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Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

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Re: Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

#171

Post by [deleted] »

pucke wrote: post #115
morganwilde wrote: post #66

I know the feeling, in fact a little over two years ago I posted something similar on HN and got 0 responses. It’s always empowering to finally acknowledge that there is no safety net. Forget computers and engineering interviews, start looking for any and all work that pays. If all else fails, go to McDonald’s and work there until you save up a little. Once you have an income restart your job search. If you go homele…

"McDonald's" will not hire just anybody. I lived in Seattle for almost 8 months before finding a low-level wage job. The McDonald's argument is what entitled people say to poverty stricken people who are suffering. Also "find an apartment you can afford" is hilarious and patronizing. I make enough money in the industry I have worked in for over a decade to not really be able to afford a 140 square ft efficiency.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

#172

Post by mead5432 »

My wife and I own a catering business in Denver. In the short run, you could do some deliveries. It’s easy work in the short run and pays decent on an hourly wage for a couple hours a day so it wouldn’t keep you from interviews since I t’s only during lunch hours.

That being said, I manage several software engineering teams in Denver around Union Station. Currently, I’m hiring for several positions, mostly server side in Ruby and Node. If you’d like to chat a bit about your experience, I could take you to grab some coffee. If your experience doesn’t really fit with that, I can help provide feedback on how to improve your chances in interviews. Feel free to reach out via the email in my profile (it works... just trying to protect against spam).

Re: Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

#173

Post by tootto »

senorjazz wrote: post #145

> I was 3 days late on my rent this month and now have to appear in court to explain why i haven't paid. I fully expect that to lead to an eviction. wow that's harsh. I own a house in the UK when the tenants lost their job but promised one was lined up. They didn't pay for 2 months, then the tenancy agreement was up and I told the estate agents to not renew it as I cannot afford to pay for these people to live in my…

Just..wow. How did they manage to get the deposit back? I'm sorry for your experinces with assholes. Makes the world a worse place.

Re: Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

#174

Post by DoreenMichele »

I haven't read very much of the answers, just enough to know that a lot of people are not exactly being supportive. I'm a little surprised, though perhaps I should not be, that with 164 comments, apparently no one has hooked you up with any of my websites:

https://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com

https://www.pocketputer.com/p/links.html

http://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com

But let me suggest that it sounds like you still have a little time. It is best to not end up on the street if you can avoid it.

Call 211. Find out what kinds of support are available locally.

Collect recyclables.

Start selling stuff. You probably can't take it all with you anyway. If it helps you make rent, awesome.

The Pocket Puter link includes a link to a Google Doc listing freelancing platforms. I'm having trouble accessing it from my phone, but one of the listings, probably towards the bottom, is for something with Moonlight in the name. It is a YC company. That might work better than Upwork.

Ignore whatever negativity you are getting here. The world is full of classist jerks who think it can't happen to them. It absolutely can happen to anyone.

In spite of all the good news about low unemployment currently, there are still a lot of systemic issues.

Best of luck.

Re: Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

#175

Post by shyn3 »

pucke wrote: post #115
morganwilde wrote: post #66

I know the feeling, in fact a little over two years ago I posted something similar on HN and got 0 responses. It’s always empowering to finally acknowledge that there is no safety net. Forget computers and engineering interviews, start looking for any and all work that pays. If all else fails, go to McDonald’s and work there until you save up a little. Once you have an income restart your job search. If you go homele…

"McDonald's" will not hire just anybody. I lived in Seattle for almost 8 months before finding a low-level wage job. The McDonald's argument is what entitled people say to poverty stricken people who are suffering. Also "find an apartment you can afford" is hilarious and patronizing. I make enough money in the industry I have worked in for over a decade to not really be able to afford a 140 square ft efficiency.

To add to this, if you are applying to McDonalds, try to dumb down your resume so that they don't think you are a flight risk.

I.e. remove really technical stuff and leave high school education.

Re: Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

#177

Post by earenndil »

bwb wrote: post #27
dochench wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is a chromebook not good? Battery life is excellent and if crouton is setup, make an excellent low end dev machine.

its like trying to code on an ipad, it can be done but that doesn't make it the best choice.

You can install a real os (linux or windows) on it, and they tend to be much cheaper than other laptops (the tradeoff is that they have little disc space and a slow processor).

Re: Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

#178

Post by earenndil »

pucke wrote: post #115
morganwilde wrote: post #66

I know the feeling, in fact a little over two years ago I posted something similar on HN and got 0 responses. It’s always empowering to finally acknowledge that there is no safety net. Forget computers and engineering interviews, start looking for any and all work that pays. If all else fails, go to McDonald’s and work there until you save up a little. Once you have an income restart your job search. If you go homele…

"McDonald's" will not hire just anybody. I lived in Seattle for almost 8 months before finding a low-level wage job. The McDonald's argument is what entitled people say to poverty stricken people who are suffering. Also "find an apartment you can afford" is hilarious and patronizing. I make enough money in the industry I have worked in for over a decade to not really be able to afford a 140 square ft efficiency.

"Just go to mcdonalds" may not necessarily be a strong argument, but "look for any job, not just a cs/eng job" definitely is.

Re: Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

#179

Post by skinnymuch »

senorjazz wrote: post #145

> I was 3 days late on my rent this month and now have to appear in court to explain why i haven't paid. I fully expect that to lead to an eviction. wow that's harsh. I own a house in the UK when the tenants lost their job but promised one was lined up. They didn't pay for 2 months, then the tenancy agreement was up and I told the estate agents to not renew it as I cannot afford to pay for these people to live in my…

How did they win their deposit back with that situation?

Re: Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

#180

Post by protonimitate »

homelessdev wrote: post #104

Apparently my post has been flagged for some reason. I attempted to post the following last night but kept getting a message that I was posting too fast: Questions / answers thus far: there's been a lot of good advice in this thread thus far and a few understandable questions. I'm going to answer them all here as I can no longer edit the main thread. first off, great suggestions - some of these were already on my min…

I'm a little late to the post but wanted to add - if your car is eligible look into signing up for uber/lyft. Also look into task rabbit/wag or their equivalents if you can. Won't be a ton of money, but at least with uber/lyft you can be up and driving within two weeks with the option to 'cash out' each day's earnings (overnight transfer to your bank account).

The flexible hours are great to work around interviews and you can make enough to feed yourself and find a place to stay.

Good luck.

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