[thelist] web companies in NY

deke web at master.gen.in.us
Wed Jan 9 06:55:56 CST 2002


On 8 Jan 2002 at 14:39, Jay Greenspan posted a message which said:

> This is dead on. The NYC economy is not in great shape and the large
> consulting houses are hurting harder than about anyone. With the
> exception of really senior people, I seriously doubt you'll find job ops
> at the Sapients of the world. Remember that the NYC is largely driven by
> the financial sector. And during a recession the financial sector really
> suffers.

Yes and no. I was just looking at the Vanguard site. My wife's IRA is 
in their small cap index value fund. It returned 7.30% for the year 
after management fees. Not shabby.

In the past four months, the NASDAQ has risen from 1480 to 2055. 
That's a 38% increase. At that rate, your investment *doubles* in less 
than a year.

When the financial sector is hurting, we see it here in Lancaster PA 
because the biggest name in financial printing is Donnelley. It's high-
stress work. They have to turn around the jobs in nothing flat. It's a 
high-prestige job, because they can't afford to hire any but the best, 
and they don't normally have to advertise openings. People line up to 
work for Donnelley. 

But they've been advertising lately. Business is booming.

My wife was doing proofreading for the book publishing industry. It's 
one of the industries that got hit hard, because it's very much 
centered in Manhattan, and the editors are scared. The number of new 
books being bought and published has dropped to almost *nothing* since 
September 11.  She sent out resumes in mid-September for both her 
careers - proofreading and social work - and got hired in 3 days, but 
we are *still* getting phone calls from people who know she got a new 
job, but are hoping that she isn't happy and wants to make a change.

The problem with NYC is that it's NYC. There's an acute shortage of 
land in that part of the country, and the resulting cost of real estate 
is going to depress the local economy. Even when the rest of the 
country is booming, NYC only does so-so.  

"If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere" is true - but it 
makes more sense to express it as "If you can survive in NYC, you can 
thrive anywhere else". That's why big cities are a place where good 
people start out and mediocre people end up. It ain't the unsuccessful 
ones that move to the burbs - and the *really* successful ones move 
*far* from the city.  

deke












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