If you need guaranteed work immediately, software is not it. If you want to maximize salary, and can take plenty of time trying and failing, it can be. It doesn't sound like you have that time.
If you are worried about homelessness, you need a radical mindset shift. You should not be thinking about software dev in the slightest.
For example, if I were to say "I want to improve my German, make me a personalised tutor" and you thought that sounded good, 300 other people who lurk here without commenting will immediately go "ooh, interesting" and also make the same app (and as everyone will be vibe-coding from almost the same prompt, most of them really will be the exact same app down to the style choices and the number and names of achievements).
This was already a problem before LLMs, where copy-cat apps sprung up the moment anything new got famous and interesting. Clones of Flappy Bird and Wordle, even Apple did this with Sherlock and Microsoft with Internet Explorer.
So, my advice here, is to think small-scale. Find individuals and small businesses near you who are willing to pay for the work of a day to a fortnight, where the hard part is talking to them and learning what their needs are, not individual big projects that bring in $10k all at once. (For a fortnight sized project, you might get lucky and find someone who's up for $10k, but don't count on it).
A side hustle might replace your income one day, but it won’t move fast enough to solve a six-month rent deficit. Focus 100% of your energy on securing a job first; once your housing is stable, you can use your off-hours to build that $10k idea.
If you are six months behind on rent, you just go find a job cleaning shit and fatbergs out of sewers if that's what is available IMO.
The fewer skills required the more people you need to compete with.
Selling ten $1,000 websites to small businesses is easy. It isn't fun or exciting, but it works.
It's 50% sales, 30% chasing people, and 20% building.
Find small local businesses with bad websites, or better yet no website. They honestly do exist.
Resist the urge to make your own anything. Just use Squarespace or Wix!
You don't need to hide SS or Wix from the client. Tell them you just charge for your time to set it all up. If they complain then move onto the next customer, they would likely be a pain anyway.
People will say "small marketing websites are dead with SS or Wix about", but it's not true. Most small businesses just don't want to learn how!
If you cold call all week I bet you can have a couple of deals done by Friday! Good luck.
Lastly, most of the advice you'll get around here will be technical, but every now and again a gem will popup that sort-of 'fills in the blanks' when it comes to the other part of this, which is sales and marketing. It's not easy, but it's not all hard. I recommend this thread if you want to read more about it, the Op gives some good advice on how to get leads, and eventually customers. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46661167
Tell them how much you charge before you start work and ask if they want you to start work. It can only go one of two ways.
The easiest way to convince them is to compare it to sales. If they are an electrician with an average job of $500, that website only needs to earn them two extra jobs per year to break even.
But the easiest way is to be a sociopath and not care. Ask the question and they will either say yes or no. No one is going to assassinate you for pitching a marketing website to them.
If they say yes, do you care where the money has come from? Would it matter if that was their last $1k? If they're loaded would you feel more confident? What if you do a great job and then it turns out that money came from illegal sources?
What about if they say no? Will you stay awake at night worrying that their business is losing work because people think they're weird for not having a website? What if your marketing website lands them a big client because of the "authenticity factor" of having a professional marketing website?
None of these things actually matter. But getting paid $1k feels good, especially if you've done a good job and earned it. :)
EDIT: Did you mean $1k annually or just for the initial project?
Even if they want to, they have approximately 500 other problems to deal with that are more urgent.
Just figure out how you handle support after the initial project phase: It's a lot easier to get a small business to spend $1000 on a website than to get them to spend $100/year for the constant trickle of small changes they'll inevitable need later.
Ouch, hoisted by your own petard. Start a Substack positioning yourself as a reformed AI enthusiast who now rails against the economic havoc the technology leaves in its wake. I'm only half joking. A lot of folks on Substack are pretty hostile toward AI, and they would probably eat that up.
Nothing new under the moon in the last few centuries. There is no magic pill or secret ingredient.
Each path has its trade offs.
I’ve tried both. Reaching 10k in software engineering salary took longer but easier and more predictable. My first profitable business attempt was a tiny bootcamp school (about software engineering obviously) and it never reached 10k of my own income due to lack of business experience and motivation.
Choose a field where 1. There is enough capacity to reach the number with just a hard work (software engineering, finance, law, real estate etc)
2. You feel comfortable and genuinely longterm interested in (most important criteria).
What else do you expect to hear on a forum like this?
I bet LLM would give you similar answer :)
Then decide between option1 or 2.
Option 1: Start by taking a "random IT integrator/service job" to keep your flat and food on the table, stop even thinking about building and "vibing" something. Just take a job, large "consulting" companies are easy to join as entry-level and will give you enough to survive, but far from your 10k dream.
Stabilise your finances, take time to refine your ideas and plan the next step without the stress to not knowing if you will be homeless or hungry next month.
Option 2: Play the local lottery and tomorrow, GOTO option 1
only viable option in an economy that's not hiring is to hire yourself - but don't swing for the fences - just small scale stuff e.g 250 people paying you $40/month
not as sexy as ML etc that HN raves about but you will survive
Painting walls. Fastfood. Construction helper. Anything.
Only then start thinking about meaningful jobs.
Career is a steep ladder for us mortals that don't have rich families to lift us to the 100th floor with their financial and network elevators.
Step 2 If you know ML/AI then send 10000 applications this weekend for job positions (whatever you may like).
Step 3 Wait till Monday.
What about step 1? I seem not to get the 'may be toxic part'
Good luck.
For me, getting a Skoolie and subletting my apt in NYC gave me a great foundation
1. I was able to sublet my furnished place in nyc for $1k more than rent and make money while traveling.
2. I was able to work remote visiting clients and spending time in nature.
3. It provided a certain kind of daily challenge that was great for me.
4. The adventure was incredible and I fell in love with the road. I thought I’d spend a month or three cruising around but it ended up about over 3 years.
5. I followed my heart and the weather to hot springs Arkansas to watch the total eclipse and met a woman who I just got engaged to (while in Antarctica at an AI conference).
6. My business has been the best it’s ever been and put me into a top 1% income.
I wasn’t broke when I started but it was amazing to have a sense that even if I was I could buy a big bag of beans and rice, head to a gorgeous piece of free federal BLM land, run my laptop on solar and use my cell WiFi to figure it out.
Beyond that, figure out what problem you want to solve for the world and go find people working on that problem and help them.