re: Moving to New York in your 20s

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Always felt safer in NYC than in NOLA and BRLA.

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Everyone on this site is very familiar with how shitty BR and Nola are. There are daily threads about it.

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Someone close to me has been talking about moving to NYC after college. It’s that early- to mid-20s “let’s go try to make it” kind of move. And by make it, I mean actually being able to live there and build a life…..not just scrape by for a few months.

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I spent some of my mid 20's in New York after I got back from being deployed post 9/11. I was in the advertising business and got an offer from Y&R to be an Art Director. Different time and New York was a different place then, but I have some recommendations and some warnings.

First, is that even though it's changed, New York is a world capital and if she's never really done the "big city" thing, it'll definitely be very exciting and likely rewarding, just from the experience alone.

If she has the itch to do it and doesn't, she'll regret her entire lifetime never taking the chance. It's better to have failed than to have never made the effort.

If she wants to get into production work, my strong recommendation is for her to find a small role where she is locally for the next six months or so, even if it's unpaid. Go work production at a local theater, or TV studio, etc. they are always looking for free/cheap help. Going to one of the media centers of the planet without any experience is going to be very tough sledding. The firms there are always chewing through people and the industry is very transient, so there is opportunity, but she'll need at least some introduction into the business before and would be better if she had some sort of specialization.

My warning is that you can't just roll into NYC without a bankroll. Small jobs and are harder and harder to find and the NYC economy isn't as strong as it was 20-25 years ago. To say it will be a struggle is a massive understatement. It will be straight-up poverty. If she grew up middle class or better, it's a lifestyle that will wear thin really quickly, especially considering the neighborhoods that she'll be forced to live in.

End of it all, even if it's short lived, if it's something that she's really wants and if there's any chance of long-term regret, she simply needs to give it a shot.

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Millions try

Millions fail

Good luck

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These guys made it as actors, but it took decades;

Gene Hackman's most famous roommates were fellow legendary actors Dustin Hoffman and Robert Duvall, with whom he shared cramped New York City apartments in the late 1950s and 1960s while they were struggling to find acting work, forming a tight-knit trio of future stars before they became household names. They supported each other, scrounged for jobs, and even argued over acting methods, creating a legendary shared history in the acting world.

Key Details about Their Roommate Days:
The Crew: Hackman, Hoffman, and Duvall were all Southern California natives who met at the Pasadena Playhouse and later found themselves in NYC.
Living Conditions: They shared modest apartments, with Hoffman famously sleeping on the kitchen floor of Hackman's place initially before they all moved in together.
Shared Struggles: They experienced the lean times of struggling actors, taking on menial jobs and honing their craft.
Iconic Trio: They are remembered as an inseparable group, often called the "three musketeers," whose combined careers later earned numerous accolades.

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There are 2 kinds of ppl who want to move to New York:

80% female because they love the flashing lights, time square, broadway, shopping, Louis Vuitton, and luxury clothing electronic ads posted everywhere. Art museums where they pretend to understand the obscure art. That’s the majority

But then you have your:

20% Finance bro’s who are hideously insecure about their image, blow their entire paycheck on having the nicest watch, suits, apartment. Mostly unbearable and 90% of his time is worrying if people think he’s successful and upper class enough. American Psycho paints this absolutely spot on.

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This is the worst and most inaccurate post in this thread. Reads like your opinion of NYC comes from watching too much Sex in the City.