Homeless Man Has Three Degrees and Can't Find a Job • Hacker News Board

Re: Homeless Man Has Three Degrees and Can't Find a Job

#71

Post by _zeos_ » Sun, Aug 14, 2011, 3:53 AM UTC

justin_vanw wrote: post #8

Who wants to make a wager, that he has a serious substance abuse or mental health problem? The other issue is that he refuses to leave Cleveland. There are no jobs for an electrical/acoustical engineer in Cleveland, and there probably won't be for a very very long time, if ever, and the effect of race in a city like Cleveland is far more likely to come up than in a less racist area. I also get very suspicious when so…

incompetence is relevant to what you want (or is needed) to achieve and beyond

Re: Homeless Man Has Three Degrees and Can't Find a Job

#72

Post by lisper » Sun, Aug 14, 2011, 5:46 AM UTC

seagaia wrote: post #69

lisper wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made a feature-length documentary about four homeless people including one with a master's degree in psychology. http://graceofgodmovie.com/ In his case there definitely turned out to be more to the story.

What was the "more" to the story? I'm interested.

You'll have to see the film :-) Should be available soon on iTunes and shortly thereafter on DVD. Or, if you really can't wait, drop me a line and I'll send you a copy. Sign up for the mailing list to get updates.

Re: Homeless Man Has Three Degrees and Can't Find a Job

#73

Post by georgieporgie » Sun, Aug 14, 2011, 8:12 AM UTC

sudont wrote: post #61

georgieporgie wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding apprenticeship-type programs, my father works for the Corps of Engineers, and my uncle is a life-long electrician. Both are work with training programs these days. Each of them has said that it's extremely hard to find someone who is both reasonably intelligent (or able to put down his/her smartphone long enough to appear so) and able to stick with a program through completion.

One of the reasons I could never do manual labor for the rest of my life (after working on farms and road crews) was the sheer intellectual loneliness of it. No matter how strong I was, or how fast I worked (I'm still pretty good with a pick-axe), I was still the loser who didn't go out and blow money at the bar. Worse yet, the area was like 70% male and I couldn't get a date as a laborer to save my life. The fact is…

I was still the loser who didn't go out and blow money at the bar. Worse yet, the area was like 70% male and I couldn't get a date as a laborer to save my life.

That sounds almost exactly like my last programming job. Except it was more like 90% male. :-)

Re: Homeless Man Has Three Degrees and Can't Find a Job

#74

Post by reduxredacted » Sun, Aug 14, 2011, 10:37 PM UTC

picklestime wrote: post #67

reduxredacted wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having managed (paid) interns and full time employees picked right out of graduation (I'm in a somewhat experimental role and that means the only staff I'm going to get is junior level), I can't possibly restate the importance of not delaying entry into doing something meaningful in life , if I take your meaningful to mean advancing your experience in your desired field. The best employee I've ever had wasn't a Compu…

Very intelligent, had all sorts of ideas, could talk about anything related to his field (networking) and would challenge you to think about things differently. Unfortunately, he could talk all around theory, but he couldn't execute. It was a strange sort of inability to choose between several equally good approaches to solving a problem. Every project he worked on got about 3/4 to completion and then fell flat into…

That's very interesting, thanks for the link.

I have children, and I've worked with a few folks who have been diagnosed as ADHD, but I think the focus always lands on the "Hyperactivity". In retrospect, he could very well be ADHD (it was called ADD when I was a kid, and "shut up and sit down" when my dad was a kid), but I my armchair quarterbacking (psychologicalicking [made it up]) can see the signs there. He was a very organized individual, coupled with the observed behaviors (hyper focused, often a part of ADHD that isn't associated with the condition).