Everybody knows that "if you wanna work in finance, you gotta be in NYC." But I would sacrifice a testicle before living in NYC... especially since all the New Yorkers (from the city) I've ever met have the attitude you'd expect from someone who's hanging solo. So SF is supposed to have a small financial sector, right? Would LOVE live there... run around with flowers in my hair and whatever else they do out there. People there always seem to have a smile on their faces... even the ones that aren't "gay".So anyone on this forum work in finance in SF? Anyone know how feasible it is to find work there for a fresh grad from an MS in Finance program? How does the compensation compare to that in NYC? Will I really have to bust my balls to get work there.... cause I'm willing to do it!... both figuratively AND literally... well, only one... will need the other one for all those cali girls If SF is not an option... I think London's calling!

I don't know why (maybe LA has gravity?), but the San Fran girls are very mediocre. Except maybe Chinese and even some Japanese girls. So far as getting a job there, it is much less an assembly line for graduates than Manhattan. In engineering it is better, they do hire a lot of strangers, and foreigners. But in anything they can, they will probably hire someone they know. Because a lot of locals want to do finance without moving.I've known a number of people who moved to San Francisco. I can only think of one who stayed, and he got married so that the two of them wouldn't really have cared if they were on an island. It's a weird place. I sometimes imagine moving there just to be a loner, like the unabomber. Maybe it's that it's always so gray out in the Mission, and there are all those old buildings.It's like 100 small towns all on top of each other. And there are so many 20-something airheads with their lives going nowhere.I recommend London.

I prefer London over NY. The NY attitude doesn't make a whole lot of sense, I agree with you, azaad79.As a fresh grad you should be able to get jobs in SF, why not ?

To each his own. Some people love San Francisco and would not want to go anywhere else. Regarding women. True, SF may not be the best place. However, there is much more depth to people in San Francisco than say LA or NYC. I rather work as a quant analyst at a boutique hedgefund in SF than famous quant shop in NYC. London is great, but it is just way too expensive. If you want to find some opportunties in SF. You can try http://www.craigslist.org. Sometimes you can find some quant jobs there.

QuoteOriginally posted by: chyangI rather work as a quant analyst at a boutique hedgefund in SF than famous quant shop in NYC. If you want to find some opportunties in SF. You can try http://www.craigslist.org. Sometimes you can find some quant jobs there.What are the (if any) major funds in SF?Craigslist for quant jobs???.... you never know I guess?

To each his own of course, but I find that many people that don't like NYC haven't fully experienced it, while well over half the people who tell me how much they love SF have a hard time telling me what they like about it that doesn't have to do with the weather.I do believe everyone should try to live in both places if they can find time to in their lives and decide for themselves. Having lived in both places for several years each, there is no doubt in my mind I would pick NYC any day of any year. In fact, I would pick London, Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Helsinki, Zurich, Boston, Chicago, or Frankfurt (in roughly that order) before I would consider spending another few months in Northern California. That is all because of a few personal preferrences I have: I prefer a fast underground system over having to drive and sit in traffic to get anywhere, I like four seasons (even winter), I like beautiful women who know how to dress and speak intelligently about several civilized topics, it is important to me to be able to take short trips away if I want to, I like attending lectures and events hosted by the universities and the financial community, and I like having a world of different cuisines and services never close and never more than a few steps away. You can certainly see that several of the cities at the end of my list miss many of these things, but the Bay Area manages to be mediocre to poor at just about all of them.People are individuals, but if I were to stereotype a difference between New Yorkers and Northern Californians, it is that New Yorkers almost above all else, respect time, since they know that is what life is made of. Californians who visit often take the direct and efficient approach as rude, and have a very different attitude towards life.farmer is quite right about "assembly lines" and numbers of opportunities. The thing to focus on is how important career is to you and whether you want the best job in a place your personality may need to adapt to, or whether you will live where you want to live and more likely than not have to settle for professional opportunities far below your potential, which is fine if you "work to live, not the other way around".London, as far as I have seen, has even more finance opportunities than NYC, so do considering it before sacrificing that testicle. SF does have several funds and botique banks, and many people there know each other, which can be a good and bad thing. My corny reply would say that testosterone is a liability in SF, but an asset in many of the other cities I mentioned, especially NYC...good luck...

