--- title: How a Wrongfully Convicted Homeless Guy Just Scored a $100K Tech Job description: A well-off IT guy was convicted of selling crack, wrongfully, and went to jail and then homelessness. He's back on his feet now. authors: - name: Ethan Wolff-Mann url: https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 160 covers: - Career Advice - Banking - Business - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/ewolffmann former_staff: true published: '2015-12-17T17:44:55.000Z' modified: '2015-12-17T17:44:55.000Z' section: Career Advice tags: - homelessness - IT - Job market - reentering the job market - Tech word_count: 394 canonical: https://money.com/homeless-man-100k-tech-job/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![will work for food sign](https://img.money.com/2015/12/151217_car_homelessjob.jpg) Back in 2006, James Simmons was arrested for selling crack and resisting arrest. At the time, he was a contract systems analyst in Seattle, and had far better and less risky things to do than to deal drugs. Yet he was picked up by the police and slapped with a year in prison. By the time Simmons was released, he had lost his house and his fine German automobile. He lived in an alley, then a 60-bed shelter, drifting in and out of homelessness for a few years. In 2010, Simmons was exonerated because the arresting officer had a history of lying, something which was known by the state at his trial. Despite Simmons' scrubbed record, however, he stayed homeless for five more years—until now. According to the *Seattle Times*, [which featured Simmons in a profile](http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless-it-guy-scores-his-100000-dream-job/) recently, he has been actively applying to plenty of jobs in his old industry of systems security. Even though Simmons was able to get his foot in the door because he was still technically a certified information systems auditor, the companies kept sending him away after learning in the background check process that he had spent time in prison. The fact his name is on the [National Registry of Exonerations](https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=3638) apparently did not alleviate company concerns about Simmons. Overcoming the difficulties of dressing up for job interviews while homeless was also a huge challenge for Simmons. After tons of rejected applications and interviews, Simmons finally got a job offer—he won't say where, because he just started. He'll be making $100,000 per year, and he started earlier this week. None of this would have been possible without a mountain of support. The shelter where Simmons stayed, called the Compass Housing Alliance, played a huge part in getting him back on his feet, buying him a train ticket to his job and a motel stay in addition to his housing. The United Way's Navigator's Program, which helps empower the homeless, chipped in with assistance as well. And after the *Seattle Times* published a piece on Simmons' situation, a computer security community called InfoSec [sent offers of help and support](http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless-it-guy-scores-his-100000-dream-job/), including retailer gift cards for a new wardrobe. “We’re basically hackers,” Robert Hansen, VP of Labs for White Hat Security in Austin, Texas, told the *Times'* Daniel Westneat. “We’re about 100,000 strong. 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