What Do People in the IT Field Do for Side Jobs?

Flagg0204 asks: "Growing up in a primarily white collar household I wasn't exposed to 'side-jobs' until I met my girlfriend whose family was mostly blue collar. This got me to thinking. What do people in the IT field do for side jobs? Electricians, plumbers, HVAC, mechanic, these fields have many opportunities for a little extra cash on the side. What are some IT/IS side jobs that Slashdot readers do for extra money?"

Comments

I've never been able to make this work.

[Skyshadow]

In my experience, the nature of IT work tends to rule out being able to hold down a side job. The biggest obstacle is the fact that almost all IT work (or salaried work in general, really) tends to have at least one or two "crunch times" per year where you have to work weird hours.

Aside from that, I've noticed that the lion's share of part-time skilled labor still takes place between 9 and 5. There are plenty of 10-15 hour a week IT jobs, but very few where you're not on regular work hours. Even if you find one, any bit of success tends to pull the work towards business hours -- I briefly had a side gig as a trainer at night, but that quickly devolved into "can you do this during the day?" once companies started demanding our services.

As a consequence, you are forced to look for jobs which are both off-hours and feature very flexible schedules. This tends to translate into low skill and thus low paying. I don't mean to sound elitist here, but when you're making good money at a regular job I think you'll find that it's just not worth surrendering your free time for what you can bring in working at Starbucks. Remember: just because you're not paid when you're not at work doesn't mean that time is worthless.

If you're not making enough money, it might be a better use of your time to continue your education. Many universities cater to people who work a 9-5, and a lot of employers will help pay for you to go. The payoff isn't as immediate, but in many situations it's a far better plan overall.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[BoomerSooner]

Maybe you shouldn't be in the IT industry then. When you have a passion for something you tend to enjoy doing it when ever the opportunity is available. I cannot imagine an artist saying I cannot wait to quit painting or drawing...

Just my 2 cents.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[SCHecklerX]

Having a passion for something, and wanting to work on other people's broken shit is hardly the same thing. It's about moderation. All of the computer stuff I do at home is for myself, or for my cycling team (no charge). For example, setting up mailing lists for them, with mimedefang and spamassassin protection (helps them and myself, since it is my own server).

But like the poster above, the last thing I want to do when I get home from working with computers all day is to touch another computer, even if it is something really cool. Every now and then I'll get hit with inspiration, and that is when I add cool new features to the cycling team database, or to my mail server, or my home jukebox, or whatever. The nice thing about it is that I can do it on MY TERMS. I refuse to do 'tech support' type work, however; even for family members. I didn't STOP using windows years ago just so that I could fix OTHER PEOPLE's problems with that PITA inflexible pile of crap.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[JanneM]

Renée Magritte (of "This in not a pipe" fame) went to his studio every morning after breakfast, then came home at the same time every day for dinner with the family, effectively treating the art as his dayjob.

Just because someone really likes doing something - even if they are passionate about it - people may well want to not do it all the time. Most scientists do not actually spend all their waking hours thinking about their work, most mucisians aren't always playing or thinking about music.

Most people, passionate or not, do want a life.