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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?"
it depends what kind of IT skills you have.
i am working for few online games like iclod and xmoo, they generate a bit of incomes and open up opportunities for other jobs.
the advantage is i don't need to be there physically to carry out works, but with that advantage, i also get the disadvantage of having thousand of similarly skilled people fighting for the same work.
i believe hardware-IT may have more opportunities. just post an ads on local newspaper to "Fix Your Computer Problems At Home" and there bound to be some elderly people who would rather get a local service from a local person at home.
Play iCLOD
I learn fun new stuff, I get to take things at my own pace, I get fun email from other people, and I make enough to cover my car payment. Best of all, it feeds my megalomania.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
I sometimes to photography or video work, which as time goes on, has a lot more to do with technology than ever before.
I got into engineering because I liked building things. (Additional joy comes from seeing people use what I build). So, you're not so far off when you guess that HVAC, electrical, and plumbing work may be a good side job option. I've known some guys that do car stereo installations, or home alarm system installations as side jobs.
Another side job related to IT work is typing. Sometimes you can find a simple temp job that requires you to type in data. Because programmers are generally fast at typing, it's an easy fit.
Because the company I work for owns everything I think and do, according to my employment agreement. Nothing is considered "side-work."
--Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
and spam from people in the neighborhood.
Help end the use of Sigs. Tomorrow
I have started my own IT consulting business for home PC users. I advertise locally in the neighbor hood and work nights and weekends.
When I'm not VP of IT for a 200 employee company, I fix/tune/hack German cars for a local speed shop. The money is good and I find it to be a lot more interesting than my "day job." At the end of the day, the car either works or it doesn't so it's very easy to see a sense of progress and feel like you've accomplished something. Compare that to a never ending network/software rollout while sitting in a cube giving/taking orders...
I find that it's a very fun, and profitable, hobby to have on the side. I'm playing enough now that I do consider it a side job... in fact, I make a better hourly wage than at my real job! The best part about it is, I can play whenever I have a spare hour or two... I don't have to schedule it in.
I've started getting all of my other friends in IT hooked on it as well :)
However, I have some friends in the IT field that do general contracting (home additions, decks, drywalling, home improvements, etc.). It's apparently lucrative. One friend mentioned he loves it since he's not stuck behind a desk, and he can keep his craftsmanship skills honed.
Write, edit, produce, direct Vampire movies. http://loudorangecat.com
- Just my $0.02, take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary.
Well, I am not sure it counts as a side job, as I don't have a job in the first place, but when I am not toiling at either school or theatre, I do lighting work for a local production company (owned and operated by some old friends). Being production work, it is very gig-oriented, but by the same token it is well suited to side work, as there are no long term commitments involved.
So, yeah, sound and lighting design and operation for small/medium productions.
Phus. Sysiphus.
I spend my spare time writing open source software.
Why on earth would I want a side job? I generally play golf, play around with home improvement projects, travel, etc, with my free time.
Why would I want to take that time away for a side job?
I guess my answer to your questions is, uh, either "nothing" or "spend money made at my single job" depending on the time of year.
I proofread books, both treeware and e-books for three different publishers, including doing scan-and-proof of old books for electronic republication. It's a great way to relax and put my computer skills to use without having to dive into the details of the bits-and-bytes after hours.
Many universities cater to people who work a 9-5 ...
I hope that you see the obvious side job for the white collar worker: teach an evening course at the local community college. Of course, you'll be making less per hour than the janitor, but it is white collar.
See what I've been reading.
I have a full-time software development job during normal working hours, but I work part-time in a bike shop (usually only on the weekends or holidays).
Most of the time, I do minor repairs and assembly on new bikes, also safety checks for test rides. Sometimes I help customers on the sales floor. Either way, it's totally rewarding, and gives me a huge sense of satisfaction (unlike spending time at the office writing email, sitting in meetings, writing reports, etc.). Also, it's really nice to be around people who are relaxed and not on some big fscking power-trip while trying to climb the corporate ladder.
