I want to leave SF
I've been in SF for my analyst stint; I live in Russian Hill/Cow Hollow with a couple friends.
Upsides
- Greenery / Outdoors
- Proximity to Napa / Santa Cruz and Monterey / Lake Tahoe, etc
- Great air quality
- Great weather
- Great food scene
Downsides
- Small nightlife scene / closes early
- Mostly male city
- Way too casual, tech vibes everywhere
- Similar price to NYC for a fraction of life experience
- Met higher quality girls in a weekend in NYC than almost in my whole time in SF
I've been to NYC a few times and it just feels like 100x the experience versus here. I feel like SF could be good to settle down in/around in your early/mid 30's with kids, but till then it's just boring for the most part tbh. Anyone else agree?
I moved from Miami to SF in 2022, lasted about 2 years in SF and then moved to NYC at the beginning of 2024. I love living in NYC more than anything.
What part of SF were you in and where in NYC are your favorites?
Lived around 12th and Folsom for 3 months, did not like that area. Then North Beach for a week and then around Union Square for 2 weeks while I looked for a new apartment.
Then I was in Avalon Mission Bay on King Street for 6 months and then Modera Rincon Hill for a year until I left.
Definitely didn't love any of those places. Wish I lived closer to the Marina.
And in NYC I live near City Hall Park now. In NYC I try not to go out to the same place too often, there's just so many places to check out
The whole SF bay, is so overrated.
Why not just internal lateral to NY office?
Don't really want to stay in IB - especially NYC IB feels like it'd be way more sweaty than it is out here
Recruit for buyside, although your options may vary depending on your bank. Yeah, dating scene sucks ass in SF for sure. I went to a school in NYC and moved to SF for FT, as I had then-fiancé now wife.
Lol a tale as old as time. Man moves to SF. Man immediately wants to leave.
Where do you go out?
In SF - really basic in Marina White Rabbit/ Westwood / Jaxon / Cafe Celeste / Balboa (just to get a drink and meet ppl before going out); in Mission district if you want to find the BBLs and Asians - Make Out Room and Raven respectively. Oh also Harper & Rye on Polk
Nice, Marina is usually a good time but like you said everything closes early. I like 1015 for the music and it closes at 3 which is one of the latest places open I know of in the city. I'll have to check out Make Out Room and Raven soon.
The only half decent one among these is white rabbit (even then it's not great, the other venues make it look decent in comparison)
missing comet club in the marina and monroe on broadway, but yeah this is basically it
temple used to be fun but basically died; 1015 can be really cool with a good artist but generally attracts a weird crowd
You youths gotta get familiar with the Tonga Room - Li Po Cocktail Lounge combo. Just make sure you do it in that order so you're walking downhill, not up.
Is SF really as bad as it seems? I go to college on the West Coast and was fortunate enough to land a very good role — only downside is that SF is the only option. I could recruit FT for NYC, but I likely won't get anything of similar caliber. Would love any perspectives on SF vs NYC
West coast as in California? South or North?
I would rather be in LA or NYC 100%; I came here because my family is local and the career opportunity out of college was good but to enjoy and grow as a person in your 20's (and have fun), it's really not where you want to be IMO. You can make the most of out of it by going and seeing nature, going to music festivals, etc, but for the 'big city experience', SF really is not strong. Also the dating scene is a joke
Isn’t it annoying needing a car for LA?
It's pretty bad. I didn't believe what people said until I went there and experienced it myself. Unless you are a somewhat nerdy guy who likes small get togethers and spending lots of time in nature it's not good. NYC is exponentially superior for a young yuppie who wants to have a good time and a fun social life.
Absolutely
Same exact boat, it’s pretty but boring and sucks if you’re working finance hours (everyone’s wfh fridays/mondays and gets out at 5). The one thing you haven’t mentioned is I do really like going out in china town/north beach (li po, vesuvio, bow bow, April jean, tupelo). Less people but fun to check out new spots, feels like you’re getting something new (I also live in cow hollow).
Yea I like all these spots (Bow Bow is the only one I haven't been to), but you just always need a good group of friends, odds of running in to cool people / decent girls is low imo otherwise
Are you also trying to leave
I think I need to finish my analyst program here first but then going to try to go to ny. You should def try bow bow, it’s super fun. I’m a girl but yeah Marina is probs better for meeting new ppl
Depends on how you describe wife-type girls. You may want to find your job in Charlotte.
I guess someone who isn’t super into casual dating with a lot of past partners (10 is my cutoff) while having a college degree and a job. Obviously attraction matters to me, but I genuinely find most girls attractive so I’m not saying bs when I say character matters more to me. My understanding is that since NYC is such a big city, I’m hoping these types of girls are still present amongst the partying flock but would love to hear actual experiences.
Funny you mentioned Charlotte, since I could theoretically lateral offices from NY since I’m gonna be at WF. I’d still want to experience living in a big city though and have opportunity to do PE interviews in person, which leads me to a dilemma.
Depends what you want / enjoy doing. As a big city and for big city things (nightlife, food, dating, etc.) no question that NYC is going to be a lot better.
But I'm happy for having spent my career so far (was A2A) in the SF Bay Area. As a car guy there's tons of great roads around +3 nearby racetracks (Sonoma, Thunderhill, Laguna Seca) and have owned a wide variety of fun cars and motorcycles. Also am a gun guy, and despite being in CA with the restrictive rules here, it's still far better than NYC, particularly with ranges in fairly close proximity to shoot.
Go skiing in the winter (no comparison between west coast and east coast mountains), wineries as you mentioned, boozy-river float days with friends, baja-style off-roading (had a Ford Raptor), summer boat days at Lake Berryessa, etc.
