Metro byte with Bobby Rivers "Tech careers"

I'm on the job with Cameraman Bob. How you doing tonight, Bob? Doing okay? Yes, he is. How you doing, people? Got a question for you. All right, I'm under 25, I wear black, I hang out downtown, and I'm king of the world. Who am I? Nope, not Leonardo DiCaprio. I am your average success story on Silicon Alley. How you doing, people? I'm Bobby Rivers, and this is the Learning Center on MSG Metro. And tonight on Metro Careers, we're talking about Silicon Alley. Where the heck is it? Can I get a job on it? I hear it's kind of the easy street of the late '90s. Now, someone who's hooked into the internet and Silicon Alley is a prize Pulitzer. She's going to be in here to talk to us all about it. First up, I wanna know where is Silicon Alley? So I took that question to the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, Long Island, and asked a few people there where it is. Silicon Alley, is that something you put in the breasts?

An area where a lot of people live with silicone implants, I don't know. It sounds like a TV show.

Maybe somewhere in Hollywood where the plastic surgeons work. It's like what Silicon Valley is to California, Silicon Alley is to New York. I told you I was going to be here with a prize Pulitzer, and I am. Here she is right over here, the totally gorgeous, totally intelligent, and too cool Courtney Pulitzer, who is the top woman of @NewYork. It's a newsletter, isn't it?

Yes, it is.

It sure is. How are you doing tonight?

Good, how are you doing?

I'm pretty well. Did you, did you get any pizza from the last show?

Not yet.

Oh, here, here, I'm gonna—

Thank you.

I'll just break it off. A little treat.

Here, knock yourself out, have a slice of this. Alright, let's talk about stuff. Listen, if you want to join in the conversation, but the pizza is just for Courtney, it's not for you, you can call us up at 1-877-MSG, MetroFax us at 1-877-MetroFax, and you see the Learning Center email address, you can use that, maybe get something over here to us. On email. We are talking about Silicon Alley. Where is it?

Well, Silicon Alley is a few different sections—

Eat me!

Eat me, Courtney!

Eat me!

Eat me!

Okay.

Okay. Hocus! It's in a few different areas in New York, starting with pretty much the Flatiron District, which is like in the 23rd Street to 18th Street region, and then between like 5th Avenue and 6th Avenue, and then it scoots down to SoHo, which is south of So the N and the R line run right down there? You can take the N and the R line right through New York from 23rd Street down to Wall Street and you'll be hitting most all of Silicon Alley.

How long has Silicon Alley— we know of Silicon Valley, that's in California. Now Silicon Alley here in New York, how long has it been in existence?

Well, it's been in existence pretty much since the internet industry started revving up in New York, which I would say is about 4 years ago.

Okay.

So that's when people started first coining the term and people started latching on to that and using it.

Now where can you find Silicon Alley jobs on the web? And feel free to use any of this if you want to.

Okay, great. There's a few easy places. The first place to find Silicon Alley jobs would be this great website called siliconalleyjobs.com.

Alright.

So it's nice and easy to remember that because that's the place you're going, right, and what you want. So there's, um, all these different categories. So even if you don't necessarily have a lot of computer expertise, you could get a job as a designer doing graphics and images for a website, or you could get a job as a writer. You can get a job in marketing or sales if you want to help sell for a company or a product. So there's all sorts of areas that are open for people to get jobs.

Now, for any of the viewers watching right now who are not yet internet savvy, what is a web What is a web designer?

Well, a web designer is someone who puts together different elements. It's basically like putting together a brochure, but instead of sending it to a printer, it's going to go— it's going to actually stay in your computer. Most people today are designing in computers, or if you're designing on paper, it's going to get transferred anyway at some point. So a website and a web designer would be working on the computer with a graphic program, and then they would just be saving their work there, and then through different, um, programs they would send that file to another computer where it would be living.

What about a web producer? What is a web producer?

A producer will put together all these elements and sort of lay out the page. They'll take the copy from the copywriter or the writer, they'll take the graphics or images from the graphic designer or the web designer, and they help layout the page. Sometimes they'll come up with the structure of the website.

Got it.

But, um, you know, what sections do you have, where do they live, and how do you get around the website.

Can we go to another page of this?

Certainly. Let's see, I think we've got another good one here, which is, um, it's called Silicon Alley Connections.

Okay.

And this—

Job listings?

Yes.

Ah, the pizza's gone. Oh, you're so close and yet so far. Well, the crew deserves to have some.

Yes, they do. They all work hard.

Speaking of job listings, about job listings, what are Silicon Alley Cats looking for when they're hiring?

Well, for right now, they're looking for people who just have strong skills in whatever area they have an interest or expertise in. So of course, computer skills help, and being familiar with the technology and the terminology for this industry helps. But what people really want is someone who's got a lot of skill or experience or even just a lot of enthusiasm if they're a recent graduate in a particular area. So if you've just graduated from college in design, that's great, you know, you can— and most people are being trained in these, the new technologies now anyway. But they really want someone who just is really familiar and very good in what they're doing to begin with.

Okay, here's somebody who's familiar with Metro Careers. I'm here with Courtney Pulitzer and Melissa. Melissa is on the phone right now. Melissa, are you calling from Brooklyn?

Yes, I am. Hi, Bobby.

Hey, Melissa, how are you doing?

Good, I love the show.

Thank you, I love you too for watching the show. What channel are you watching us on in Brooklyn?

Um, it is Channel 56.

Well, thank you. Okay, what's your question for Courtney Pulitzer?

Um, well, I'm just out of college and I'm really interested in getting into this field, but what's the first step that I could take?

Well, the first step I would say is to get online if you're not already. And there are several ways you can do that. Um, there's local, um, internet service providers. Those are companies that will help you get your computer wired so that you can dial into the internet. Um, if— there's also national providers like AOL. Um, they'll also have a very easy way for you to get online. And once you're there, then you— the whole world opens up to you, and you can really start exploring and visiting different websites and finding places where you can find a job, learn more about the industry.

Does that help you out, Melissa?

Yes, it does.

Melissa, don't leave the show because coming up in our next segment, joining Courtney is going to be a Silicon Alley headhunter, and that'll help you out tomorrow, right?

Yes, thanks.

Okay, thank you, and thank you for watching us on Channel 56. Listen folks, if you want to join in the conversation like Melissa just did, again the numbers are 1-877-MSG-METRO, the fax number is 877-METRO-FAX, and you can email me at the learning address you see on your screen right now. Metro Careers continues Talking about Silicon Valley, where are the jobs on Silicon Valley? I think we're going to find out a good number of them when Metro Careers continues after a short break.