I've moved from the midwest to the NYC area (currently in Jersey City but will be moving to a shared room in Queens in 1 week).

Former "poker pro" - obviously not too successful - so no useful CV/resume. I completed a useless bachelor's degree but no work experience.

-I'm renting through AirBnb and rent is paid through Feb. 25. Rent is $700/mo.
-At this moment I have a little under $900 in cash on hand and $443 in the bank.

Not sure how I should try to make money or what type of jobs I can even get here. I was going to try doing UberEats using the Subway but apparently my phone is too old and I have a limited budget for getting a new one.

I'm doing some writing for Textbroker but it kind of sucks, I haven't bothered to track my hourly but it might be below $10/hr.

Anyway I will update my progress here hoping for some tips but if nothing else maybe the trainwreck will be fun for some. Is it possible to get like $15/hour here with a generic degree and no experience? I mean I can google jobs in the area but idk what's realistic. Should I bull**** my resume a little bit?

I thought all the former "poker pros" move to Vegas where the temps are warmer and there is free housing in the tunnels if you need it.

Good luck OP..hope this ends well..

That would be the sensible thing to do...Well maybe not Vegas specifically since I'm not doing live poker, but most places besides NYC would make more sense financially and logistically. Unfortunately I am chasing a girl so here I am.

It's like Rounders meets Good Will Hunting

write hedge fund manager, it's pretty much the same thing and they probably won't check

First report after 3-ish days:

I made a handsome $132 profit from writing on TB over the past 3 days, spent the rest of my time with decision paralysis, surveying random jobs that I'm unsure about whether I could get.

I've been with an Airbnb host since Dec. 26 who's basically a scumbag (I'm moving to a new place Jan. 25 which is already paid for 1 month). If anyone has any suggestions about how to (legally) mess with his operation I'd be interested in hearing it...Cliffnotes:

I apply for a place through Airbnb (my first time using this service) in Jersey City. The ad I respond to is framed as a young guy (23) who I'd be sharing a room with. Since I was new to this I didn't understand why at the time, but I was unable to send him a payment through Airbnb. He sends me some texts to indicate the address, so I go there. When I arrive, it's a different person from the one in the ad photos, a middle-aged (45) guy. He tells me to just pay him in cash, and that I can pay less since we don't have to go through Airbnb.

To this day I'm still not 100% sure if I wasn't able to pay through the site because his account was flagged, or it's something he changed himself with the payment options. But anyway, I was already there so I figured sure, why not get a small discount.

So a few things at this point:

-The house was filthy (although I didn't realize to exactly what extent until later)***.

-Instead of splitting a room with one person as indicated in the ad, I was in a room with 5 other people (3 bunk beds). There were also two other rooms (which I didn't realize at the time) with a combined 10 more people. So all in all, 15 people, plus the actual tenant in his own bedroom. The actual occupancy fluctuates but you get the idea, it's always at least 10+ people.

I overlooked these things because I was exhausted trying to find a cheap place, all my stuff was there, and I didn't have a Plan B.

But the issue about the guy in the ad (I'll call him Chris) vs. the guy I met at the door (I'll call him Bob) still wasn't clear. He told me the guy I saw in the ad was his "partner". I shrugged it off as whatever, but I didn't actually see the guy from the ad for a couple days.

Then one morning I woke up hearing two people arguing. I opened my eyes and it was Chris and Bob. From eavesdropping I learned that Chris was just a regular Airbnb customer like me and Bob was using his profile to bring in guests because Bob's profile was shut down. Airbnb discovered what was going on and confiscated Chris's payment to Bob, and Bob was kicking him out 2 weeks early since he didn't have the money. Although knowing Bob, it wouldn't surprise me if a) he was angling to freeroll a double payment, or b) he was just uncomfortable with Chris who after hearing him speak in person was obviously gay.

