As someone who has been on both sides of the table (an employee living outside of NYC and looking to move and a hiring manager in NYC who has received applications from remote candidates), it's way easier to get hired if you live in the area.

There are a few reasons for this (smaller companies don't want to risk flying you in and it not working out, longer interview process, recruiters limiting searches to a geographic area), but my advice would be to just take the plunge and move here without a gig. My partner and I made the jump that way many years ago and had new jobs within weeks. I don't think we're special, it's just a testament to how valuable tech sector is in NYC at the moment and how limited the talent pool really is.

You have a very employable set of skills and the market in NYC is great at the moment, so this is a low risk move.

One would think if the talent pool were limited they’d be more responsive to those outside the area

I was worried about this when I first moved to NYC. I got in touch with a placement company, had an intro chat, and told them I'd be in NYC for a certain week. They lined up 4 interviews for me.

I very much enjoyed forcing a timetable on possible employers, as I got choices all at the same time.

I don't always enjoy recruiters. In this case, mine was very valuable!

I moved to NYC 3 years ago with no job and have managed to make it through freelancing, contract and regular part time work, but it has certainly been harder than I thought it would to find full time work.

The city is expensive and there is a lot of competition from recent graduates as well as talented people attracted to the magnetic island at the center of the world.

It does feel like a constant race, but the city is full of art and inspiration and I have learned and grown a lot here and recommend coming for the experience, even if you decide to leave afterwards.

E.B. White’s Here is New York still applies: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10814.Here_Is_New_York

—Designer with some full stack experience (HTML/CSS/Python/Django)

you haven't found a full-time role in 3 years?? i want to move back to NYC from Boston next year, but i'd prefer to have something lined up before doing so

– designer as well

I haven't had any problems getting leads in NYC from SF. I don't tailor my resume in any way.

One thing to consider is that it's a bigger bet than trying to recruit someone that's a little more local. They'd have to fly you out and it's not uncommon for people to say they want to move, but then decide it's not for them after going through the entire interview pipeline.

Larger companies are more willing to take on this risk, so if you're only applying for smaller ones, that might be a reason why you're not hearing back.

Try this: find a recruiter at the companies that you want to apply for on LinkedIn and message them directly. Convey both your interest in working for their company and your desire to be in NYC.

NYC has a lot of java based jobs. Some python, very few ruby ones (compared to the Bay Area at least). It isn't so easy finding certain types of jobs in NYC.

To chime in from the employers perspective, we've found it hard to find full-stack web developers in NYC with more than a years' experience in a dynamic language (we use ruby, but are happy to train people on the specific stack). There's a lot of talent at the recent boot camp grad level and experienced folks in finance. Would love any tips on attracting solid mid-senior talent in NYC.

First, what does your careers page look like? Sometimes the job description is unclear or you might be filtering out qualified people. Second, mid-senior is really tough to hire for, I just experienced it first-hand while hiring for my last employer. Regardless of experience level, you are forced to compete on two fronts: interesting work, or high compensation. Mid-senior devs can afford to be very picky and if something seems a little bit off, they'll look elsewhere.

Have you partnered yet with a recruiting company? I personally just went through TripleByte and they could use a few more NYC partners. They do their own pre-selection of candidates to save everyone involved a lot of time. Another good one is FunctionalWorks. Meetups are also pretty good for making organic connections with higher-quality devs. Every time I go to a tech meetup at least 3 or 4 employers are represented and hiring.

Our careers page is https://www.sevenfifty.com/careers/full_stack, but we really only use it as a link our team members can send personal referrals. Our main pipelines are Hired, Vettery, HN who's hiring post, recruiters, and referrals. Posting on job boards has historically never led to anyone stellar and a disproportionate number of candidates who couldn't pass fizzbuzz.

Recruiters have been a mixed bag. They're very time consuming, but tend to have better access to people who are currently employed and passively looking, which is where most of the best mid-senior people are.

I've done some speaking at meetups and we made a junior hire off of one. I've found the more niche meetups to be more likely to have stronger people, the more general web / rails / ruby ones are dominated by recent boot camp grads looking for their first gig (nothing against those people, we hire them, but we also desire more senior people too).

HN's who's hiring has been great for finding sharp junior people with high potential.

The job description is to-the-point and doesn't ask for anything out of the ordinary. Other than mentioning a CS degree, I give it two-thumbs up.

Hiring is definitely a tough nut to crack. Personal referrals are by far the best source to get solid people quickly, but it's also a finite pool. Recruiters are definitely a mixed bag. I would suggest also sending a representative to a job fair (face-to-face still works!). It sounds like you're doing the best you can besides creating some really unique opportunity.

We had some luck bringing in people interested in functional programming, but ended up having to go heavy on junior devs since that's what's easy to hire for. We had some mid-level and a couple senior people which were hard to come by.

It's going to be a grind no matter how you approach it. All I can suggest is to make a really compelling offer, technologically, financially, or otherwise. Also consider finding older developers interested in part-time or remote work.

>what does your careers page look like?

This also applies to all the companies in general. If a company uses Applicant Tracking Systems like Taleo, Workday you can rest assured anyone with an existing job would not apply. It's really time consuming.

Also, mid-senior is definitely rare, like it means they have a good job already and unless there are really good perks like flexible WFH etc apart from the compensation, it's definitely hard.

We're in NY and looking for full stack engineers w/experience in Python, and remote is an option

I moved from Australia to NYC, the one trick I worked out was changing my location on LinkedIn prior to the move. You'll show up on all the recruiters radars then (if that's what you want).

I'd be happy to talk with you, my company is always keen to speak with talented engineers.

Maybe change your LinkedIn location to NYC? I read this tip somewhere but have not tried it myself.

ping me, my firm is probably looking to hire soon and looking for full stack engineers, we are based in NYC