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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?

#51

Post by greenyoda »

araes wrote: post #10

- Public libraries can help with the job search if they offer free internet access - If you don't mind camping, its an extremely cheap way to live, and a gym / YMCA will help before interviews. - If you have any friends / family, ask them if you can crash. Have a friend who lived this way for ages. - If it comes to it, there are often abandoned structures that are reasonable for keeping rain off. Lived in an abandone…

> Send me a msg (email in profile)

FYI, your email is not displayed in your profile. The "email" field in your profile is only visible to the moderators. If you want to publicly share your email address, it needs to be included in the "about" field.

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

#52

Post by bmelton »

bwb wrote: post #40
hackits wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Step 1: Setup a Go Fund me so people can help you out. Number one reason why I don't use Go Fund me. Step 1 should be getting your shit together not relying on other people.

We are supposed to be an American community, not a bunch of people who don't lend a hand when someone makes a misstep or hits a wall. I am disgusted how selfish such a huge chunk of this country has become... half this country can't remember what empathy is, and they have slowly destroyed our social safety net. I want the government to do more to help people in this type of position get back on their feet so that the…

> half this country can't remember what empathy is

Not that I disagree with your overall point, but while I might be being overly sensitive here, I think it's implicit that 9 times out of 10, when someone refers to "half the country", what they mean to say is "the half of the country not affiliated with the political party to which I am affiliated."

Yes, there are selfish people, but largely, that selfishness is not evenly divisible by party line, and the castigation of "the others" should be minimized, in my opinion, as most Americans, left, right, or center, are honestly trying to do what they feel is right.

As it sits, Republicans are statistically quite charitable[1][2], to the point that 9 of the 10 most charitable states are red states.

Yes, perhaps they see a different role for government than you do, and yes, I think that the parent to your comment was indeed acting selfishly, but that doesn't necessarily conflate to partisan beliefs, nor should we attempt to correlate individual behavior to partisan causation.

[1] - https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/19/giving-back-_n_378...

[2] - https://www.nationalreview.com/the-home-front/which-politica...

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

#53

Post by IanDrake »

homelessdev wrote: post #32
bradgnar wrote: post #23

This story does not make sense

which part?

How have you been an engineer for 15 years and still:

- Rent an apartment

- Don’t have a few laptops laying around

- Don’t have any savings while having no kids

Each item above, on its own, is normal but all together doesn’t make sense.

For the last 15 years you should have been making 60-200k and you obviously didn’t sink it into a house, computer hardware, or savings. Where did it all go?

That’s why this doesn’t add up, to me at least.

I’m not saying you’re lying, but that I can’t figure out how you got to this point.

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

#54

Post by scott00 »

If you haven't talked to your landlord, talk to your landlord. If they sent you a summons after three days, I don't have high hopes, but it's worth a shot. Explain your situation and see if there's anything they can do for you. Maybe they'll let you stay until they can rent the place.

Are you someplace you can drive for Uber or Lyft? It's not great money, but you can probably earn enough in the month you have left to buy a cheap laptop and pay for food, a cell phone, and a gym membership after you get evicted, which should improve your ability to keep applying for jobs.

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

#55

Post by bmelton »

There's some good (and other) advice already posted in here, and I can't think of anything to add to that, so I won't belabor the point...

but if you run out of other options, and can find your way to the Annapolis, Maryland area, I've at least got a relatively empty basement that you're welcome to occupy until you get back on your feet.

This would also put you in commuting range to Annapolis, Baltimore, or DC, which are all fairly ripe with job opportunities for talented engineers.

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

#56

Post by scruffyherder »

Luxyadian wrote: post #24

Sorry I am not helping. But 15 years full stack. Sounds at least 15K RMB/month here in China Chengdu. homeless in the USA? Just cannot understand how this would happen. sorry again for not helping. Maybe after you get better, some day in recent years, move to China?

Yeah, there is plenty of English teacher types, if OP has a degree there is always China.

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

#57

Post by mamcx »

- Not have conections with old customers/employers? You could try to ask if wanna some help. Is surprising how often work come from old work... or just people that barely remember you

- Customer support and/or pc maintenaince or similar is seriously in need for a lot of small-medium companies. This can lead to coding very easily. See around where you live and note how many companies are. ALL OF THEM NEED SOMEONE LIKE YOU. Not all of them will say yes, but well, you could try!.

- Do you have other abilities san coding? Having any job look like is more important than having the job you want.

------

I don't know how things are in USA but where I live (Colombia) is kind of easy to survive - and VERY well- selling street food. One time, I make a bit more than my prior jobs selling tasting meat (was not unemployed but wanna get a bit more). I know someone in California that sell spicy food in jars and live very well.

My mother is Chef and have helped some friends in bootstrap a food bussiness around easy-to-made food. One of them, sell Hogao (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogao) in jars and made to support his family just with this. Their situations was even more desperate, for sure.

You could put to advantage you/wife extra amount of time. As my naive understanding of the USA situation, nobody have time!. Can you provide a service like prepare lunch boxes, take care of pets, clean houses, or anything similar?

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

#59

Post by greenyoda »

ggg9990 wrote: post #44

It doesn’t help now, but in the future please do not quit a job because the company is behaving unethically. It will eliminate 80% of employers.

If they're forcing you to do something that you know is criminal (e.g., stealing from a customer, tax fraud, etc.) it's much better to quit your job immediately than to risk going to prison.

If they're not asking you to do something criminal (merely something that you find unethical), start looking for a new job and quit when you have a firm offer lined up.

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

#60

Post by [deleted] »

bwb wrote: post #40
hackits wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Step 1: Setup a Go Fund me so people can help you out. Number one reason why I don't use Go Fund me. Step 1 should be getting your shit together not relying on other people.

We are supposed to be an American community, not a bunch of people who don't lend a hand when someone makes a misstep or hits a wall. I am disgusted how selfish such a huge chunk of this country has become... half this country can't remember what empathy is, and they have slowly destroyed our social safety net. I want the government to do more to help people in this type of position get back on their feet so that the…

[deleted]
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