I preach for money. (many churches look to seminary students or former seminary student to do fill in preaching - they call it pulpit supply - when a pastor is on vacation) I've been tempted to put together a business card with that side job on it, "Serving God and mammon since 1997." Also, I work in a children's home. The overnight shift at the home allows me to work online during downtime. And then sometimes I do the freelance gig too. Who doesn't?
yes. that's all I'm going to say in all comments from now on.
The gray market for services has grown consistently since I moved out to the bay area. Since the dot-com flame-out and the massive spending binges have ended, it's easier to hire someone for some quick "consulting" work than to employee people full time. A lot of people I know do on-the-side consulting for a few dollars here and there. Mostly IT stuff: companies small enough to not be able to pay someone full time but big enough to need someone to call on when they are in trouble. Lots of "checking the CEO's laptop" type jobs.
You have to be careful with this kind of work, though. As the name implies, the gray market is somewhere between the black market (totally illegal) and the normal market (regulated by industry and government). Some companies will 1099 you and report what they paid you, some companies won't. It is illegal, AFAIK, to receive money for work and not report it as income.
The money can be good, but if you are unlucky enough to be caught, the back taxes can be quite expensive.
Jeff
By day I work for IBM as an engineer. By night, I'm an investigator for my wife's private investigations company http://www.travisinvestigations.com/ . I get to help spy on cheating wives and husbands, catch people in insurance fraud and other such things. Probably the part I enjoy the most is when I get to make use of new electronic tools like covert GPS tracking devices etc... What I dislike are the long nights surveiling some cheating spouse or watching someone to see if they are poor parents in custody cases. Of course I also take care of the company computers (mostly Macs believe it or not).
Just joined the Army National Guard, going to be a Chinese Linguist/Interrogator. Training is two years long, so I'll be doing CS stuff from a dorm room for a while. Looking forward to leaving college and "fixing other people's computer" behind for a while...
It's got flexible hours and the pay is performance based.
At the local vocational school. Linux+, Fundamentals of UNIX, and Webserver development. Its a great paycheck and it keeps your skills sharp.
I wouldn't normally think of this, but I was just at my parents' house for Thanksgiving and one of their pipes sprung a leak, resulting in a puddle in the basement. (It's lucky I was there, actually, since my parents don't go to the basement with any regularity. The guest room is in the basement, however, and I noticed the puddle before it became a flood.) They tried to find a plumber the day after Thanksgiving, and all they could find was someone who wanted $240/hour for emergency service. Fortunately, I was able to patch it temporarily with some rubber and a hose clamp.
It got me thinking, though, that I could do cut-rate (only $150/hour!) emergency plumbing and significantly improve my income. I wouldn't even have to be that good, just good enough to patch things until a real plumber was available for reasonable rates. Mostly idle thinking, but...
Of course it's against corporate policy. But while managament makes the rules, they don't know how to enforce it because us uber-geeks know how to get around all of the firewalls and network-monitoring. :-)
Seriously, I daytrade stocks and futures at the office. Been doing okay. Once I'm making more doing that compared to my IT job, I'm quitting.
The speaker was, for the first time in his pathetic life, speechless. No one had ever challenged him on the issue of Tibet.
I make tasty beer.
1-3 books per year for 150 to 300 hours total. I do it to flush out my resume and to force myself to learn things that I probably won't learn as part of my full-time gig. The extra money helps too.
n 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.
I think this is spot on. A lot of IT jobs are salaried, and there is a huge difference between hourly wages and salary. Waged employment usually has a very fixed set of hours you are expected to work, and any work outside of that is overtime and more expensive for the employer, so it's discouraged. You are being paid for a fixed set of hours, so time outside that is your own, allowing for work on the side. On the other hand salaried work is essentially paying you to "get the job done" regardless of hours. They're paying you up front for as much of your time as it takes. Side jobs just don't come into it.
Having worked both waged (as a baker) and salaried (as a research mathematician) jobs, that's exactly how it generally worked for me. Both have their advantages, and side jobs is simply one of the advantages of waged employment.
