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My Story as a Homeless Developer

medium.com

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Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#151
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could have just purchased a UK phone number, couldn’t you?

The company could still figure out that he can't attend an on site interview and he's in Russia. By the way, Russia is a particularly bad choice. Russians are not permitted to work in London, it's outside of Europe and there is no immigration agreement. The resume won't survive the first pass from HR.

I don't think that's true. In my experience there are many Russians moving to London for software positions. The parent is also not Russian from what I understand.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't wait until the MTA gets so bad that people tell me, "you take the subway? sorry, we're not interested." But in some sense, having a reliable vehicle is a microcosm of a particular location and mindset. Nobody I know owns a car. We still mostly get to work on time, though.

He's in Iowa. In these midwest states (Nebraska for me), public transportation is very scarce. Most jobs out here require we own a car, or have some way to reliably get to work. Most of the time that does not involve public transportation in any way.

Does everyone have a driver's license there? In France none of my friends (and I) have one and we never really needed one.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#153
post #83
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sound pretty out of touch. In Iowa there is an enormous agriculture industry - an industry not known for asking a lot of personal questions about origin or current status. If you can show up and do the work (and maybe pass a drug test), you're hired. And often paid cash. Outside of agriculture, there are the usual suspects. Bars, restaurants, cleaning jobs, roofing, painting, other forms of low skill construction…

The implication is that the majority of homeless are just lazy, yea? Just pick apples! I've been exactly there. You're not making minimum wage when you show up to the farm to pick apricots all day. Bars - need a bartender license. Yes, you do, nobody is risking it in 2018. Restaurants, sure, but again, you're not making minimum wage, and if you whiff of hobo you're not working front of house and getting tips. Cleanin…

The majority of homeless aren't lazy. Instead, a whole lot of them have severe mental issues, causing them to be incapable of holding a job.

You also missed a large category of jobs, which is retail. And most people working retail are not immigrants. All you need to do is be reasonably presentable for these jobs.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#154
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Screwing up in the past and having bad credit would make it nearly impossible to rent a home. You generally need good credit and deposit money. With a high income you could have the deposit but it won't fix your credit. If you have a high income at least you can get into AirBnBs or hotels, because they don't do credit checks.

Many hotels (the ones I would want to stay in) require a credit card with your name on it, which is a credit check. Many accept debit cards too with your name on it, but I assume opening a bank account also involved a credit check.

If you have a high income it's pretty easy to get a secured credit card or a debit card though.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#155

This article makes no sense to me. It feels like there is something wrong with this dude and he still hasn't figured out what yet. I guess this article is for soliciting pity. But his real story seems extremely juicy. He should write about the details there. All of the interesting decisions and events that got him to where he is was glossed over in this article. "My interest in computers and programming was more like…

I am thankful for your response. The longer story would be fairly juicy, I guess. I want to write more on it but it is painful and I am embarrassed by many decisions that I have made. I've been to jail several times for activism and for someone else, for example...but I've never been because I did something considered immoral, I guess is the right way to put it. I want to write on these things and your response motiv…

>I want to write on these things and your response motivates me to do that.

I would caution you not to. What goes on the internet stays there forever. Google will fight your right to be forgotten. Real names are a great way to attract batty twitter haters who want to ruin your life due to some perceived slight from reading your stories. You can easily go from pity story of the day to "ZOMG I hope you never get a job and die in the streets" in just a few words on this board. Be wary.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#156
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in CA there is literally no such thing as a 'bartending license'. The requirements for getting a job as a bartender in california start and stop at convincing a bar owner to let you tend their bar.

I was there for a bit and I got carded in almost every bar I went. They are very anal with it.

Yea, you'll get asked for ID to prove you're of drinking age.

That's totally different than some kind of state proctored or recognized bartending exam that a bartender must have passed in order to work at the bar.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#157
post #88

So it sounds like you'd rather be homeless and not lie to others than stay in the religious-affiliated shelter and lie to them about your belief. Have you thought about this deeply? Seems like perhaps the experience of being kicked out by grandma because of your atheism has perhaps poisoned religion to you to the extent that now you're so headstrong about denying it that you are missing a huge opportunity to get some…

It seems wrong that faith-funded organizations are allowed to discriminate based on religious belief. This also seems like a different scenario than, say, paying for birth control.

> It seems wrong that faith-funded organizations are allowed to discriminate based on religious belief.

Not that I think it's morally acceptable for faith-funded charities to turn away some people based on their lack of faith, but:

a) Individuals acting on their own founded and run the organization. It would be a violation of several important rights (theirs) for a government to regulate how they choose to run their charity, or whom they choose to help.

b) I have a hunch that a lot of these anecdotes attribute discrimination incorrectly -- i.e. I suspect the person in question was more than "not a believer". People who get turned away because they're chronically abusing the system (or for similar reasons) tend to infer malice where there is none, and level accusations accordingly.

That being said, I strongly disagree with any open-to-the-public charitable organization discriminating on the basis of religion or any other categorization, beyond the "this person is abusing the system and we don't want to hurt them further by continuing to enable this destructive pattern in their life -- so we can't provide further X to them until they do Y and Z".

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#158
post #32

I was 'homeless' for a few months (in the sense that I didn't have a home) but for most of that time I had a high enough income that I could afford to stay in AirBnBs. It was a scary experience. At one point I had lost my job, I was about $6000 in debt, in a foreign country, with a 'dependent' spouse (also without job) and I only had about $1000 left on my credit card. When I hear entrepreneurs talk about how much th…

No house and staying in Airbnb’s isn’t “homeless.”

I think what differentiates hopping between airbnbs and being homeless is whether you have the financial means to live in more stable conditions. Living in Airbnb’s could mean you’re a luxury traveler spending $100k+ year on accommodation or it could mean you can only pay for shelter on a day to day basis (ie you hustle for cash every day, convert it to some electronic format, and pay rent on a daily basis). There’s also the case where you can afford a 1room Airbnb in an area but not rent, which I also wouldn’t call homelessness

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#159

Hey Jesse, I'm also formerly homeless, and now the cofounder of https://LambdaSchool.com (YC S17). We have a nonprofit fund designed specifically to help out homeless software engineers looking for a job. I'd love to put you in a cheap airbnb or apartment, hook you up with Lambda School's career services team who will help review your resume, get your github and portfolio in shape, practice interviewing, and help you…

Could I recommend someone? I made a comment below about Mani, whom I met when I was volunteering at our local library.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#160

Hey Jesse, I'm also formerly homeless, and now the cofounder of https://LambdaSchool.com (YC S17). We have a nonprofit fund designed specifically to help out homeless software engineers looking for a job. I'd love to put you in a cheap airbnb or apartment, hook you up with Lambda School's career services team who will help review your resume, get your github and portfolio in shape, practice interviewing, and help you…

Could I recommend someone? I made a comment below about Mani, whom I met when I was volunteering at our local library.

Just saw the comment. Can you send me more details about him, and we can figure out the best way to help him? austen@lambdaschool.com.

Seems like he has housing, but I'll do anything I can to help someone who has enough hustle to be at a library all the time.

Easiest might be that we provide a computer, internet, and can give him self-paced access to our course archives (normally reserved for student review).

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