I have been a web developer / software engineer for 15 years (fullstack, 5 languages).
I am living in Colorado with my wife -- I quit my job In Jan due to issues I had with the way our company was treating customer data. This turned out to be a foolish move as it has proven difficult to find a new job (I had something lined up when I quit, but it fell through).
I did land a contract between then and now, but in order to survive I had about 1.5 months to find a new job and that hasn't happened.
I was 3 days late on my rent this month and now have to appear in court to explain why i haven't paid. I fully expect that to lead to an eviction.
I've never had an issue finding a job prior to this so I'm quite frustrated with myself.
I don't own a good laptop (i use a desktop) and have about $400 to survive on. I've tried upwork but can't drum anything up quick enough / at all. I have multiple interviews lined up but I'm not hopeful at this point. I have things I can sell but I'm not sure how quick I can turn them around. My wife has a job but its only a couple days per week so not enough to survive on... she has another interview on monday but no clue how it will turn out of course. We own a car and are currently planning on a shelter (car is second plan).
The questions I have for HN are: what are my best options for survival? any pro tips on how to live on the streets and still land an engineering job?
Thanks in advance guys
Every day make a careful, accurate inventory of the things that are under your control and the things that are not. Don't worry about the things that are not under your control; they're none of your business. They're like the weather: they come and go as they will.
Focus on the things that are under your control, on finding out what is the best thing you can do about them. Do it as well as possible.
You can survive the loss of a job. You can survive losing a place to live. You can survive diagnosis of a debilitating, incurable illness. You can survive the loss of the future you thought was ahead of you. I survived all of these, and went on to do things that I judge to be good and worthwhile.
Like I said, there's nothing so special about me. What I can do, you can do.
Some of the other comments have good ideas and good advice. Take those and use them.
Some comments are unhelpful. Forget those.
Remember: I lost my job, my family, my home, my career, and my health. I'm still here. I still do things that I think are good and worthwhile. Some of the best things that have ever happened to me happened after my great catastrophe.
I did it, so you can do it.
I wish you the best of luck.
- If you don't mind camping, its an extremely cheap way to live, and a gym / YMCA will help before interviews.
- If you have any friends / family, ask them if you can crash. Have a friend who lived this way for ages.
- If it comes to it, there are often abandoned structures that are reasonable for keeping rain off. Lived in an abandoned office building for a month at one point. That one was really lucky. Had a gym, water, and electricity still!
- Apply, apply, apply. Set a goal. X applications a day, where X is probably 3+. Beat that goal every day.
- Be humble, but not desperate. If its reasonable and will pay bills, worth it.
- Be willing to move. Frankly, CO is really expensive. People scoff at AL (cur. loc.), but it has NASA, Army, most 3 letter agencies, and every gov't contractor known to man. Also, rent is $400-600 and a house can be found for $30000-40000 if you're not picky.
- Sell all your stuff. Flea markets, craigslist, ebay, whatever works.
- If you get a job - save. There is no reason to lose a job and then only have $400.
- Send me a msg (email in profile) if the AL thing sounds reasonable. Used to be in software and a contract mgr., can at least look at whats around. Can't promise, as I left to walk the earth a while back.
FYI, your email is not displayed in your profile. The "email" field in your profile is only visible to the moderators. If you want to publicly share your email address, it needs to be included in the "about" field.
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/facebook/facebook-build-7...
Average rent for a 2br is somewhere around $800, and about 3 hours from Nashville and Atlanta.
In HSV case, several significant divots. NASA MSFC, Army Materiel Command (Logistics), and the Missile Defense Agency. Caveat on living here, if WWIII happens, we will get nuked.
Questions / answers thus far:
there's been a lot of good advice in this thread thus far and a few understandable questions.
I'm going to answer them all here as I can no longer edit the main thread.
first off, great suggestions - some of these were already on my mind (gym, library, camping specifically) and seeing them reinforced via comments is encouraging.
to answer some questions that have been raised:
1. > homeless in the USA? Just cannot understand how this would happen
I'm still trying to piece this together myself. I failed multiple job interviews that were very difficult, ran out of unemployment and am now facing eviction. it takes 6 to 12 months to get into government housing in colorado. unless i get a job before that, its the car, the woods or the street.
> 15 years full stack
I don't get it either.
2. > How resonable is the person/company you rent from to secure an agreement to stay on despite the late rent?
zero reasonable. they filed after 3 days and after i explained that i'm having health issues.
3. > Have you applied for unemployment?
yes, i was approved as my reason for quitting was appropriate, however it ran out quickly as rent is extremely expensive.
4. > Built In Colorado job
I am aware and use it, however yes the process is slow
5. > if he were a brilliant engineer he probably wouldn't be on here with this post
Define brilliant. i certainly haven't claimed to be brilliant, but i do claim to be an excellent employee, extremely fast learner and someone who has never been fired and who has always excelled at their job. I suspect some people think i'm brilliant and others do not.
6. > Why would 3 days late on your rent involve a court date and eviction?
Denver / Colorado is harsh as fuck, apparently.
7. > It'd be really shocking to me if this happened in the US without some prior history/grounds for eviction
then be shocked, my friend. its happening and i've never been evicted in the past nor has my wife. nothin but smooth sailing in my past. this is denver
In all of this i also forgot to mention that I was diagnosed as being bipolar which has helped wreck my life.
8. > How have you been an engineer for 15 years and still: Rent an apartment, Don’t have a few laptops lying around, Don’t have any savings while having no kids
This series of questions assumes that i have made sound financial decisions over the years. i have not. it also assumes i do not have a child whereas I do from a previous marriage. also, it assumes i've never owned a house, i have... doesn't mean i still do.