Caveat that I went to school in the Bay Area, so did have a large built-in social circle already which helps make these activities social. But point being that it fully depends on your interests - there are plenty of interesting things to do if they are things you enjoy
Built in social circle is important. Not making excuses for people's bad social skills but people in SF are a lot less open to new friendships than in NY, even if you are a pretty chill guy. Pretty consistently the people who I knew liked SF always had pre-existing social circles there.
"but people in SF are a lot less open to new friendships than in NY"
interesting because this is 100% not true from my perspective, all my friends who live in Manhattan (living there between 3-10 years now) still all hangout with friends from uni + their friends, unless they have a partner who is in the native NYC circles or do business its almost impossible to "fit in". Whereas in SF I meet and become friends with all sorts of people. SF is just much much smaller (mind you only 800k population) in that everyone knows each other and willing to introduce you to others - the math is simply just there.
What do you want to do after IB? That is the only thing you should be asking yourself. That will dictate if the move makes any sense. Want to get into VC? You would be insane to move. Want to get into the scam non profit industry? NYC is decent but doesn't come close to DC. Want to get into the energy industry? Move to Houston.
You need to figure out what you find interesting then plan a move or not based around that.
I personally couldn’t do NYC for more than a year. If you’re looking at it from the perspective of bars and girls then sure NYC will have you beat but that’s a pretty narrow scope.
The biggest mistake people make when choosing to live in SF is not living in the right areas. For someone in finance, live in Marina/Cow Hollow, North Beach, Russian Hill, Nob Hill and don’t live in SoMa, Tenderloin, or Civic Center. Everyone who lives in those last three will absolutely hate it here because that is where most of the cities problems are.
The price on an SF apartment is similar to NYC, but the money goes way further in terms of actual real estate. Newer amenities, more square feet, nicer views if you’re near the water, etc. Outside of the cities rougher areas, the city is generally cleaner and definitely safer than NYC (and I personally think the NYC homeless problem feels like it’s everywhere whereas the SF one feels concentrated).
The city is full of nice bars and cocktail lounges with a decent nightlife scene for young people, but will admit it’s not as thriving as NYC. When you get out of your first year of being out here you start to outgrow those same marina bars and learn that it’s not the only place to meet people and start venturing towards North Beach/Polk/Valencia/others. Club scene is not huge but there’s a couple decent ones, but if you’re looking for a NYC level club NYC has it beat.
SF beats NYC in every sense of portability and what’s in the proximity. Beaches, hiking, parks, wine, boating and sports. SF sports culture is pretty big with the giants being in the city and the niners making SF a big football city. Warriors are a big part of the culture too with the Chase center also in the city and lots of sports bars to watch any game.
I’ve heard the narrative of “better girls and better bars” for the NYC vs SF argument many times and while not wrong, I think it’s a bit narrow minded but also recognize that SF may not be for everyone.
Yea SF and California offer way more diversity, but I guess a lot of people in this industry (not all) out of college are focused on nightlife, dining, shopping, etc which obv will be better in an NYC vs an SF. Also I think it's important to recognize that wherever you are who you are around will dictate how you like it and also learning to appreciate whatever is good about your city is prob better than just complaining.
“better girls and better bars” is true but girls in SF make way more than girls in NYC
Who cares how much the girls make? Weird take
Going through a similar transition but living in SoCal. Feel the same exact way, the weather, nature, beaches, etc so nice but it's so slow and boring out here. Making the transition to move out to city this year, feel free to PM.
Started typing this out yesterday before everyone kind of hit these points...
I've gone back and forth on this for years (I'm actually an AS2 despite my wso title). Been here coming up on four years now. Wanted to be in NY out of college but ended up here as this is where I interned out of during the covid summer and I just took the return offer given the hiring freeze that year. In retrospect if I wanted to move I should have done so during my first year as an analyst, but I wanted to give it at least a year before switching roles.
There are absolutely tradeoffs, but I don't regret my decision to stay overall. Night life is not great. I actually like going out and still do most weekends all of my friends are in town, but there are only so many places to go in this city that fit what we enjoy. It also helps that I met some people who grew up in the bay area so we also go out in south bay a couple times a month and crash at a friend's place to switch things up. Going out aside, the city also obviously just feels so small and dead compared to something like an NY.
But quality of life / convenience is much better. Weather is obviously far superior, outdoors and open space is much closer, and everything within the city is much closer as well. WLB for me vs all of my friends in IB in NY is far better, though this is obviously highly firm dependent. It's easier to stay fit, easier to spend time outside even if it's just walking to the office, and much easier to escape the city for an afternoon. Even simple things like going to the gym or doing laundry are just such a non-issue here. And getting places in the city is something I really take for granted. You can basically Uber anywhere (you'd actually want to go) in the city within 15 minutes and for like $12 as long as you're not going at peak hours. Even walking from Polk to the Marina on a night out is only 15 minutes. I'm reminded how nice this is every time I visit my friends in NY and spend twice as long or twice as much to go hardly any farther.
Housing is also a decent bit cheaper than NY, though the cost of everything else is about on par. I live in a studio with bay views and a garage spot for my M3, none of which I'd have in Manhattan. Being able to own a car here is a big plus for me, but that's obviously a more personalized effect.
Will agree that dating here kind of sucks though. That's the main thing I take issue with and really the only reason I'd still seriously consider a move to NY. Ratio is bad and girls here definitely skew unattractive even in the neighborhoods on the northern side of the city.
To hit on another point that's been mentioned - a huge portion of people here either grew up here or went to school in the bay area and have established social circles. It's not like an NY where people move to be in NY. I think it can be quite difficult to meet new people here.
Congrats on the M3 haha, roughly where do you live and how much do you pay if you dont mind sharing, would be greatly appreciated!
pac heights, ~3700 including garage, but i was paying ~$2500 including garage up until last year
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