Jedidiah.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
The moment they know you're in I.T. everyone in your family, and all your mother's friends, want you to fix their PCs
I had to give up my family and friend side job of building them computers. I now reference them to the small business section of www.dell.com (much better deals then the regular home section) and www.slickdeals.net for references to Dell SB deals. I've had enough of giving out lifetime free tech support. I traveled to my home town for Thanksgiving and spent about 10 hours of my long weekend fixing computers for friends and family. Sure, I will still help them with spyware and such but I am now the second phone call after Dell for those I've pointed in that direction and not the first. Sorry for the diehard white box builders but I had to get out. Not worth it to me.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
I'm an AIX Systems Administrator and trained IBM pSeries hardware technician (network guru, etc) by day. At night I buy, refurbish, and resell IBM RS/6000s and pSeries machines on eBay. Having a side business is great and allows me tax advantages that, as just a W-2 wage earner, I can't get.
My wife certainly doesn't mind the extra income; it has helped us pay off our cars and make extra payments on our house. Nice to be out of debt and have an actual savings account!
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
I try pretty hard not to do much in the way of solving friends' and relatives' computer problems. I'll listen politely to a short complaint, and 90% of the time recommend getting away from IE and/or Outlook, and/or getting Spybot and an AV program. Of the rest, I normally point them elsewhere, or just remind them that I am not really a Windows person. My brother takes care of my mom (he is a Windows jock, and lives a lot closer) or I'd help her out. Everyone else is self-sufficient, or goes elsewhere. I do try to help out at church on occasion, but it's such a horrid hodegpodge of randomly-hacked and duct taped Windows and Mac systems that usually I'm no help. If they ever switch to *nix, though... 8^)
I do have a couple of friends I trade services or things with. But generally even if I ask a friend such as a plumber to come work on something, I'd rather just pay him, and him have the option of saying, "Nah, just call the office, I wanna go see my family at night." I hate presuming on friendship.
BUT... I repair and build vacuum tube guitar amps on the side. I haven't actually made money in any given year, yet, but I'm close. Cranking out power chords and such at full volume can be very cathartic, too!
I've taught math and computer science part time at two different universities.
I've worked as a per-diem EMT, although it's mostly a volunteer endeavor for me. I also know a handful of other EMT/IT folks. The (probably false) story I've heard is that in the 80's and before, a lot of the IT folks were working in industries where you needed a security clearance (defense, aerospace), and they needed to have their own internal EMS teams as a consequence.
One side job that doesn't have the problem of clashing with office hours is writing. Over the past few years, I have co-authored two O'Reilly books: "SSH, The Secure Shell (The Definitive Guide)" and "The Linux Security Cookbook." In addition to a substantial second income, I have had several follow-on writing and consulting opportunities (white papers, articles, etc.). Of course, there's the question of whether you want to spend even more time sitting in front of a computer in your off hours...
On average I do 2 or 3 small cabling jobs a year and for a few days of work I can make some fast cash. For an office of 10 people you've got ~30 cable runs or more depending on how much expansion they want to pay for. These kinds of jobs can usually be cranked out in 3 days or so, depending on size, and they are always afterhours.
How much you want to be involved is up to you. I usually only like putting down all the passive equipment: racks, patch panels, 110 blocks, cable, jacks, feeders, etc. I'll test the permanent lines, hand them the results and walk away (or charge them more for a lifetime warranty :). Sometimes I'll install a small switch and make some drops "hot" so they are ready for move-in. I'd advise to stick with the passive installs, much less complex.
Also I should add a disclaimer. There are licenses needed for this kind of work (at least in my area), specifically a low voltage contractor's license. You can obtain one with some studying and 1 test. Furthermore, to get into telephone rooms to run feeder to office suites, most building owners/maintenance will want to see a million-dollar liability insurance or something similar - in case you yank somebody's T1 down there or something.
Aside from that I'd recommend it. All the info you need is online and if you didn't know much about your network's physical layer you'd also gain from the experiance.
Once or twice, I've thought about setting up a "Computer Guy" shop for the apartment complex I live in. I'd limit work to only those who lived at the complex (which means no traveling everywhere) and maybe I could get the complex to post a sign up on our billboard or mailboxes or something. It'd be a few extra bucks here and there and people would have someone close to load their printer with paper and turn their monitors on ;) Maybe later...
