
Ask HN: Help, I'm a developer who can't pay rent - zettavolt
It feels smarmy posting to HN like this, but here goes.<p>I was laid off from my Software Engineering in March and instead of picking up another position I coasted for awhile to work on some personal projects, figuring I could coast for at least a year. This month I incurred a financial disaster and now I'm thoroughly broke and am slightly concerned about paying my rent next month.<p>I'm a fairly young guy without a college degree but about 7 years development experience total (since I was a kid) and about 2 years "professional" experience. I know Erlang/OTP like the back of my hand, lots of experience with x86 &#38; C/C++ and contemporary information security and exploit development practice (Not just old tricks like stack overflows! I know dlmalloc and jemalloc allocator internals and have tried my hand at faking more than one vtable pointer in an use-after-free). I doubt any of you are hiring for this but I also have considerable experience with Reverse Engineering as well, mostly on Windows with IDA, but my understanding of Linux (and ELF) internals is definitely better than average. I'd like to think I have very good networking knowledge as well, ranging from TCP protocol suite to client I/O strategies to building distributed systems from  pragmatic (and academic) perspective.<p>I know Rails/Ruby + Python/Django/Pyramids and have passable Javascript skill as well (honestly mostly jQuery, don't really care much for JS, but can do it). I have a fairly extensive github and my Git skill is fine (maybe above average) as well.<p>Given how "hot" the market for developers in SF is right now, I'm a bit embarrassed to be posting for a such a shameless quick gig hence the throwaway. If you're interested, post here contact me @ zettavolt@hushmail.com if you need help before the end of the month or are willing to give me some cash up front in exchange for a longer term agreement I am more than fine with that as well.<p>(I'm located in San Francisco BTW!)
======
not-giving-up
I've been in your situation many, many times I'm afraid. Comes from having
poor money management skills, highly narrowcast career expectations, as well
as an exaggerated sense of modesty bordering on The Imposter Syndrome:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome>

But my story is a different topic. Some quick advice:

(1) You already know you're headed towards a brick wall. The most sensible
thing you can do at the moment is to soften the blow, and buy yourself time.
Really, every $50 or $100 is critical here... so if at all possible, pare down
your lifestyle to the barest essentials.

An apartment lease (in SF!) is probably the easiest to dispose of, and will
net you the most cash, especially if, say, you have friends in the East Bay
(or practically anywhere else besides the city and its immediate suburbs) that
you can talk into letting you move in without a deposit. Plus you'll get your
security back. That change alone might help you coast until Dec or Jan.

(2) after that, you need to put yourself on an austerity budget, i.e. you
should be able to get by on $5 a day or less on food from grocery stores,
+perhaps $2.50 a day if you must use coffeeshops for wifi. If you can avoid
using public transit save for special trips, that's a huge plus.

(3) -DRASTICALLY- lower your expectations for you next job. Customer support,
friggen PHP dev... whatever it takes. If you don't get tech work, just work at
a Trader Joes, do delivery work, ANYTHING. Bottom line is it's VERY important
to get out of the idea that you have to borrow money from people unless you're
truly, seriously on the edge... which it sounds like you aren't6 yet, not by a
longshot.

(4) finally -- you're in yout 20s (sounds like).. you're touhgh, you can take
anything. forget about what other people think and their so-called "success"
stories. just concentrate on you'r own story for now. Trust me, when you pull
yourself out of this (and you will) you'll have a lot to be proud of + to look
back on yourself positively for.

~~~
malandrew
To add to this:

(1) Get a starbucks card and use it until you earn the gold card. This gives
you free refills on basic coffee or iced coffee. This means you can work all
day on decent wifi with all you can drink coffee. Get a small coffee since you
get refills. If you drink fast, get a medium so you don't need to get up as
often. Just make sure to tip the baristas occasionally.

(2) Rice and beans. Get a 25lb bag of each. Learn how to cook them. To save
time, invest in a large pressure cooker and 1-quart jars. Make beans in bulk
and freeze them. When I go into rice & bean austerity mode to save money for
stuff, I can get my per meal costs down to about $1. My roommates and other
people who have tried them think they are some of the best beans they've
tasted. Besides trying many types of beans, also try lentils. To make sure the
food doesn't get boring, remember that spices are your friend. Go get cheap
spices from a Mexican or Chinese market.

If you want to learn how to make a big batch of beans one day, message me.
Just be ready to come over with the kinds of beans you want and about a dozen
quart jars. I have a 21-quart industrial pressure cooker. We'll cook up a big
batch, which you can take home with you and freeze. Each quart will give you
about 4-6 meals when paired with rice. Just send me an email in my profile.

~~~
jamesjguthrie
Hey malandrew

What kind of dishes do you cook up when you're just doing rice and beans? I
eat a lot of beans e.g. usual baked beans in tomato sauce, kidney beans,
chickpeas, garden peas; and I do like various rice dishes e.g. indian rices,
thai sticky rice.

Can you give me an example of a couple of dishes that you usually eat when you
do this? 1) I need to save some money (wedding, startup) and 2) I need to
improve my diet.

~~~
malandrew
Usually, when I am on "bean-mode" there isn't a ton of variety in the dishes.
I'll employ some of the approaches you mentioned, but I'm personally not super
bothered by the lack of variety when it comes to rice and beans. I'm half
Brazilian, so rice and beans have always been a stable food on my dinner table
so I don't get too bored of it.

Besides what you mentioned I also toss in cheese (get your cheese at Costco,
best value out there), fried eggs, sometimes some fresh spices from the potted
herbs I have.

Besides the beans you are buying, try cannelloni beans, black beans, great
northern beans, etc. There's a lot of variety in taste among legumes. If you
branch out, you'll find a lot more options.

The other great thing about the pressure cooker is that you can still enjoy
meats, because you can buy really cheap "stew meats" and other cuts of meat
rich in collagen and other connective tissue that will break down at high
temperatures and high pressure. A lot of these cheaper meats would require 6+
hours of cooking at a simmer in a crock-pot, but with a pressure cooker, you
can prepare a fully cooked meat stew in 1-2 hours.

------
jph
Pay it forward: I'll hire you for a half-day of work to help you. When you get
on your feet, do your best to help the next person. Also look at the Hacker
News "Freelancers Wanted" postings. I'm mailing you now.

