Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

181 points

8 years ago

TL;DR I'm about to get evicted because I ran out of money and can't seem to land a job. I'm also in a bit of a rush, so i apologize for any grammatical errors.

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?