How much would you give up to be in NYC?

Would you take a post-undergrad offer at a worse firm to be in NYC instead of a city you're less interested in (Boston/Chicago/SF/LA)? ie, Centerview vs Citi, BX vs lower UMM, MBB vs T2 consulting, etc.

Curious what factors you would weigh, and at what difference in firm "tier" you would be indifferent. To be clear, this question is about how you weight personal happiness vs career maximization; due to the regional nature of my school, most of my friends will be in NYC postgrad, and I have a strong NYC preference (it's more fun). Assume WLB, culture, etc. are the same between firms (very good at both) - the only difference is prestige / exits.

12 Comments
 

I would always go with better firm—it’s not like a crappy bank suddenly has great dealflow bc they’re in nyc

but I dont think this is a legit question bc the examples you provided are apples to oranges

 
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Bro what would I give up to live OUTSIDE of NYC. NYC sucks ass bro. Cost of living is the highest of any place in the entire US now, taxes bend you over, and it’s dirty af. Would gladly live in a “worse” city and have a much better life. It’s crazy how we make 95+ percentile earnings for our age yet in NYC I have an objectively worse life than a lot of my friends with what this forum calls “non prestigious” jobs

 

It sounds like you’ve already made up your mind that nyc is the place to be and you’re just looking for affirmation

Btw I don’t think anybody has ever chosen t2 consulting in nyc over mbb in chi/la/sf/bos—you’d have to be pretty dumb to do that

and none of ur other examples make any sense—bx doesnt have regional offices and cvp only has PA and SF outside of nyc. The cvp vs citi example is the only viable possibility and you’d have to be an idiot to take citi nyc over cvp SF/PA

Odds are OP doesnt have any of these offers

 

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