~~~
geekam
Is it OK to say that the world runs because of people like you?

------
atlantic
If I were you, I'd delete this and start again with a different tone. You
sound a little desperate, and that will push people away. Repost under your
own name, asking for advice about how to find a job in SF, and mentioning your
skills in brief. Don't ask for anything except advice, don't talk about being
laid off or the poor state of your finances. You'll probably get a few
spontaneous offers.

------
ig1
Speak to these people:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=tptacek>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=bigmac>

I believe they're both hiring compsec people at the moment.

~~~
zettavolt
Thank you for the advice, frankly I would love to work for Matasano, they are
arguably one of the premier security firms in the country. However, I have
difficulty placing myself in the top-tier category they are in (plus they are
not in San Francisco). I honestly don't know if I could write a network
protocol fuzzer without relying on SPIKE or Scapy off the top of my head in an
interview.

As far as Square goes, I feel I have 0 chance there. I would love to work
there as well but no computer science/Math degree, spotty work and residence
record and entirely self-taught. I get the feeling that doesn't jibe with
their culture and I would just be wasting their time and mine.

~~~
MysticFear
You don't sound desperate for a job.

~~~
zettavolt
Maybe, my reasoning is that while I'm in the privileged position of being
young, it's a greater loss for me to potentially botch the interview today and
jeopardize future employment with Matasano than to just eke it out today.

Additionally, how do you convey to an employer without sounding like an
asshole "Please, I need to be hired AND get paid at least 700$ before the end
of this month"

~~~
chill1
_Additionally, how do you convey to an employer without sounding like an
asshole "Please, I need to be hired AND get paid at least 700$ before the end
of this month"_

You don't. Borrow the money from a friend or family, sell your TV (or other
things you don't necessarily need right now). Talk to your land-lord about it,
and try to get an extension temporarily. There are lots of things you can do.

------
xiaoma
Wow. That's a bit frightening. I too have been struggling on the job front,
but have a less impressive background. Admittedly a huge chunk of my problem
is having purchased an expensive program purporting to teach me how to get
rich and find my dream job. If I didn't have a four-figure debt due to that
(and another few hundred bucks due each month), I'd have a lot less stress.

One thing that I have found is that while it's a tough job market for fulltime
work, companies are a lot less conservative about hiring people on a freelance
basis. Non-tech companies have been an especially bet for me. Many
restaurants, bars, independent realtors, are making money and haven't updated
their sites in a long time. It's been a _very_ slow process but I have
gradually been getting better and better referrals from it. When I bid, I
generally take 20-40% up front. For someone in your situation, that could make
a big difference.

~~~
noahc
The dream drop program wouldnt happen to be ramits would it?

~~~
japhyr
I read that as a tongue-in-cheek reference to student loan debt. I wonder if
it was meant literally, though.

------
autophil
Don't feel bad bro. It's tough out there. We all end up short at one time or
another. Chin up.

------
countessa
HN's own marcomassaro (<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=marcomassaro>) is
currently looking for some wordpress work - sounds like you would have no
problem doing it: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4543562>

Any HN's who emailed Marco and get the gig and feel like making christmas in
september for someone, pass it on to zettavolt.

Good luck getting back on your feet!

------
jenandre
dude, send me an email. I work for an infosec firm that would hire you in a
sec, provided you aren't crazy (well, at least not crazier than the rest of us
;). jandre@gmail.com

------
cambo01
You sound like you need a holiday! Come to New Zealand and build something
great with us (we're about to launch our first iteration)! I'm low on cash too
but I'll cover your rent and food :)

------
rorrr
Tried getting a job?

~~~
zettavolt
I've tried applying at three places. I've done web development
"professionally" before and frankly I've always been extremely unhappy with
the job environment, maybe it's characteristic of web dev or maybe just bad
experience.

I would like to go into something deeper but my experience and interest in
Distributed Systems, C/C++/Assembly and security is entirely self-taught and
done out of a hobby so I don't have anything "professional" to show for it
beyond the ability to talk for hours, a few web browser and plugin exploits
I've written and the only substantial project I've done in C++ is one of the
early WEP crackers for Windows which I wrote 6 years ago (and is riddled with
classic C++ novice mistakes).

Plus, if I applied for a job now I would not feel comfortable asking for money
up front to pay my rent, even if a company could figure out they wanted to
make a hire before the end of the month.

~~~
entreprenewb
>I've tried applying at three places.

I hope that's not since March. Pardon my bluntness, what else are you doing to
find work? It sounds like you need to just get _a_ job, not necessarily your
dream job. You can always work somewhere and leave after 6 months. Have you
talked to any recruiters? Have you been to any networking events or joined any
professional groups? What other resources have you used to get work? If you're
looking for really fast cash, I agree with the other comments, you should sell
something or borrow some money from friends or family to make due. There are
always services like TaskRabbit or MechanicalTurk and freelance coding
websites. And if you're really hard-up, though I'm loathe to suggest it, you
can always use a credit card for some quick cash.

Also, care to post a resume?

~~~
devs1010
jeez I applied for four jobs just last week and I already have a job, not to
sound to hard on you but you always have to keep pushing forward with career
networking even if things are going well and even if its just online
networking

