41–50 of 182 posts
Find a church - neither too big nor too small. Introduce yourself as someone willing to do assist with the IT/ secretarial / etc. in exchange for warm food and a shelter bed. Churches have very large networks. When you get on your feet, and you will, remember who helped you survive.
that might work in the US, but in Europe churches are poor and mostly attended by old ladies with networks of other old ladies.
But times have changed and I very much doubt that would work any more.
However, now there is Upwork (and several other similar). If you can meet the basics with that: a bank account, a network connection, a laptop, a basic understanding of PHP and enough Google Fu to understand a Stack Overflow answer, etc, then you can actually make some money there. It's not very interesting, but it does pay money.
I cannot promise anything but I’m in the Utrecht area and would be more than happy to give you some advice face to face or potentially help you somehow with projects if there is a fit. Do you have an email address to reach you?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
that might work in the US, but in Europe churches are poor and mostly attended by old ladies with networks of other old ladies.
so what? Old ladies can be warm and very helpful too
What is your actual background; - did you study - how much coding experience do you have - which languages - what types of jobs are you applying for - do you have a smartphone (is there not something like https://postmates.com/ in Netherlands) - do you have friends or family who have jobs in businesses (or their own businesses) - Etc
I have an HNC in Computing from the UK - basically a vocational pre-university qualification. It's not amazingly useful. Shortly after achieving that a lot of mental health stuff popped up which derailed things for a few years, so uni wasn't a thing. I've been coding for a very long time, and am a polyglot - Python, Go, javascript on both frontend and backend, bash. Current project is largely Go+Python+bash. Previous…
Say you worked in a cafe for many years, then learnt programming, then show them some projects you’ve done (simple websites etc) and attempt to get an entry level job. I know many people who found entry level jobs this way.
But let me reiterate what a previous poster said: try to find a church. Offer them IT support. Ask them about their network. They often help the homeless: eating restaurant/cafe food wastage together, giving away clothes donations.
If nothing else, you may find a friendly ear, and people who value community. Your own religious beliefs or lack thereof do not matter.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It feels like you could easily pick up any entry level dev job? HN would always surprise me. Don't underestimate the extreme prejudice in tech hiring. Everyone's looking out for "red flags" and excuses to turn down a candidate. It's especially bad if you don't have either 1) recent, relevant education, or 2) recent, relevant industry experience. Open source participation might save you but not as often as you'd thi…
Als being homeless is a huge red flag for any job. It's a nasty spiral.
The local Golang meetup has a "20 seconds for anyone to say anything" spot. If someone turned up there and said "I know Go and I'm looking for a job, but I'm homeless can anyone help?" then I'm damn sure someone would.
So now since temp agencies are not hiring. Go gangster. Look at the nearest biz getting customer complaints. If you can stop the customer complaints than talk to the owner and sell him or her on hiring you even if its few hours a week. Should work as they have an immediate pain problem they want to go away.
I hope it helps and please talk to more people and ask for help.
That’s a bit surprising given that the Netherlands has a generous social system. I’ll try as a first step to ask and look for government organizations that could potentially help and give you free stuff. Next, I’ll drop tech for a while. I’ll look for any job that has low or no barrier to entries. Washing cars, cleaning carpets, collecting garbage, etc... These are jobs with little barriers to entry and that will hav…
The Netherlands has a generous social system that I can't access because I'm not actually from here. It happens to be the last place I was in when I was told I didn't have a home or money any more. Going "home" is kinda pointless - there's not actually any support in the UK for people like me, so I'd be sleeping rough there quickly anyway.
Then any reason why you are there? Are you allowed to legally work in the Netherlands.
> there's not actually any support in the UK for people like me
I'm pretty sure there is. 2/3 of British families receive some kind of benefits in Britain. You might have to ask for it. I also suspect there is more to this story (like do you have something serious in your records).
I'd go to the British Embassy, ask them to get me to the UK, present myself to the government and ask for any help. Then proceed to the plan outlined previously.
Heck, I'm from Tunisia, an almost non-functional and bankrupt country and the government does have some benefits (like food, basic medical care) for the really in need.
Even not immediate family. I know that I would take in a cousin that needed help for a while Even if asking is really hard.
Which city are you currently in?
Rotterdam.