Either way, I never really got to meet Chris formally, but he was gone after that. Soon, Bob starts asking me if he can use my Airbnb account; obviously I say no. As time goes by, I realize he does this to everyone who comes in, putting them in uncomfortable situations trying to get them to make him a spare Airbnb profile. I’m really surprised how many people just go along with it, including scanning their passport and other documents, etc.

Bob also uses Couchsurfing, but he uses it solely to try and reach out to attractive girls and try to hit on them. Unlike the others, the girls from CS stay in his room (where he has another bed to be fair). I’m not going to go on a holier-than-thou rant about this, I know there are many others who basically use CS for the same thing. But he’s just so sleazy about it, he makes it very apparent that he expects something in return for his “kindness” and hits on them relentlessly. I’ve talked to most of the CS girls who’ve been in and out since I arrived and unsurprisingly all but one talked about how creepy they find him. He keeps getting negative CS references and has to make new accounts there too.

***There’s mold on the bathroom walls and mud on the bathroom floors. Literally every surface of the kitchen counters/table/stove is sticky or has crumbs on it, or some weird unidentifiable sludge. The place was also advertised as non-smoking on Airbnb…Bob used to smoke in the basement but he’s started doing it more in the kitchen now. One of the guests there has asthma and asked him not to smoke around him, now Bob purposefully lights up around him because he thinks it’s funny, plays it up like he forgot or he didn’t notice the guy there. There was apparently a mouse (which I didn’t see) and a cockroach (which I did). I don’t personally care what drugs people use but he also does cocaine and lots and lots of weed.

So…One of the guys who was there before me sent a complaint to Airbnb including photos of the condition the place was in. Airbnb refunded him, and apparently he’s having trouble with the new Airbnb accounts people are giving him so hopefully that means they found a way to shut his account there down permanently.

However he’s started using Craigslist and has people coming in from that (although not as many as Airbnb - occupancy is down). How hard is it to get someone’s Craigslist account shut down? Giving him a negative reference on CS is pointless because he just gives the negative reference back and creates a new account.

The owner came by the other day, he seems like a good guy actually. He was mad at Bob because of the terrible condition the place was in, he also doesn’t like the way he’s subletting everything out (it was clear from the conversation that he didn’t know exactly what was going on re: Airbnb etc.) I wanted to talk to him and explain everything, but there was no opportunity to do so without Bob noticing.

Oh, I think I forgot to mention that the lock on the bathroom doesn't work, so normally people knock. But Bob routinely goes in without knocking, sometimes when there's obviously someone in there, and pretends it was an accident. Usually happens with girls but sometimes he does it with gay dudes, I think to embarrass them or something. He's a prick in so many other ways too but it gets redundant after a while and this post is already too long.

I’m not usually vindictive, but like, this guy’s a real jerk. What can I do to (ethically) get him in some kind of legal/financial trouble, or just make his life a hassle? I've called him out on a couple things but decided not to dig in too much since I still have to live with him for a bit, and I give off kind of a bro-vibe so in spite of everything he can get the impression that I'm like him and we're cool, etc. He's always bragging to me about his new CS targets, or how he's planning on circumventing his Airbnb bans.

Will get back to the survival part of the blog after this detour.

What could I use for filler for a middle school math teaching resume given my lack of work experience? I've taken and passed the Core Praxis and Middle School Math content knowledge Praxis exams but have yet to take the PLT (Principles of Learning and Teaching Praxis).

I know people get hired for teaching positions who are at similar stages regarding praxis exams/teaching experience, but I think they're normally new college grads who actually majored in education, or career-changers with an established history of work experience.

Anyone with resume advice or just general knowledge of this area? I see stuff like:

https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Challenge...D2OV3R4Si0QEjs

or https://www.schoolspring.com/job.cfm?jid=2744472

or even https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Student-A...FeI5Bum14v27-c (seems closely enough related with more flexible requirements)

And think these are the kinds of things I should be applying for...but I'm just at a total loss with the resume. Teaching seems like a tough field to BS about poker in.