Ahh exotiq, somehow this almost seems like a flashback because you had the same opinion two years ago I believe.Considering that I have spent a good amount of time in Hong Kong, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York, I would probably say that your opinion seems biased. Respecting time is a good way of putting what NYers do but their true intentions are more questionable. Most of whom I know are more in a rush to get home to get out of the heat during the summer/get out of the cold during the winter. I hardly call that respecting time. Lets not forget how many NYers go to Long Island during the summer and head to the beach to work on their tan. If you drove on the LIE, you would know how bad that is. Second, many people commute using the municipal system in San Francisco. No one seems to complain. Wait, that might be because NY subways are twice as expensive as SF. I also hardly consider them "faster" by any means. NY subways just reach more places. Since I have friends in SF still, I can tell you that they like SF not because of the weather. If they truly like the weather they would probably move to somewhere around the bay area instead. More importantly, they like SF because they can see themselves living comfortably and satisfied in SF. New Yorkers might get a kick out of experiencing the finer things in life, but the people in SF likes to just enjoy life period.Personal preferences still hold but I would have to say that beautiful woman are everywhere, it is whether you are lucky enough to meet them. I actually prefer ones that look stunning in just a nice t-shirt and jeans because you know they will look a lot better when they dress up. I do agree with Farmer that asian girls in the bay area tend to be better looking. Food is also very relative. NY have great European food while SF have great Asian Cuisine (minus good Indian food). Most NYers I know calls asian food from NY Chinatown or Flushing authentic which everyone else outside of NY will frown at. Yes, I am saying none of those places in Chinatown serve authentic Shanghainese/Cantonese/Taiwanese/Vietnamese/Thai food. They serve a NY-version of it. Same goes for Korean food on that one street that is known as Korean Town or out in Flushing on Northern Blvd.As far as jobs are concerns, most places in the bay area "prefers" graduates from UCB, UCLA, or Stanford to other schools unless you have a few years of top notch experience under your belt than the above might not matter.So if you don't know people in SF finance sector, did not graduate from any of the three schools above (and since you said fresh grad from Masters I will also assume you do not have the third part down), then you should seriously consider London.

Also having lived in many places (SF,LA,NY,HK,BKK,SG), I have to say that transportation is one big factor in living in a big city. Less commute time = more time for fun. In particular to SF, I think the BART is quite slow(wait times) and expensive.

--> Regarding SF financial sector: Thank you all for your responses... it's not all too easy to get an idea of what the market in SF is like, since most info one finds is about NYC and London. Hopefully more people who've worked in SF share their experiences. I DID apply to the MFE program at Berkeley and have my fingers crossed, anxiously awaiting their response. We'll see how that goes... since as tabris says, I figure it'll make things a lot easier to get a job in SF. Chyang... are you currently working in SF? OR are you a student looking to work there?From some of the responses, it seems that I might have to bite the bullet and work in NYC for a couple years at least... but I will try as hard as I can to find something in London, instead.--> Regarding life in SF: This question is obviously based on each individual's tastes. I have lived in the bay area on and off... for short periods of time... a couple summers and a year in undergrad. My family moved there after I was already in college, so I do get a chance to visit often... and know Northern Cali somewhat intimately for someone who's never truely lived there. Being an outsider, there, though... who comes out east and then goes back there on a relatively frequent basis... I've noticed a few things about the people. As exotiq stated, I definitely think that people in NYC are more concerned with time and order than people in SF. I don't think this means that people from NYC value their life more.... I just think they have different priorities. If you will allow me to be a little abstract, I think people in NYC are more concerned with the destination, while people in SF are more concerned with the journey. There are obviously positives and negatives about both approaches to life, but my personal style/philosophy falls more into the SF way. I also think that people from NYC are a little high-strung. I think they're proud of this, and think that the rest of the country, especially Cali, is "soft" and indirect, and not driven, or whatever. But I sometimes think it's easy in places like NYC to become so used to running around here and there that you find yourself basically in one of those gerbil wheels... where you don't know what you're running towards, or away from... as long as you're running.I'm not trying to speak about anybody on this forum... jsut from my personal experience... and the experiences of people I've met.

