Congratulations! Depending on where is your company and your own situation, you can find many places to live around NYC. You can consider Newport/Exchange Place/Hoboken area in Jersey City, New Jersey. It is very convenient to NYC (either 33rd street or World Trade Center). A train called PATH (google it, please) takes 5~15 minutes to take you from New Jersey to center of NYC, from where you can easily take subway to anywhere you like. You can also consider White Plains of New York state. It takes 30 minutes from white plains to grand central. If you want to buy a house, there may be a good choice. How about live in NYC? If you are really in-the-money, you can try this definitely. Monthly rent is from $1500 for a fair place close to wall street. Plus you need pay city tax, which may amount to a big chunk payment each month. Queens and Brooklyn are choices too. For new quants, you are recommended to live as close to the company as possible, since you have to get up earlier and get home late. Why not save some time in travel? Remember, time is not renewable and you cannot earn time by working hard. Don't forget to enjoy the life while make money. You will appreciate this when you get older. A good place to search housing information is the website called: craigslist.com.

IAFE: The International Association of Financial Engineers is the professional society dedicated to the quantitative finance.

It's very limited. If you are a Ph.D., you will normally become associate in a bank, then vice predient (VP), then senior VP. It's very difficult for quant to become manger director. Your title may stuck as a senior quant but your salary may increase with your experience. Alternatively, you can go to hedge funds after several years at bank. They usually offer much better return for your hardwork.