BootsnAll Travel Community

Hey everybody,

I LOVE LOVE LOVE travling. While I was in college, it was easier to save money (doing two jobs), taking classes and then took summers off and went to travel. Thats why it took me 6 years to finish my bachelors degree while most people finish their bachelors degree's in 4 years.

anyway ..now I finish my college this summer and time to look for real job. I live in VERY SMALL town in Alabama. My dream is to move to NYC and work in sales or marketing. I got my Degree in History and minor in Chemistry. But i would love to work in international sales or something related to business. BUT i dont even know how to look for jobs in NYC. I live in Alabama. First I thought I would just move to NYC and start looking for jobs there. BUT I dont think I can afford $1200 monthly rent yet. So my question is how can one start looking for jobs in NYC? Do websites like Monster.com or Yahoo jobs work? Does anybody know any good companies in NYC who hire for Entry level jobs??


thanks guys. any advice would be great.

You'll probably have a really difficult time finding a job in NYC if you're living in Alabama. So many companies won't even bother to look at your resume if you don't have a NYC address. Monster and HotJobs can be helpful, to some extent, but for someone looking for an entry level job, you're going to have thousands of applicants with credentials similar to yours applying for the exact same position. And again, the same thing applies for most of those jobs - if you're from outside the NYC area, they probably won't even look at your resume.

My advice would be to find out if you know anyone that lives in NYC or the surrounding area - friend of a friend, someone that graduated from college with you, family friend, whatever, and see if you can crash with them for a few weeks while you look for a job. If you don't know anyone who lives there, your next best bet would be trying to find someone who needs a temporary roommate, maybe on Craigslist or something, and you can hopefully find an apartment to share temporarily that is less than $1200, even if it's far away from the city.

In that same vein, I'd start now and try to make contact with as many people as possible in NYC that could help you get a job. Make sure everyone you know puts out the word that you're looking for a job in NYC - maybe they know a friend of a friend that works there, or maybe someone you've met during your travels will know someone there. See if they know anyone there who would be willing to talk to you - even if they aren't in the field you're interested in, they could have good advice or might know someone who has a job opening in your field of interest. Talk to the people in the career counseling office at your school - they might know someone, or an alumni that has a job up there or something.

Good luck!

Have you considered temp work? Over the years I've seen good temp assignments lead to jobs or extra long assignments. I worked (Im at home now with kids) in the publishing industry in NYC and we had some temp assignments end up lasting for years. They would test someone out for a few months and if they were a good match, it would lead to contract work.

Of course, there are no garauntees, so you are back to square 1 with the rent dilemma, but if you figure something out (work part time nights?) temping is a good option. NYC is a tough place to start out with no $ or contacts, but it is not impossible. I know many people who have done it with a lot of hard work and a little creativity.

thanks a lot for your replies.

I dont have any friends or family members who live in NYC. People from my town hardy leave Alabama. If you know what I mean.

I have been to many big cities in USA. And out of all..I think NYC is the one for me. I dont like living in small towns anymore. I hate the fact you need to drive just to get a bottle of milk or even to walk to a park.

In NYC, I wount not mind working as temp and working nights and weekends @ second job. As long as i can make enough for rent and bread..i will be happy.

BTW..how do I start looking for Temp jobs in NYC? Do temp jobs even pay anything? I have worked in retail for 5 years while I was in college and 2 years as student assistant in a local hopistal. I dont know if that counts as "work" experience.

sorry for asking too many questions. Thats just what happens when you live in middle of no where. When i tell my friends that my dream is to move to NYC and have an apartment in Upper east side.. they think i am gone crazy. It cost $500 a month for two bedrooms apartment in my town. Where in NYC it costs five times more. But I am ready to leave this place and go to "real" world.

Have you actually been to NYC and spent some time there? It's a very bad idea to relocate to a place if you haven't done a thorough look into what it's really like. I lived in NYC for 5 years, and I can say that while I love it, many people come there with highly romanticized views. NYC is quick to offer reality checks.

If you're sure, then you will indeed have to find a place to live and relocate beforehand, as nobody in NYC is going to hire entry-level from out of town. There's just no reason for doing that.

First and foremost, you will need roommates. You cannot live in NYC on entry-level pay on your own, period. Scour classified sites like craigslist or roommate.com and look for people advertising a place to share in NYC. You might encounter the same problems with employment, namely they will be unwilling to consider someone out-of-state and without a job. You should consider looking for others like yourself who are planning on moving to NYC and are looking for roommates. Heck, post an ad on a site yourself seeking out potential roommates!

Second, you won't be able to live on the UES. Not at first. Start by looking in the outer burroughs, especially Queens and Brooklyn. Yeah, you'll have to commute to Manhattan, but the subway is so convenient that it's not really a big deal.

As for employment, if you want to be in business, sign up with temp agencies. Sign up with as many as you can. Adecco, Randstad, Kelly, Volt and Manpower are some major ones. NYC also has tons of smaller ones. They will test you on your computer skills, so practice typing speed and the MS Office programs (Word, Excel, Outlook, Access, PowerPoint). You can search for online tutorials for these programs. Learn them well!

When I temped in NYC back in 1999-2000, I made anywhere from $15-17/hour on assignments. I worked on various assignments for about a year before I was hired on permanently by one of the companies for which I temped.

The chief thing to remember is that you're working towards a goal, and it WILL take time and work. It's very unrealistic to think you can just move to NYC and live on the UES. You're going to have to spend some time working your way up to that in the "trenches," as it were.

Good luck!