It depends on your preferences, but if you can afford it, my recommendation would be to live in Manhattan (below 100th St) somewhere close-ish to where you work when you first move here, even if that means compromising with a smaller/less nice apartment than you could get in Jersey City or the outer boroughs.
It's hard to find a great apartment if you don't already live in NYC and know what you're looking for, so you'll probably only be in your first apartment for 1 year anyway. Living in Manhattan will give you a central base to explore the city, get to know your transportation options, and make trips to other neighborhoods around the city that you might be interested in moving to. You will also avoid locking yourself into a commute that might be longer/more variable/more miserable than you might originally understand.
At the end of your year in Manhattan, you'll be able to make a more informed choice about whether to stay, or to "upgrade" to a nicer place in Brooklyn, Queens, uptown Manhattan, Jersey City, or even the suburbs.
This is great advice, thank you! Not something that's in the works for the next year or two but long term I think it's a good career move. And I'm close enough (~3-3.5 hour drive) that it's not as huge of a change as moving across the country to SF or something.
It's hard to find a great apartment if you don't already live in NYC and know what you're looking for, so you'll probably only be in your first apartment for 1 year anyway. Living in Manhattan will give you a central base to explore the city, get to know your transportation options, and make trips to other neighborhoods around the city that you might be interested in moving to. You will also avoid locking yourself into a commute that might be longer/more variable/more miserable than you might originally understand.
At the end of your year in Manhattan, you'll be able to make a more informed choice about whether to stay, or to "upgrade" to a nicer place in Brooklyn, Queens, uptown Manhattan, Jersey City, or even the suburbs.