I now live in Boerum Hill (really nice neighborhood) 30 minutes from Midtown in a studio for 1800. It's really not hard to find places that aren't that expensive, you just have to be patient / willing to have a roommate or two.
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