Melissa Vincent

Doing All Things New York

Melissa Vincent was infatuated with New York, but just couldn't find an apartment here when she moved from LeRoy N.Y., near Rochester, a few years ago. So she settled for Hoboken, N.J., and immediately began doing all the New York things: opera and movies, of course, but she also went to as many Yankee games as she could, and to Broadway shows whenever she could get tickets. Meanwhile, to her surprise, she found herself really liking Hoboken; what's more, she absolutely loved the new job she found last year at Alliance Consulting Group, on the 102nd floor of 1 World Trade Center. As a recruiter, she specialized in locating technical personnel, especially those in the arcane universe of software engineering. Melissa's career was rising quickly, not unlike the elevators that whooshed her to the office every day. ''She truly loved Hoboken,'' said her brother, Matthew, ''but it really wasn't close enough to New York. She wanted to get closer. She was hoping to move in.''