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My Story as a Homeless Developer

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Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#181

Post by fouc »

Hi Jesse,

I want to recommend two books for you to read. One is about developing your monetary power. The other is about developing your career capital.

"Early Retirement Extreme" by Jacob Lund Fisker.

"So Good They Can't Ignore You" by Cal Newport.

You might be homeless right now because you haven't been protecting your personal power. The personal power to command a good salary. The personal power of having money in the bank.

You might have been giving away your power and depending on other people. Try to watch out for that.

The more you build your career capital, and the more you build your bank capital, the more free you'll be.

Imagine having money in the bank that lets you walk away from a shitty job. Imagine having the savings that lets you take a few months to find a new & better job.

We know you have skills. Your linkedin profile could be improved, some more detail on what you did at each job, and include some of your portfolio in there.

You can find work on upwork.com or other sites. Setup a profile on there, set your hourly rate at $20/hr, and start from there. On your profile, highlight the fact that you're in Iowa and fluent in english.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#182

Post by jakeinsf »

justinclift wrote: post #143
DoreenMichele wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These two claims conflict: You can disagree without offering a solution. Your parade isn't as important as OP's predicament. You and the other commenter are offering nothing of help to the OP. Your entire focus is on taking me down for some reason. Meanwhile, my opening comment offered actual resources to try to help the OP. If you think that addressing his problem is the most important thing here, then you could do…

Hmmm, my reading of Scarface's comment was that it's more just trying to be constructive "He'll need to work out the mental health issues too..." kind of thing, rather than negging your comment. But, maybe I just need more coffee. :)

I think this is a perfect illustration of what happens.

The (mentally ill) person does something which they intend as a benefit and people react. The (mentally ill) person feels attacked, often where no attack was intended.

This is the problem that needs to be addressed, as has been stated.

The reason (mentally ill) people don't have jobs is because they can't keep them, due to their illness, not that they can't find them.

I'm not trying to attack anyone in this thread by using the term mentally ill.

I suffer from something that has been variously diagnosed as aspergers/bipolar/borderline/crazy/mentally ill and I understand this pattern completely.

I was homeless for 3 months when I lost my job because of problems interacting with other employees. I seem to be too sensitive or maybe I'm imagining slights. Whatever the cause, the result is I have serious problems maintaining any relationships with anyone, even my family members.

I can be highly functioning for months at a time and I did have a 10 year relationship with someone, so I'm not beyond help and I'm not an awful person (though I feel like one despite my best efforts at positive affirmations!) but something seems to build inside me until it erupts in a stream of negativity that most people would rather not have to deal with, and so they don't.

My parents were both alcoholics, so I'm sure that is part of it, but being a slave 8 hours a day is very difficult for me, and always has been.

I'm 54 years old and on the verge of homelessness again after working IBM and Intel, among other industry giants.

There is no safety net in the US for unmarried males without dependents. It is assumed we are immune to struggles and should be able to lift ourselves up by our bootstraps.

I applaud the efforts of people like AustenAllred who are attempting to find market solutions to problems like homelessness. Bravo!

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#183

Post by CM30 »

gigel82 wrote: post #76
jriot wrote: post #44

Sounds like you never learned how to do anything outside of coding. There is more to succeeding in life than being able to code.

Have you looked at the GitHub profile? Don't want to be harsh, but it looks like he never really learned how to code either, which is kind-of sad. I'm not a stickler for education, but there's something to be said for at least finishing highschool; you learn how to learn if nothing else.

It's a bit basic yes, but I wouldn't say it showed he never learned to code or what not. I mean, not everyone posts all their work on GitHub or similar services, and quite a few developers don't even have a portfolio of any kind.

Someone's GitHub presence isn't necessarily a good judge of their skill as a developer, nor how much experience they've had in general.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#184

Post by lozaning »

isaiahg wrote: post #165
lozaning wrote: post #105

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.

Even if there's no license, there no way someone can just walk into a bar and get a bartending job. I should know, I went to bartending school. Bartenders are almost always hired from lower level employees. Usually you start by cleaning tables, then you work your way up to a barback, and then you can move up as a bartender.

Hence my caveat about needing to convince a bar owner to let you be a bartender. Never said it was easy, just that there is no such thing as a bartenders license.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#185

Post by jakeinsf »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #60
scarface74 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You said I was raining on “your parade.” I admitted that I had no resources on mental illness. The best I could do was Google it. Getting him another job is just dealing with the symptoms. He had a job, a car,a place to stay etc. and lost it all because of the emotional issues he admitted that he had. Why would things be any different this time without dealing with the underlying issues? I’m not judging him any more…

You were raining my parade. It's an expression. It doesn't mean I commented in order to make things about me, but you are crapping all over my advice instead of offering help yourself. This is in no way a useful comment, for anyone. No, you aren't judging him. You are merely condemning him to a no win situation. This is done all too often to both mentally ill people and homeless people. What would be different is tha…

I thank you for your list and I find it very helpful for my own personal job search at this moment. You are right to defend yourself against what you perceive as raining on your parade. But I would also caution you to pause before responding to apparent criticism and try to see the situation from their point of view. It is this "empathizing" that is so difficult for people on the autism spectrum, but we have to develop it in order to survive in this world.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#186

Post by da02 »

austenallred wrote: post #140

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…

What was David's education and career before entering Lambda School? What languages or frameworks does he use now for his job? Are any of the graduates working remotely or do most SW jobs require going to a daily office?

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#187

Post by DoreenMichele »

jakeinsf wrote: post #185
DoreenMichele wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You were raining my parade. It's an expression. It doesn't mean I commented in order to make things about me, but you are crapping all over my advice instead of offering help yourself. This is in no way a useful comment, for anyone. No, you aren't judging him. You are merely condemning him to a no win situation. This is done all too often to both mentally ill people and homeless people. What would be different is tha…

I thank you for your list and I find it very helpful for my own personal job search at this moment. You are right to defend yourself against what you perceive as raining on your parade. But I would also caution you to pause before responding to apparent criticism and try to see the situation from their point of view. It is this "empathizing" that is so difficult for people on the autism spectrum, but we have to devel…

I'm not on the autism spectrum.

Best of luck in finding solutions that work for you. :)

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#188

Post by jakeinsf »

baby wrote: post #152
holtalanm wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, pretty much the only places in America that you can survive without a car are New York and San Francisco, but who can afford the rents? I lived in Honolulu for several years and took the bus to work there, but it worked because I had a reverse commute and because the island is small and the ocean prevents expansion in several directions, the bus routes pretty much only run in two directions, which makes commuting possible, whereas in Chicago you would probably have to take a bus and then a train and then change trains to get to work and that would add up to about two hours commute each way each day - a deal breaker for me.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#189

Post by jakeinsf »

chrisseaton wrote: post #175
holtalanm wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So how do for example blind people who cannot drive find work?

A better question is "What jobs can blind people do?"

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#190

Post by jakeinsf »

paxys wrote: post #6
anothergoogler wrote: post #3

> The calls usually go something like this. > Me: “First thing, is I am looking for a remote position just long enough to allow me to save for a vehicle.” > Recruiter: “Sure. spends 20 minutes gathering as much information about me as they can ” > Recruiter: “We’d love to move forward with a position but you do not have a vehicle and the position requires you to have reliable transportation.” Why would do you that? T…

Or maybe driving to different locations is part of the job requirements?

Most jobs in the states ask if you own a car because if you don't then the likelihood is that you will either be late for work because of unreliable public transportation, or you would miss work because the person who is giving you a ride can't do it every day. So if you don't have a vehicle, you simply aren't hired because they predict you'll cause them problems.
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