Dude,

post your resume or so (clearly edit away all private info). May be that will give you some feed-back. I mean so it is just empty discussion. Respect time of your readers.

And AAAPPPPLY! Apply with however ****ty resume you have now. Because if you don't apply, you will with 100% certainty get nothing.

May be you can give some private lessons in math. I have done that a lot as student.

As far as the current housing goes, does Airbnb have a section you can post a review? If yes, just post there what you posted above.

You’re right that was a mess, never done a blog before but will try to prioritize brevity more going forward.

No updates for a while because I’ve been cramming in mindless slave-wage SEO articles to survive, and I’ve literally never put together a resume before so I have a lot of anxiety about where to even begin. Obviously filled with BS soft skills because what else can I say.

I googled a middle school math teacher resume template and used that format, no idea if it’s good or not. The period I marked as “freelance writer” (my HS graduation – present) is actually something like 65% poker / 15% freelance writer / 20% nothing. But I mean, I think poker is just a non-starter here.

Here's the rough resume I tried putting together, feel free to shred it:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

Some comments:

-The ‘character/values’ stuff is because most of the places willing to hire non-certified teachers are public charter schools (ex: https://www.nhaschools.com/schools/b...s/default.aspx ) which tend to have a moral/religious bent.

-For teachers there are 3 basic Praxis tests they have to take: General Core Reading/Writing/Math (technically 3 tests), Content Knowledge (Middle School Math, in my case), and a PLT (Principles of Learning & Teaching) which I have yet to take.

I scored high on the tests but didn’t include the scores because the schools as a rule aren’t made aware of anyone’s scores, it’s just pass/fail – so I didn’t know if including my score/percentile would be considered some weird procedural breach.

-Obviously GPA is terrible but once in a while I see jobs with 3.0 min GPA listed as a requirement so I figured might as well throw it in.

-I guess I should make a completely different resume for non-teaching jobs….

In a rush now bit please leave comments/advice, thanks!! My new Airbnb in Queens is awesome, I love it here and anticipate being a lot more productive in a much less miserable environment.

Just some remarks:

Don't put just excellent communication skills. Give an example, something like:
Last time I had to apply my excellent communication skills was in renting an airbnb by a difficult host. I had to communicate my limits to him and at the same time to get along until the end of my lease. ......

Same with other points.

Have you ever done something with kids? Baby sitting or so? Tutoring? Put it on the resume.

Give something believable, why do you want to help kids.

I mean so like it is, it screams: BS made without putting some effort in.

Less focus on resume writing and more focus on the BOB situation please. This is a potential goldmine of a thread.

Also we need the backstory on chasing the girl.

Yeah subbing I hope this gets awesome!

Good luck sir, curious to how you work things out for you. I've tried a lot of various online review/writing sites like Textbroker and the best advice i have to give is to check out Reddit.

This is really interesting, subscribed. Good luck

Another off-topic update:

Not really trying to make this a political blog, but one of my new roommates is a Muslim from Palestine and she just told me she's flying to Canada tomorrow because of the situation here. She was #1 in her class back in Palestine, graduated from med school at Cornell, and is now trying to get her surgeon residency or w/e it's called. Obviously very bright girl and also nice and cool to talk with. Sucks ;\

Quick update: things have taken a definite upswing since moving to the new place. I've had a stride at around $70/day on TB which might not seem great but is enough to cover all my living expenses (provided I don't take more than 3 days off per month..yikes).

I discovered an amazing big Asian grocery store, I honestly couldn't wipe the smile off my face as I was looking at all the cool stuff they had lol. Favorite thing so far is the melon-flavored mochi. BTW I got this interesting-looking cod fish fillet in a bag - I don't have to cook it or anything right? It wasn't frozen or refrigerated at the store, don't see any cooking instructions on back.



