Yes, I was there as a single guy, age 29, 1983-1992 (returned to Oz with fiance for 4 years, had a baby, then went back to NY where baby would have more family there than here...she just finished 2nd year College...interestingly, for Fed Watchers, former Fed Pres. Kocherlakita is now Econ. Prof at her College in Upstate NY. I've tried to persuade here to get to know him, and get whatever info to pass to me before NFP and other critical meetings.
I tried to exploit NYC for all it had to offer, culturally (member of the great museums, Film Soc. of Lincoln Center etc., rock music (the much lamented Lone Star Cafe), intellectually, (singles) bars, whatever....
To this day, I still subscribe hard-copy to The New Yorker and the NYRB (and Foreign Affairs - I once went to a panel discussion at CFR - very influential institution).
My work was in IT, database management to be precise, (IBM mainframe, then mid-range Linux), for the major Fin Institutions - household names - historically the biggest users of IT (now it's GOOG, FB etc that manage the gigantic quantities of data, probably more than the big banks).
NYC is many things (fashion, centre of art world etc.), but its' drive by "FIRE" - Finance, Insurance, Real Estate and ...I was in the 1st and 2nd.
Last Fin. Client was Lehman in 2007 (reading a book about their demise this minute) in Jersey City (aka "Wall St. West", across the Hudson River), and the very last NYPD for IBM - Real Time Crime Center "Data Warehouse", visited by many Police Forces from around the country, and world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Time_Crime_Center
Also interesting was SIAC - Securities Information Automation Corp...did all the IT for NYSE and the AMEX..."TradeWorks" a new, highly redundant system for floor traders with hand held Linux devices to place orders (also with IBM)
https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/7459.wss
