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I am the homelessdev poster from CO. pxdHomelessDev reached out to me for an update which I gave him, but here's a more detailed run down of what I did to start
by homelessdev 8y ago
I am the homelessdev poster from CO. pxdHomelessDev reached out to me for an update which I gave him, but here's a more detailed run down of what I did to start getting out of my situation.
I was able to avoid becoming homeless by using services the city offers (food stamps, a one shot service that helped with rent during the month it mattered most, unemployment until it ran out), borrowing a small amount of money from family, wife was able to get a part-time job -- this got us out of our immediate scenario of living on the streets or in a car but we were literally 1 week away from that happening.
Finally after months of applying for jobs I was able to land one a week ago.
What I have done to get back on track:
1. put together a good portfolio: i built a few react sites, made some 2d games and converted a few interesting problems found on hackerrank into little applications so that I would have some diverse projects to show off. created social media accounts to showcase my work as well and linked all of those from my portfolio site.
2. prepared mentally: with each job interview that I failed I paid close attention to what went wrong and what I could have done to prevent it from failing and then adjusted my next interview based on that information.
3. put in 15 resumes per day: there are lots of job sites (angel.co weworkremotely.com and remoteok.io to name a few) -- once i ramped up to 15 resumes a day I had at least 3 calls a week with prospective employers. I also didn't limit myself to CO -- i now have a remote job.
4. don't kill yourself or give up: for me this was the hardest part of the process. i suffer from bipolar disorder and was on the verge of suicide for the better part of this year. each failure during the process made me sink further into depression, though keeping my mind occupied with my own projects helped immensely. staying positive through this sort of thing, even if you're lying to yourself and faking it, seems to be one of the keys to success because other people can pick up on your mood.
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I am assuming that you have very limited funds and thus might not know where to host a website for cheap -- this can be accomplished for 1 or 2 USD per month on AWS using a serverless infrastructure. You can also host free static sites on github pages with custom domains (get one on namecheap for $9 per year). Whatever you choose has the added benefit of being something you can talk about in a job interview and showcase on your site.
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i don't know how your javascript skills are, but if you have extensive front end experience:
1. update your knowledge if need be to the latest JS syntax
2. spend a weekend learning react
3. start playing with node
javascript is in demand and i have seen Jr devs (1 or 2 years of react and node experience) being billed as either "fullstack developers" or even worse "senior fullstack developers". With your current skill set and a bit more knowledge you should be able to land a JS job pretty quickly.
- leesalminen 8y agoI was just reading your original post. I’m glad you found work and were able to work a plan to avoid eviction. I’m also in Colorado and have seen evictions happen in just days. It’s pretty appalling.
- homelessdev 8y agoThe rent laws are terrifying and slanted for the landlord. Here's how everything went down: 1. quit job for ethical reasons 2. run out of savings very quickly 3. run out of unemployment after that, can't afford rent 4. After being 3 days late on rent a notice was posted on my door saying that I had 5 days to pay in full or face eviction 5. After those 5 days were up, another notice was posted on my door that I had to appear in court the following week 6. Show up to court, make my way to the assigned room, multiple other people going through the same thing show up 7. Judge explains what is happening: you can speak to the plantif's lawyer to settle, and you can speak to some free lawyers who will help you sort your rights, and you can choose to settle that day or file a response. a) settling with the landlord would have meant that I had to pay in full and then move out 1 week later but would not be evicted (basically self eviction) b) file a response and take it to court a week later and then get evicted a week after that by a sheriff 8. I chose option B 9. In the meantime I signed up for a service (and ended up being approved) which helps with situations such as these by paying 80% of your rent (one-time service) 10. A few days before court I was able to pay rent and they dropped the case 11. sold some things to keep paying for rent and borrowed some money 12. finally got a fucking job I was also slapped with: 1. $250~ in legal fees 2. $300~ in late fees 3. $100~ prematurely canceled rental insurance fee (rental insurance, utilities etc. are all in the same rent payment)
- homelessdev 8y agowhy is my comment being downvoted?