While things are improving in the sense that I have a semi-stable source of income, I'm still falling behind with things like improving my resume and actually getting a job. Which is bad I guess, because this writing stuff has no future (at least for me, I'm pretty sure), while getting an actual career started should pay dividends down the road.

Maybe part of the reason I'm haven't pursued it more aggressively is because it's harder to get hired mid-school year (and if there's a school with an opening, there's usually a reason). I also need to get my 3 months of practice teaching done, and after that I should actually have a good chance at finding a position starting next Fall. Of course the biggest factor is just that so much of my time and energy is spent treading water with this writing stuff.

Right now I see writing like this as preferable to having to commute somewhere just to make $10/hr (about what I get now). $15/hr would be a different story probably, but I don't know where those jobs are.

BOB is some kind of weird demented scumbag who's having a midlife crisis. In addition to what I've already said (any questions about that, feel free to ask): he has 3 children - two are from when he was in high school and are now about the age of many of the girls he hits on from couchsurfing. The other I believe is 7 years old. Apparently he recently lost visitation rights to her, I can only imagine why.

He says he used to be in the restaurant business, but when I pressed him about what he did he just said he was a waiter. He also used to breed and sell dogs, and recently had to go to court for neglect or something like that because one of his dogs escaped during summer and starved to death (or got injured and died or something, idk).

He's very bipolar about women in the sense that sometimes he's all about getting pussy at all costs, and other times he talks (earnestly) about being ready to marry a girl, sometimes days after meeting them. He takes every single one to the Sugar Factory followed by the Grisly Pear - same date every time.

Several times he tried to pressure me into giving him my Airbnb account by implying we were at risk of being evicted and it would be my fault for not playing ball, lol. He did have another place he was evicted from about a year ago apparently, but the subtenants were taken care of. This was just days after he bragged about buying a girl he just met a $200 jacket, so I told him to **** off (which I would've done anyway).

He has a mentally disabled person staying there who he takes advantage of by making him clean. He gets a $150 break on the rent for doing this, but it's for like 25-30 hours of work. But he (disabled guy) will hopefully be getting his section 8 housing soon, so he'll be taken care of. He thinks Bob is his friend and he's getting a great deal with the rent discount btw.

Anyways I think this post is getting too rambly so maybe I'll talk about the girl some other time :P Anyway I've decided to let Bob drift out of my life and allow karma to catch up to him.

I checked out one of the reddits, I think it was for getting started as a freelance writer, and it seemed like a very good post. The problem is that it seemed more geared towards the long game of making it a career. I feel like for what I'm doing, I won't be at it long enough to reap the benefits of making my own professional-looking Wordpress site, putting together a portfolio, etc. Maybe I'm wrong though.

Thanks, it's been tough finding time to work on it but I will keep your advice in mind when I do. Unfortunately I haven't done much with kids tbh, unless I could spin helping a few people with their math homework as tutoring.

Thanks guys

where are you now in NY? apply for Starbucks barista?

also, walk dogs

Isn't McDonalds at 15$/hour now?

that's another couple of years down the line, $11/hr rn ($10.50 for smaller businesses)

Oh I see I thought it was already more in the city.

Corona, Queens. Aside from the fact that I'm nearly a 20 min walk from the closest subway, I love it here. According to a quick Google/Glassdoor, Starbucks only pays $10.80/hr in NYC.

Anyone know of any places in the city I can go to get work done at odd hours of the morning with wifi? There's not really a table to sit at where I'm saying so I end up just typing while laying/sitting in bed.

It looks like there's a 24 hr Starbucks at 43rd and Broadway but according to Yelp reviews they don't have seating. Anything else? Specifically looking for something that's open from like midnight to 5am-ish (roughly) so libraries etc. don't work.

subway? new 2nd ave line has wifi everywhere and they claim they wired all other stations but I haven't checked you might encounter some 2-4am weirdos but I assume UES stations would have none of that