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Jobs for Moonlighting Geeks?
BreadWinner asks: "My wife and I are adopting a baby in 2003 and it's very expensive. I work for a non-profit that can't pay me what I feel I'm worth. However, I really like my job, my boss, the time off, and my co-workers. So I'm considering moonlighting. I've done private contracting, but I don't think I can do my private clients justice when I'm working full-time. So what kind of job can I find that: I can leave at the job; maximize my $/hour? Anybody done commission-based electronics sales? I'm not an uber-geek, but I'm interested in whatever you folks at Slashdot can suggest."
No, I mean wait tables. I do this now, but only on Friday night and Saturdays. I get a little gas money from the hourly wage of $2.13/hour, but I also make between $60-$150 in cash.
This leaves me Sundays off, and Mon-Thur evenings for time at home, and in your case with Wife and baby.
Sig? What's a Sig?
I used to work in retail and I can tell you it is good money to have on the side. Usually, the people who do the schedule are flexible and will let you work whenever you would like.
However commission based sales are a tricky business. Several years ago, I worked at a well-known department store that paid you a base hourly rate and commission. The thing is, if your commission did not meet or exceed what you would have been paid at your hourly rate, you only got your hourly rate and on the next pay schedule, you had to make up the difference before you could start counting the commission you earned toward your next paycheck.
Some people who work at these stores are also very aggressive and will do nearly anything to get their commission, even if it means sometimes taking credit for a sale you made. Trust no one at first. Handle all of your transactions yourself. Find out what items on the floor pay the most in commissions. Sell the extended warranties.
I had some internal conflicts before. There was a particular camera that paid $10 for each one you sold by the manufacturer. The thing is, it was a piece of junk that I think was designed to break in 6 months. I sold the daylights out of those but I hated myself for it.
Finally, it's a little late in the holiday season to be thinking about a retail job. Most department stores are going to start laying off their holiday help in the next week or so. And with retailers reporting less than impressive profits, it will be hard to find work there about now.
GOBACK.
This is good advice. Don't overlook the schools of commercial art & design. Most are moving into the "certified (certifiable?) web developer" and "multimedia graphics artist" areas. If you can teach PhotoShop and floppy disk formatting you can earn what works out to $20/hr or more. Plus you get rooms of Macs & Windows to play on.
Envy my 5 digit Slashdot User ID!
Hiyas!
Not sure if that helps or not since I couldnt find what exact area you would like to work in, but here it is:
Rent A Coder
The main site has problems right now, but I can get to specific subsites by bookmarked URL so it should be back soon.
With an account you can bid for small scale software dev projects.
A says "I want an TCP Stack for my microwave oven"
B says "I've done 10 projects so far and to implement your project I want 100 bucks!"
C says "I've done 1 project so far and to do your stuff I want 75 bucks!"
No a gets to choose if he wants to contract B or C.
I've created an account but due to lack of time didnt land a contract yet, but I've heard some quite positive things about this site.
I stumbled accross that site when people where talking about making some money in their freetime on some bulletin board - if you're good you can make like 1000$ a month with that.
Hope this helps!
Good luck to you & your family!
Before you email me, remember: "There is no god!"
Actually, the plasma TV thing was meant as a joke. However, the reply was totally on-topic, as he asked for a *semi* tech related job. Best Buy is pretty close (as far as leaving the job at the job, etc). I brought up the 5% over cost thing as well since it might make sense (as someone else already posted), if he spends a good deal of money on electronics/movies/cds anyway. In the long run, he saves money from buying at his temporary place of employment, and it could help him pay for other things. However, I also understand that if he's getting this second job, it's because he needs extra money in the first place, which then assumes that he probably isn't going to be buying any extra electronics/movies/cds...
Glen
Track your fuel economy
I used to work a part-time job as a sound reinforcement/monitor tech for a small (me and the owner) outfit. We specialized in acoustic performances and smaller festivals so there wasn't a lot of show-biz phlegm.
I only worked once a month or so and though it was intermittently hard work, it always seemed like a vacation from my day job because it was a totally different, fun and layed back atmosphere. Plus I learned a bunch, met some great people and got to indulge my geeky and artsy aspects as well.
How I lucked into this job? I volunteered as a stage hand at a festival ONCE (to stalk^H^H^H^H^H see Mary Chapin-Carpenter) and my future employer liked my work ethic and started calling me with offers. Neat how that works sometimes.
Anyways, don't restrict yourself to mainstream jobs that suck. Look between the cracks. Follow your bliss, etc. etc. etc.
Good idea ... this is how I payed for my first year university textbooks. Once you help out a few people, your name gets around and you get referrals. This is when you start making some respectable money. It's nice to be able to go out for 2.5 hours to someone's house, run ad-aware, virus scan, reinstall an app or two, have a nice little chat about computer safety and come back $60 richer. If it's a business, you come back $100-150 richer. It's good money if you are a jack of all trades in PC tinkering.