thinking of moving to NYC, job options
Question:
My wife and I are thinking of moving to NYC (from Australia) in the next few years. Apart from the general craziness of the place, in my mind I'd expect a web designer's salary to be somwhere between 150 - 300K USD a year. Is that about right? Is it riduclously competitive or are most designers there pretty average?
Answer:
Stay in Australia if you expect to just come and start making that
kinda money. Unless you are highly skilled and in demand.
imagine I fall into the latter category, what's a realistic salary
range? are there specific pitfalls in new york vs some of the other
major US cities. Do most firms have a high turn over of staff, a large
burnout rate etc?
I dont live in NYC...Ive done some business in the area
though..I think you can expect what you are earning in Au to
match what you will earn in NYC after a few years of building
business in the area, unless you bring clients with you.
I seriously doubt 300k though..unless you have that business
established... salary ranges for very competent web designers
in nyc will run by my guess between 70 and 100k tops..and
those will have a following...newbies if they take a salary
job will be under 50k imho. if you are hot maybe 70k.
after a gross 60 to 70% tax rate, state invomr tax, sales tax,
social security, federal income tax, you will be scratching to
pay rent in that range... 150k will provide a decent middle
class life though..but not more than that. Rent will be in
$2000 to $2500 a month range,
Your portfolio will have to be absolutely *world class with
major fortune 500 clients to get you into the 300k range...
unless you are doing annual reports at that level.. then with
a following and some employees you can be into the millions of
dollars a year total sales, with a fairly good chunk of that
gross profit..then subtract the taxes...
NYC draws the top talent from around the world...there is lots
of opportunity and lots of competition...if you are an
absolute star your will shine brightly...if not, its not free
piece of cake in NYC.
For instance, one time I ate in a sushi restaurant there, the
service was bad, some goon stood in the corner leering at me
the entire time...I ate 20 dollars worth of sushi and left a 2
dollar tip... the chinese waitress followed me out of the
restaurant and harranged me for being cheap with the
tip..demanding more money..
but that was an exception, I found NYC people on the whole to
be very nice and not as nasty as thier reputation...actually
california cities are a lot more ruthless..imho.
The problem of NYC people is that they behave crazy just because they think
they're supposed to... people that's basically nice, go out and behave
nasty, just because they think that's what's expected from them... kind of
being all actors interpreting a role.
Maybe in California this syndome is even worse?
Bottom line: (from my modest personal experienceof six months touring big
cities in the US) seems that nobody living in a big US city behaves the same
outside the house or inside. Hollywood syndrom?
What do you think?
I don't know the NYC scene real well personally. Ive just
visited a few times and have done some business there... my
guess... most live in ultra small apartments, shared by two
people who both work and the appartment rent adds up to half
of the net combined incomes..or close to it.. thats the bottom
80% the upper 20% gets to eat a little better, nicer
places..the top 5% are probably at 200k.. 100k net after
taxes... so have a pretty decent disposable income... with 20
million people in nyc and environs as a wild guess. 20% is
4 million people running loose with money..so it looks lush..
but not for those in the 80% group. Add in the 1% or less
who own 5 million dollar plus apartments...thats 10 to 30,000
people at a wild guess, driving around in chauffer driven
limo's... and NYC is a plush place indeed...for those in that
class.
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