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Tell HN: I used to be homeless and want to work as a software developer

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Tell HN: I used to be homeless and want to work as a software developer

#1
I have a degree in the hard sciences and went through a period of homelessness during which I started teaching myself how to program.

I have been on the hunt for developer positions in the United Kingdom without any luck. I am also open to developer positions else where in Europe.

I am reaching out to the great community here in hopes that there are hiring managers/employees who can give me an opportunity at interviews and also for any advice that may help get a foot into the door.

Although I welcome opportunities all over the UK and Europe, I am located in a rainy city in northen England so I have a preference towards any opportunities or leads in my area.

Thank you for being a humanitarian and enjoy your holidays!

Re: Tell HN: I used to be homeless and want to work as a software developer

#3
Not a manager myself, and I don't have any positions in my hands, but can give you some advice:

1. Register at LinkedIn, fill in your profile as much as you can (especially "skills" section) - it will start offering you matching opportunities. Also, you can find some recruiters there - they will be very happy to make you close the vacancies they're working on.

2. I believe UK also has some startup hubs, but I know only one in Oslo, Norway - and they have a page which lists all jobs in their member companies: https://jobs.startuplab.no/ - note that these are startups, so quite small companies, but I'm aware of at least one case when they helped relocating a non-EU citizen to Norway.

Re: Tell HN: I used to be homeless and want to work as a software developer

#4
It would be great if you could share what particular skill set you developed, and what areas of software development you’d like to work in.

Shoot us a note a jobs@epistemic.ai - we build an AI knowledge engine to map and navigate the biomedical knowledge. I’d like to connect.

Re: Tell HN: I used to be homeless and want to work as a software developer

#5
In my experience, in the absence of a CS degree you need a portfolio, though posting on HN may be a good shortcut.

While you're job hunting, if you haven't already, start building something moderately technical. You don't have to build anything that cures cancer, but if you can build a reasonably complex project consisting of at least two independent modules (say, a frontend and a backend) with a modern stack, you should have a reasonable time finding a job.

Tech is still the place where one may find lucrative work without a field specific degree, but the part that everyone leaves out is that you have to demonstrate above average talent in some other way first. In any case the practice and knowledge will likely be useful to you. Personally I spent some 5 years building a distributed client/server MMO in my spare time before I finally transitioned to tech and it's amazing to continue to see how much of what I practiced applies to professional development.

Note that my experience is with the U.S. job market so yours may differ.

Edit: additional advice is to leverage your past degree and target software development in the area, if it exists. Especially if it's a place where ML is still young. Programmers are a dime a dozen, but those who can understand and translate between code and applied science are hard to find and very much in demand, though generally at smaller outfits and especially startups. Further, a startup may be more willing to take a risk hiring you if you're ok with sacrificing some pay for a hot resume entry. Once you have solid professional coding experience job hopping is relatively easy, especially if you have hard science/math in your background. And the work will be substantially more interesting than pure coding, IMO.

Re: Tell HN: I used to be homeless and want to work as a software developer

#6
Analyze the jobs you've applied to or would like to apply to, and build an interesting portfolio using those technologies. Ideally useful to yourself in some way, for motivation and that it solves a real rather than a contrived problem.

Continue developing your portfolio while you continue to job search.

Eventually your resume will rival your portfolio, but you gotta start somehow, and this is one how.

Re: Tell HN: I used to be homeless and want to work as a software developer

#7
post #3

Not a manager myself, and I don't have any positions in my hands, but can give you some advice: 1. Register at LinkedIn, fill in your profile as much as you can (especially "skills" section) - it will start offering you matching opportunities. Also, you can find some recruiters there - they will be very happy to make you close the vacancies they're working on. 2. I believe UK also has some startup hubs, but I know on…

I second the LinkedIn advice. As annoying as LinkedIn can be, when you are on the job hunt, it's actually very useful.

Re: Tell HN: I used to be homeless and want to work as a software developer

#8
I'm based in the North East (Newcastle) and am happy to have a look at your CV or point you to opportunities I know about in the toon. I mention this as you said you're currently in the North.

As others have said, in lieu of a recent degree, you need a portfolio. Happy to help you understand how your previous experiences or projects might map to a portfolio - work with what you've got :) This doesn't necessarily have to be totally technical; "soft skills" are core too. Also, LinkedIn is the way to go for finding local work. Happy to critique your current profile too.

In the past I have helped several people, including international candidates, navigate the UK recruitment process to secure positions in this field and academia.

Question:

- When did you get your previous degree?

Depending on when this was, this could enable you to apply for graduate programmes.

Likewise, as someone mentioned below, leveraging your undergraduate knowledge to position yourself for a job at the intersection of software development and that domain might be a good option.

Re: Tell HN: I used to be homeless and want to work as a software developer

#10
I was homeless too, a rough sleeper throughout the UK for 3 winters. This was a long time ago, and I've been an engineer and now am a manager. I may not have a role (in London) that is shaped for you but I'm happy to look at your CV, see what roles we have that may fit you, and advise on what people look for in a CV.

My email is in my profile.

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