The most relevant thing is that you're going through something terrible. If I had anything, I'd give it to you, but I've had a very tough year.
The best I can offer is that I'm genuinely sorry. Not only for the way you've been treated here, but for everything that has happened.
I've had some good friends go down the homelessness path and the one thing I've heard from all of them is that, no matter what, you've got to have some sort of fixed address. Over the next few days, you've got two big priorities:
1.) Finding shelter.
2.) Finding someone who will let you get your mail sent to their address.
I wouldn't normally suggest this because it's rather manipulative, but there's a technique called door in the face persuasion. Your first ask is going to be, "Can we stay on your couch for {{period of time you'll stick to}}?" And, if you hear no or see a pained expression on that person's face, your next ask is, "Can I change my address to yours so I can keep getting my mail?"
Vast swaths of North American culture assume you have an address. It's amazing how hard things will get when you no longer have one.
If you're in the Denver area, check out the Denver Voice. It's a street newspaper and street papers are a great way to make money!
Me too, it probably the just world hypothesis at work.
Hang in there and don't listen to the negative talk.
They cannot possibly understand what you are going through, because they aren't going through it.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_hypothesis
Feel free to reach out and we can do lunch sometime. you can get to me via: ben at meetmindful.com
The flexible hours are great to work around interviews and you can make enough to feed yourself and find a place to stay.
Good luck.
For me, I had an employer not pay me 2 months of wages.. 14k. The CEO is a corrupt scam-artist, and me and all other devs/ex employees have filed wage claims, but he went to jail for check fraud, and I'm assuming he's poor too, possibly a drug abuser according to one dev, so yeah--I'm probably never seeing the 15k I'm owed :( ...
It's been a real struggle, the depression has made it so for about 2 weeks I couldn't get out of my chair, I just felt if I move it would be to jump off a roof or something. It gets better though (i think)...
My saving grace is reddit.com/forhire -- 90% of my freelance clients have come from there, it's a great resource. I just got 2 clients this week, so hopefully they pay and I can knock out their things fast enough to build up my security net a bit.
My advice look at the for hire posts for devs, find the one that sticks out the most, copy their layout, replace the content with your details, and post it.
Do this once per week -- Monday at 7am eastern seems to be best / most trafficked time according to a reddit stat's site I checked out.
Then just keep posting other places too, and following up. Hopefully you find something. I know how hard it is though, good luck!
- Get a membership to a cheap gym so you can use their shower (and potentially wifi) if the shelter doesn't work out. In many areas it's possible to get a membership for $10-20/month. Clean your clothes in the shower with you.
- Try really hard not to feel desperate during interviews. We make worse decisions when desperate. Easier said than done :(
- You may need to buy a laptop, which will suck, but hopefully you can find something good enough and very cheap on Craigslist? If you can't get a laptop, consider public library or internet cafes (if those exist there).
- Food is going to be tough. Canned beans will become a close friend. Also canned soups/stews. Peanut butter, cheap produce. You may be able to find edible plants nearby. Free samples at grocery stores? Bulk sunflower seeds are cheap. Lifted most of these food ideas from a thread on reddit btw.
Do you remember which thread it was?
Of course, lots of these suggestions assume that a reasonably equipped kitchen and storage is available, which may limit OPs options. Hope it helps anyway.
[0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/EatCheapAndHealthy/
[1]: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=34...
Also, you have to get to the laundromat and spend over an hour there. Not a huge expense, but not really a few cents. On the positive side the best laundromats I've found supply WiFi, multi-game arcade emulators and free coffee.
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Target, Home Depot are hiring. Consider 2nd shift and third shift type work. It sucks but it leaves your days open for interviews during normal business hours. Gas Station/Convenience stores are always looking for people to work the graveyard shift.
Warehouse/logistics distribution centers are ALWAYS looking for 2nd shift workers. If you can read and pass a drug test you can be hired. Double points if you are actually legal to work in the United States. Usually there will be a staffing agency who does the actual hiring.
I once worked for a business interiors company. We installed cubicles and such for businesses. The work all had to happen after hours. Paid pretty good too. Since you are in Denver that may be an option.
Consider too grocery store/bakery. Access to food that is still fine but can't be sold is a great way to stretch your dollars.
As to your engineering job search. Please tell me you are not doing everything yourself. Get IT staffing recruiters working for you! You are a easy candidate. An IT worker with skills and experience who can start TODAY! Don't be picky! If you can land ANY sort of professional work, you can stabilize your life and keep looking for that Forever job.
You have to keep the faith and cannot allow yourself to spiral out. Find grit. It is frustrating but you're going to have to temper that. You seem to be doing the right things so do keep on keeping on. If homelessness is truly a risk then you and your spouse will need to dig deep, reach out to friends and family if possible, identify any root that you have and cling to it. Maybe that's just each other but hold onto it regardless. You're already taking inventory so you're already planning and adapting. Camping seems like a good suggestion. Reach out to some agencies if you haven't already. The more people working your case the better your chances will be. RH got my foot in the door after a (not so) nice five month shutout that started early in Sep. 2001 when myriad opportunities locked down tight literally overnight. I was at the end of a nice, well earned six week vacation from tech after our startup shut down. Just lying around. I regretted that little timeout for the next few months, to say the least. The money was about done and stress was running pretty high for a small family. You'll pull out, man, keep your chin up, your eyes peeled and don't balk if an offer comes up short. Find a comfort zone and shore up. You'll need a way to keep your comms open, for sure. I think that's all I've got. Good luck and god speed.