To turn this into an advice for people interviewing without a safety net: get a safety net. It can be a job that is easy to get, a rent that is easy to pay, just make sure that you can live by that situation indefinitely. You need to leap from there. You need to be able to turn down job offers to be able to negotiate.

With nothing to light a fire under your butt, you have to sometimes create your own crises because simply setting deadlines when you don't need to pay for anything doesn't have any real stakes. This is coming from personal experience- I've been constantly job hunting since 2015 with no FT offers in software development, despite having 8 years experience from 2007-14. Job hunting now just feels like going through the motions and I'm burned out from so much interview practicing.

I have the potential to turn down offers because of my situation of not needing to pay for almost anything, but I can only take advantage of that if I get offers to begin with. Whatever approaches I took in the early 2010's to get work aren't effective anymore and I'm still in the process of discovering what will work for me today.

It's an unfortunate reality that it's become impractical to match this advice in all circumstances. When I was young I found that

a) I had to live within an hours drive of a city with jobs to get jobs in that city b) There were 1/100th to 1/1000th the number of jobs available if I stayed with my family. c) Minimum rent + student loan payments + heating bills exceeded what an "easy" job could cover.

I ended up not paying the student loan debts for about a year and recking my credit, but I was ultimately able to get a job. People with mortgages, families, or other fixed expenses can likewise not stay unemployed forever in the modern world.

As an experienced hire, if you take a big down-level for expedience employers will question it in the future.

Just 5 years ago I was making 6000 USD per month and with almost 250K in debt, and ~50% of my income going to debt payments. Now I’ll be debt free in a couple months, and I have 12 months of savings in the bank & a rapidly growing retirement account! It’s super nice to feel this way, and it’s only been possible with a lot of hard work and even more luck.

[1] I lived way beyond my means, overestimated the value of my expensive education, and had an expensive bicycle accident.

> and had an expensive bicycle accident.

I mean, the health aspect was probably bad, but the financial implication is even worse :-(

I really don’t know what it’s like in other places, but the first few years of a mortgage are like this, but with a larger debt. It’s grim.

In the US, it would be both legal and common for federal government jobs (that require any sort of security clearance). Banking & finance (investment/securities & retail banking).And some jobs on the periphery of banking/finance, where handling PII related to finances is common.

I'm sure there are other places that run credit checks, just because they can (it is the US after all, we're king of treating employees like we're in a dystopian movie). But, there shouldn't really be a need.

(This might have changed. Too disenfranchied to even look it up.)

But mostly it's clothes. If you're having a hard time financially, the interview clothes you have (if any) will likely fit poorly, be worn out, poorly constructed, or all three.

By the way: For anyone who finds themselves in this situation, check out local food banks, churches, and your local DoL office. These groups will typically either have an interview clothing program, or will know of one. Nearly every city in the US--even the small ones--will have some kind of charity like this. If you're having trouble dressing or getting rides for interviews, reach out. It never hurts to ask.

I remember 15 years ago working in fast food. Many, many of the employees do exactly this. But it isn't comfortable. I worked with a brother-sister pair from Brazil. They lived together, worked two jobs each 70 hours per week (Dunkin Donuts, McDs, and a hotel between the two of them), lived in a shit apartment with no cable, and still only sent a couple hundred bucks back to Brazil every month. The sister was around 50 years old.

With that money their family was able to afford a house in Brazil.

You sound very presumptuous. I challenge you to find someone you're describing who works in America to support overseas family and ask them how "comfortable" their living situation is.

First of all - you are almost never 'fortunate'. Jobs offers do not fall from the sky usually.

Second - you many live well within your means and then have a car accident, or an ill relative, or something else that will make you into piss poor indebted fella real quick.

The core problem is that a median income lifestyle is a relatively unstable state due to unforeseen circumstances like your example. A poor person stays poor (if whatever happens doesn't kill them) which means that poverty is a stable state. A rich person can weather at least a couple disasters, so that makes it a mostly stable state. If you're in the middle, you are in a more unstable position compared to the extremes.

If everything was just easy we'd all just do it.

obviously he won't be able to solve his financial problems in any way without a job. if your assessment is "well he's screwed for the rest of his life" then a) I think you're wrong b) you can keep that to yourself