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Ask HN: How to find work while homeless?

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Re: Ask HN: How to find work while homeless?

#11

Post by notenoughhorses »

It sounds like you might need a bit more help than just job suggestions. Does your city have any social services non-profits that help with job searching? I recommend going to one of those and even if they can't help with your exact issues, they might be able to refer you to people / organizations who can help, given more details of what you're dealing with.

If you're on HN, I'm guessing you have marketable skills, even if that means office admin work. So the challenge might be something other than your skill set. You say you haven't had a regular job in 8 years which makes me wonder if that's because the stuff that comes with regular jobs is particularly difficult for you (having to show up at x time, sit there for y hours, fitting into the culture of the office, etc)?

Re: Ask HN: How to find work while homeless?

#13

Post by csomar »

That’s a bit surprising given that the Netherlands has a generous social system. I’ll try as a first step to ask and look for government organizations that could potentially help and give you free stuff.

Next, I’ll drop tech for a while. I’ll look for any job that has low or no barrier to entries. Washing cars, cleaning carpets, collecting garbage, etc... These are jobs with little barriers to entry and that will have no problems accepting you if you did sleep on the street yesterday.

After you get yourself a place to stay, better clothes, and a haircut then I’ll start branching into tech again.

Re: Ask HN: How to find work while homeless?

#14

Post by vertex-four »

snoozypants wrote: post #4

What is your actual background; - did you study - how much coding experience do you have - which languages - what types of jobs are you applying for - do you have a smartphone (is there not something like https://postmates.com/ in Netherlands) - do you have friends or family who have jobs in businesses (or their own businesses) - Etc

I have an HNC in Computing from the UK - basically a vocational pre-university qualification. It's not amazingly useful. Shortly after achieving that a lot of mental health stuff popped up which derailed things for a few years, so uni wasn't a thing.

I've been coding for a very long time, and am a polyglot - Python, Go, javascript on both frontend and backend, bash. Current project is largely Go+Python+bash. Previous completed projects were in node.js and Python. A pile of personal and small scale Linux server admin experience to go with that. Nothing professional, unless you count the time I told someone about letsencrypt and they gave me $200.

I've been applying for everything I can find that matches that experience and doesn't have a requirement of "a degree and 5 years commercial experience". In addition, anything cafe-wise that turns up, call center jobs (even though I have severe phone anxiety), anything else that looks vaguely bearable. I have separate CVs per job type, but the fact that I have not had paying work in such a long time is what gets me ignored.

I tried to sign up for the local cycle couriering services here and was denied, apparently I am not fast enough at cycling.

I do not have friends or family who have their own businesses, or who could help me find a role in a business they work for.

Re: Ask HN: How to find work while homeless?

#15

Post by jchallis »

Find a church - neither too big nor too small. Introduce yourself as someone willing to do assist with the IT/ secretarial / etc. in exchange for warm food and a shelter bed. Churches have very large networks. When you get on your feet, and you will, remember who helped you survive.

Re: Ask HN: How to find work while homeless?

#16

Post by burgerquizz »

I've read the comments you've written on HN.

It really feels like you have a good understanding of many tech out there. I'm a bit surprised a profile like yours post this.It feels like you could easily pick up any entry level dev job? HN would always surprise me.

If I were you, I'd show up in every tech meetups I could find.Talk with people, and offer free (paid?) advices for subject you feel comfortable with. After few weeks, I think you could get a bit of money for consulting or even a job offer.

Re: Ask HN: How to find work while homeless?

#17

Post by zadkey »

There are Freelance websites where you can work on small coding projects for money.

Use those get some immediate money and start building up confidence and accomplishments that you can use on your resume/cv.

After doing that for a while apply for a full-time role with your updated resume showing multiple successful small projects from freelance roles.

Re: Ask HN: How to find work while homeless?

#18

Post by nanna »

Hello friend, I'm sorry to hear that things are so difficult. Remember that even this shall pass, so please hold on.

For the immediate term, I would recommend looking for an easy brainless job that would bring in some money while being easy to quit, so that you can look for coding work. A bar, cafe, pizza shop, whatever. Ideally somewhere where squat-friendly people work. It sounds like it could be good for you to be around other people, so I would personally do that instead of Upwork.

Coding work - I would suggest seeing if any small NGOs, charities or companies need some help. Don't necessarily wait for job adverts - just get in touch directly with a warm intro and a nice cv. In my experience they are often in a total state of chaos when it comes to their tech, and having someone who can straighten things out is incredibly valuable to them. The pay's not necessarily great, but it's meaningful and you'll get to employ a wide range of skills and be your own boss.

It's unclear what you mean by being 'dead in a few months'. Can I suggest that if you are contemplating suicide you reach out for help on that immediately, ok?

Re: Ask HN: How to find work while homeless?

#20

Post by vasco »

I live in the Netherlands (Amsterdam region), I'm not Dutch so my network here isn't very large to help you with a job, but worst case I could buy you a coffee and have a chat with a fellow dev. Let me know, my email is vasco g pinho with no spaces at gmail.com.
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