Ask HN: Advice on finding an entry level job in NYC?

Realistically, it probably would be your best bet to come over as a student and then once you're here if you are aggressively working hard on the side to build a network and show value in various contexts, you'll be more likely to be able to parley that into a working opportunity.

Let's be realistic, New York City is a city of opportunity where everything imaginable is happening all of the time. But getting work sponsorship from afar except for a very exclusive pool of ultra high-demand folks can be quite difficult.

A piece of advice: to a native English reader, your written English is dropping articles like "a", "an" and "the"-- I can only imagine how frustratingly arbitrary it must seem but these immediately make your written word appear less ready to go. You don't want to be put in that box and rejected from consideration out of the gate. Something to look out for.

Another angle folks will take is to get a job for a US or particularly New York city-based company in Europe, be a go-getter impressing folks to the extent that they'll be willing to give you what you want to keep you then you can make the move.

Our company is NYC based and has (and continues to be open to) sponsoring people to move and work in NY. Can only speak for our perspective:

The clearest path for us is to 1) have a skill set that is relevant to us and 2) be good at it.

If you can add value to our team it’s a no brainer for us. My family immigrated to the US and I think there is a lot to be said about someone who is willing to drop everything they know and are comfortable with and bust their ass to make it somewhere else. Make no mistake, this is not going to be an easy journey for you.

From our perspective, I have observed that some of our most loyal and bought in employees are the ones we brought over. Part of it is attitude, part of it is work ethic, part of it is the principle of reciprocity. We also know there is far less risk of an employee we are sponsoring to walk away and work somewhere else for a few extra dollars.

That’s my two cents. I suspect principal decision makers will be aligned with the above. It’s not that much extra work to sponsor someone and I think most people will do it for the right person.

I would not do this for an untested totally entry level grad most likely.

I'm very interested in this too (British - have always wanted to move to NYC).

A few years back, I sent out some speculative applications to companies in NYC for senior-level roles, but didn't receive anything back outside of one company that said they couldn't sponsor a visa. Some were startups, some were larger companies, and a few agencies using the same stack as I was experienced in.

The common route seems to be applying to work for a larger company that can sponsor a visa. I tried this too with some companies on the Stack Overflow jobs page, but again none of them came back to me, even when I took their take-home tests. My uninformed guess is that visas are hard to obtain, even more so nowadays, so that you'd need a mixture of luck and opportunity to get that role.

A few start ups in NYC ( myself included) are moving to kingston , New york (upstate). In NYC everyone is hustling. If your young and ambitious and can sell yourself your skills, you will find a job. I don't know about the visa stuff. Housing IS damn expensive yeah but you can live in greenpoint, Brooklyn with roommates or move uptown ( Washington Heights) then you have jackson Heights ( Queens) or sunnyside , Queens it's cheaper then living in money makin manhattan if you have 0 connects. When you make friends you will want to network with them to find an apartment or work. You will build a network of friends and those friends who are working at companies will get you into a job. That's how it works here. People are always moving out / changing jobs. Companies are always hiring. The experience will be unforgettable. Nothing like it. After some time you'll get burned from the grind and may want to bounce somewhere else. You'll never know till you get here! and Plenty of front end jobs. Good Lucky!

One of the best pieces of advice is to not go to New York City. Everything, from rent to groceries is at least double what you'd pay anywhere else.

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!

The "normal" way to do this in the technology industry is via either an H1B or O1 visa. You do not qualify for either one.

An H1B typically requires a specialized degree. You don't have one -- your BFA will not qualify, especially in today's political environment.

An O1 requires you to be world-renowned in your field. Widely published, a long history of invitations to speak, etc. That's not you, either.

That leaves you with the considerably less desirable visa options.

L1 is an intra-company transfer. It is a temporary visa that is not dual-intent -- you cannot immigrate. But you can stay for several years. If you can find a European firm that wants to send you to the United States, this is often the easiest way to experience the U.S., at least temporarily.

F1 is a student visa. If you apply, and are accepted for a graduate program in the United States, an F1 will allow you to stay here for several years, and work under certain circumstances. If your graduate program is relevant to your field of endeavor, internships and externships under your F1 can be the link you need to an H1B.

The reason the F1 is not all that desirable is that it is very, very expensive to be a student in the United States. You will not be permitted to work a real job off campus to fund your tuition. You must have either very extensive funding from your university, or independent means of your own.

>I know that housing is very expensive

It is, but don't have to live in the city to work in the city. It's extremely common to live in cheaper areas near NYC and take public transportation for a 1-1.5 hour commute.

Well as a recent college grad, in America here's what i have to say.

Good luck. For us Americans fresh out of university it's a total crap chute. There is practically nothing out there. Most jobs outside of cities require a car, and if you think you can afford a car and place to live (not to mention food and whatnot) then you will be sorely mistaken. Increasingly i personally see people with higher end degrees from good institutions taking near minimum wage jobs in the service or other industries. A college degree in America means next to nothing.

With a diploma in BFA (bachelor fine arts correct?) your highest hope would be a job as a barista or a waiter. unless you are in that .01% of everyone in the arts field and able to somehow get a job out of that.

Your next best bet is work that is ancillary but requires a degree. you can find a paper pushing job somewhere but it is unlikely at entry level that they will sponsor you.

My advice if you are serious about coming to the usa is to start on a student visa and come here for schooling. Good luck paying for that.

my other advice is why does it have to be NYC. there are other cheaper cities that are just as nice if not nicer. NYC is quickly becoming far too overpriced even for the richest, and with its sprawl you will spend a lot of your time just navigating subways.

Philadelphia is a very affordable and fun city. There is also Boston, Miami, DC and many others not on the east coast.

I really hope you do make it here and do get a job. But realistically these are the challenges you face. I have known many people who came here on student visas, graduated got jobs and are now leaving because of king carrots new immigration issues. but that's just my two cents.

Your best bet would be to apply for a permanent immigration visa. It should be very easy if you're from the EU. It's only difficult for people from countries that already have a high amount of emigration such as India, China, or Mexico since there's a per country quota.

It is NOT easy to obtain a temporary work visa like it is in many other countries. The United States greatly prefers permanent immigration.

Aim for the highest EB visa you qualify for.

https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/permanent-worker...

Hey, no offense, but NYC has a few very large arts colleges and the city is teeming with arts majors looking for work. If you want to immigrate there, you'll need to really stand out from students that were hand picked from all over the world to study arts there.