QuoteOriginally posted by: moogleAlso having lived in many places (SF,LA,NY,HK,BKK,SG), I have to say that transportation is one big factor in living in a big city. Less commute time = more time for fun. In particular to SF, I think the BART is quite slow(wait times) and expensive.The system IN SF is not BART. There is a reason why BART stands for bay area rapid transit. You are almost making a statement that BART takes you around SF while in reality, it has at most 6 stops in SF depending on which line you take. That is a rather apples and oranges comparison. This is almost like saying I live in NYC and take the metro north which is slow and expensive. BART is for people who do not live in SF (which might also explain to me that you probably never lived in SF since you talk about BART instead of Muni). One last rant, please don't associate life in the bay area in general as life in SF. If you lived in other cities in the bay area, you cannot by association say you experienced SF. <end rant>

Sorry... it's true I haven't really lived in the city (SF) and don't know what that experience would be. I've definitely visited it a lot and love it... and actually DO hope to someday actually experience it. I didn't mean to sound as though I knew the city intimately or anything. I was just trying to share my general impessions of Northern Cali, the Bay Area, and SF... because I think the entire region is markedly different than the East Coast (where I live right now). Obviously living in SF must be entirely different than living in Berkeley, or South Bay, etc... but I just meant to say that there's a general attitude towards life and other people in these area's that's very different than that of the East Coast.The other thing I really love about Cali is the geography: the ocean, the hills, the mountains, the desert, the redwoods, rocky beaches, sandy beaches... I mean... it's an amazingly beautiful part of the country. There's just so much to do... hiking, kayaking, mountain climbing, sailing, the list could go on and on... I'd love to get involved in this kind of stuff.

Azaad79: My last point was just a rant and not directed at anyone in particular. I am just tired of people that went to Berk or Stanford saying that they KNOW and experienced SF when they lived in a city that is 10-30 minutes away from the city. There is a lot more to SF than people just frollicking around on the streets.

no... I know... I was just trying to be funny in my first post... because it's surprising how many people east of the rockies have that view of California. That it's always sunny and warm with sandy beaches everywhere... people just spending their days strolling up and down beaches or sun bathing on them. The funniest is when someone from the east visits Cali for the first time, say in June or July. They have their flip flops on ... shorts and a t-shirt.... and I take them to SF. Boy are they confused! They start freezing their butts off by about 6 PM. I usually take an extra fleece for them, though... I'm not cruel! So, Tabris, do you currently live in SF? If so, in what capacity? I would appreciate any experience/knowledge with/of the SF financial sector you would care to share.

I use to live in SF, not anymore. As for knowledge/experience regarding the financial sector in SF, I can tell you what I know. What exactly are you interested in knowing? I still know a good amount of people there in that industry but I can honestly tell you that if you do not have the three criteria I mentioned before, it is going to be extremely hard to look for work in SF in the finance sector and even harder in the quantitative finance industry.

ALL 3 of the criteria... or 1 of the 3?Well, maybe I have 1 of the 3, since you still know people in SF Finance You'd put in a good word for me, right? he heHopefully I get into Berkeley, then. I suppose that's my best bet at this point.Other that that... I'm not at all averse to the idea of working in London. That would definitely be an unsurpassable experience.Financial sector in SF: How large is it? How many compnanies/people in this field? How does the work they do compare to that in NYC/London, i.e. is it less cutting edge, less quantitative? How does the lifestyle compare to NYC/London -- more hours/less hours? more competitive/less competitive? faster pace/slower pace? How does the pay compare to NYC/London?Thanks... and perhaps we can grab lunch next time you're in town... meet up with some of your old buddies (if I get into berkeley, of course)