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My Story as a Homeless Developer

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Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#271

Post by gaius »

justaaron wrote: post #254
eric_b wrote: post #24

As the author discovered, reliable transportation and a permanent residence are often prerequisites for many office jobs. However, I do know that in Iowa there are many other kinds of jobs, lots of which would pay a wage sufficient to get back on one's feet, and have more lenient requirements. Perhaps the author needs to get any job vs. a programming job? Establishing a place to live, getting consistent income, and t…

I disagree. 1) the author is a programmer. programming pays better than most jobs. 2) the vast majority of jobs will vet for the same "stability indicators" and may even be more of sticklers than the culturally lassez-faire tech industry, which introduced casual fridays to the world. 3) did I mention the superior remuneration for programming jobs versus stacking boxes at Amazon.com warehouses or UPS? I doubt that the…

the culturally lassez-faire tech industry, which introduced casual fridays to the world.

Casual fridays were invented by stuffy British stockbrokers who wanted to escape quickly to their country pursuits for the weekend without having to change first. It long predates the tech industry.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#272

Post by watwut »

leke wrote: post #239
watwut wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Landscape companies here require you to have car, so that you move faster and can take tools with you. Also, economy in your city being good and job opening for lanscape available does not imply same economy in other cities.

Do many Landscape companies not supply work vehicles or pair you with employees who do have them?

Often not. I would not be even sure they could afford leet of company cars given how seasonal work is.

The pairing may happen on individual basis, basically when most of work is teamwork and they don't need you to go around alone anyway. A lot of work is single person work. Or when boss is nice and willing to help you out and organize more.

So I guess that depends on what exactly the company needs you to do. Plenty require car so that you are flexible whether there is acute need for it or not.

And don't forget prejudice against people without cars, it is out of norm and suspect for many people. (Same with being homeless, they may not give you job for fear of you being trouble).

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#273

Post by wartijn_ »

leke wrote: post #238
chrissnell wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. I'm sitting here at a cafe in my small Kansas town. There's a landscape company across the street with a sign offering $12/hr. They are desperate for people. I know this because I've hired their competitor to mow my grass and they can't get it mowed often enough because they are understaffed. This is a small town, probably about the same size as OP's. You can walk or ride a bike anywhere, so transportation is…

I think OP mentioned he only wanted developer jobs.

He did, but the grandparent post suggested OP tries to find another job first, use that money to get a place to live and a phone. Once he has that, he can find a programming job.

Sounds pretty smart to me, but I don't know anything about being homeless or getting a job in the USA.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#274

Post by eric_b »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #226
eric_b wrote: post #24

As the author discovered, reliable transportation and a permanent residence are often prerequisites for many office jobs. However, I do know that in Iowa there are many other kinds of jobs, lots of which would pay a wage sufficient to get back on one's feet, and have more lenient requirements. Perhaps the author needs to get any job vs. a programming job? Establishing a place to live, getting consistent income, and t…

I was internet acquainted with a homeless guy who did this for a while. I asked him about it as research. Because of my medical situation, I'm really not suited to this kind of work. But even if I were, I would have absolutely no idea how to get started. I was fascinated by the fact that he knew how to find these unadvertised jobs in a community he had never been to before. Even after him describing it to me, I don't…

I agree it's a blind spot, but also a kind of arrogance and privilege. I know all about the unadvertised work world because I lived it for years. Many other Americans do too, but not the kind of people who frequent this forum. A gross generalization of course, but in my experience it is primarily naturalized white males, Hispanics of both genders (some immigrant some not), and African immigrants that are "fluent" in this part of our economy.

A lot of folks would rather throw up their hands and give up than do most the work I'm talking about - which is too bad because I've seen a lot of success stories start with "casual" jobs. And, in the age of "bullshit jobs" which everyone loves to talk about - a lot of blue collar low-skill work is actually not bullshit. It's necessary and important work that needs to be done, and a lot of it can hardly be automated.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#275

Post by jrochkind1 »

Every government should be addressing homelessness with "housing first" approaches.

https://endhomelessness.org/resource/housing-first/

Being homeless is HARD and does not make it any easier to address any of your other problems.

We should all be telling our elected officials we want a "housing first" approach.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#277

Post by jrochkind1 »

SwellJoe wrote: post #22
scarface74 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like the biggest issue is not that he doesn’t have the skill set to find a job but his (admitted) mental illness. He needs someone to help him through that first. No, I don’t have any answers, but I do know how hard it is to do well at a job if your mind isn’t clear.

Being homeless is so detrimental to mental health that it's impossible to address it without addressing the material conditions that have led to mental illness being unmanageable. In other words, this is the same catch 22 that has countless homeless folks trapped in a cycle of despair.

It doesn't need to be a catch 22. Housing first. Which is, perhaps ironically what the LambdaSchool program in the top-voted comment does. Which is great. There is no reason government funds on addressing homelessness for people who aren't developers can't do the same.

https://endhomelessness.org/resource/housing-first/

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#278

Post by jrochkind1 »

AlexClay wrote: post #13
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…

I was thinking that the author should just say "yes" and move on. Afterall, going to work an hour early using the bus IS reliable transportation. You wouldn't want the the interview to feel like a sappy therapy session. You should steer it to the important questions.

Public transportation is _really_ bad in some places. Where I live, sometimes you can be two hours later than the schedule would suggest relying on public transit. I suppose you can then go to work 3 hours early to compensate. But it sure doesn't make it easier.

And I live in a reasonably sized city, it can be even worse in other places, like no bus route at all.

Our society is not set up for poor people, let alone homeless people. _everything_ is harder when you are poor, and an order of magnitude more so when you are homeless.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#279

Post by austenallred »

rurban wrote: post #264
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…

His github portfolio is in perfect shape already. He is an expert Lua coder who created his own language interpreter.

Indeed, but that’s not obvious unless you dig through his projects. It’s easy to make that clear.

Re: My Story as a Homeless Developer

#280

Post by agumonkey »

newnewpdro wrote: post #250
agumonkey wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not absurd, it was to measure to minimum amount of daily water one needs to maintain hygiene. Some homeless people rely on public bath house which are disgusting and not always available, I know now that I only need two cup of water (and a shower mitt) to do so.

It's irrelevant to the requirements of a homeless person. You're basically not dirty at all living a typical domestic western life spent mostly at a keyboard and indoors.

oh and btw, I didn't mean that as a burden to homeless people, but as a data point. It's worth knowing for everybody else, if you know how few they need, we can all give them a bit every day.
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