Commuting from Brooklyn to the city. Is it doable?

Will be interning at a mm shop in midtown this summer. I live with my parents in Brooklyn, about an hour commute on the train; car commute is roughly 40 min. I was wondering if it would be ok to commute every day to the city working banking hours or if it would make more sense to get an apartment in manhattan for the summer.

Would rather not have to shell out the money for an apartment, but if it would make my life so much better than I'd be willing to spend the money.

25 Comments
 
oaktree capital

Midwood. It's about an hour, but that gets cut in half on the way home. Alternatively, I could take cabs in the morning which would make the commute around 40 mins. Even with paying for cabs it would be much cheaper than renting a place in the city.

i doubt cab in the morning is feasible unless you are working trading hours (before 7). I sometime drive to work around 7:30 and the traffic is not good

 

I thought interns don't work the typical banking hours? This would help your case a little bit at least to not make your life completely suck with the commute + hours.

make it hard to spot the general by working like a soldier
 
Best Response

Your mornings will stink and being a bit far from the office will make life difficult when you have to quickly run back to do last minute changes/edits manage fire drills. I did Brooklyn (near the areas that youayou mentioned) and took the F in and out. It was fine, but on the long nights and early mornings the commute was not fun. You end up spending most of your time in the office anyway that having a place in manhattan you'll rarely use it (at least at the level that the rent dictates).

If it is only for the summer you can tough it out and your wallet will appreciate the extra cash. Like you said the days you don't feel like taking a commuter train you can take a cab to manage. At night the cab ride home makes life that much easier. For full time I would reconsider though...just due to weather and other random issue that may come up over the full year.

Good luck and congrats.

 

Gym comment is untrue - my commute is ~40 mins and I make it to the gym 3-4x a week (weekdays) in the morning. Admittedly slightly condensed workout.

OP, it's doable but will definitely be easier to love closer by (no surprises there). If you're thinking about cabs and uber in the morning fairly often, that will get pretty expensive - under that scenario, extra cost of staying near work may be worth the extra sleep/extra workout time/getting to work faster/being able to bring girls home to a place that isn't your parents house etc.

 

Do you get taxis home paid for? If so, I would say try it out. If not, get a sublet.

I live in Manhattan and its still a 20-30 minute commute (door to door). Further parts of Manhattan can be 40+ minutes as well. It all depends on the train statuses too.

Eg. If you live downtown, the 4/5 trains are occasionally jam-packed. I used to have to wait for 2 or 3 at times just because I didn't want an old dude touching me.

 

Ask yourself what you are trying to achieve this summer...a full-time offer, right? In the grand scheme of things, 3 months of rent versus securing that full-time offer...it's pretty easy to evaluate the right answer. Do everything you can to make your summer a better / more productive experience.

If I ask for you to come in on a Saturday and because you're an hour away and get in after me, I wouldn't be pleased.

 

He's not going to suddenly rescind a full time offer because you live an hour away unless he's completely psycho, and then you should be looking at other banks anyway.

"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face."
 

Also there was a comment saying someone would be annoyed if you took a while getting there in the morning - a) I find it hard to believe most people would be like that, because you'll likely know when you have to be in on the weekend and won't inconvenience anyone, and b) not sure if it's different where you are but I've always been eligible for free cabs in and out on weekends - which would cut your commute down considerably.

 

I'd recommend against it. As an SA I commuted from nearby Midwood (as I also grew up there) to Midtown and the mornings were absolutely brutal. One slight train delay and you're 10 minutes late.

 

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"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face."

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