While it's obvious the original poster seemed more interested in IT-only side jobs, I think non-IT side jobs are worth a mention. I worked in room service in Las Vegas for a few years after college to help pay off my IT schooling. I finished paying it off just this last September so I promptly gave my two weeks notice.
Though honestly I do really miss it at times. My job is computers, my hobby is computers, it was nice to make some cash and spend my time on something other than sitting in front of a computer.
And up until my most recent IT job, I was making far more money doing room service.
"Excellence in Mediocrity"
For money - well, I'm involved in web hosting. Building sites doesn't pay any more - not for me anyway - so I just do the hosting side. The money isn't great, but it's fun.
I also buy and sell stuff at garage sales. Hey, don't laugh! There's money to be made there if you know what you're doing ...
Alison
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." - Albert Einstein
Or more accurately, guitar player in a local band selling CDs on the web and online stores like iTunes. And of course not for money, but certainly for the potential of "making it" (and thus making money). But given how long we've been at it such a reality is looking increasingly unrealistic. Though we did make some decent $ a couple of years ago when we were touring.
Like most indie bands of our ilk and time period we just wanted to be as "famous" as Pavement and as long-lived as Superchunk.
I have a weekend job mucking out a local stable. The pay isn't great, but it's good exercise and I like working with horses.
I actually find it relaxing. The horses don't bitch, the boss only cares about getting the stables cleaned and I feel like something worthwhile has been accomplished.
Besides doing database work for a few websites(as my main job), I work at a bar bouncing some nights and bartending others. I also use my experience from my years in the Navy and do handyman work (plumbing, light electrical, and some carpentry) for a few of the local businesses when they need me (and time permits). All in all I should say that at this time I make more money in my side jobs (especially tending bar) then I do in my full time work.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
IT Sales and Apple Certified 10AM-7PM, 9PM-2to3AM - Bartender at the major music venue here in town. Best of both worlds.
Can you ping me now? Gooood! | Manhappenin.Net - Things to do
My wife and I are both geeks. Both of us do AI work and manage a couple of computer networks. We are also both hard core horse geeks. In her case, she makes some money teaching riders on the side. I spend my time training the horses.
The irony of it is given the mindnumbing nature of the math I have to slog through on a regular basis, the relaxation of the barn (dodging flying hooves, etc...) actually helps me to relax. The net result is an increase in productivity in my day job when I end up producing algorithms while wearing poop on my boots. Go figure.
"Laugh Quietly- tomorrow is your turn to be rong."
I suppose it's slightly off-topic, but as a "side job" I'm a volunteer paramedic with my local rescue squad. I don't get paid in money, but it's an extraordinarily worthwhile way to spend my time. I see it as being paid in karma, although our sometimes our "firehouse humor" seems to balance out that karmic gain. My regular duty shift requires between 60 and 80 hours per month, and I often put in more than that. If I had to, I could easily get a job as a paid paramedic with a private ambulance company (hello, layoff insurance), but my IT job (software engineer) pays well enough. Another local rescue squad sometimes pays people to work casually, but even for a medic the pay is pretty poor -- along the lines of $8/hr, last I checked.
Well that isn't entirely true. I started in blacksmithing by doing a course at an adult education college. Then saw an anvil, forge and other smithing tools in a local paper. Turns out there is a business around the corner from my place that is a metal fabricator and does blacksmithing as well. So I hang out with my local blacksmith and pickup info that way.
He's also a fitter and turner so knows machinery pretty well.
I don't really have a side job. Instead, I go out and help build houses for Habitat for Humanity. I'm a computer nerd by trade but I'm a carpenter by heart. I love to build things and building for those who otherwise would never own a home is very rewarding. I also do the occasional church raising out in the rural areas.
There is nothing inherently safe about liberty. That's why so many people died protecting it.
I find that a lot of people are doing eBay as side jobs.
... it also brings people to eBay that really don't have enough time to dedicate to it. ebay is either an all or nothing business if you ask me. I find that the people that the people that do it in their spare time poorly pack things, overcharge for shipping (making up wild excuses for the shipping and handling charges), and often don't respond when issues or questions arise.
While this brings a lot of cool items to ebay with great descriptions (I sometimes use ebay descriptions for knowledge and research on products - not just buying)
I have also noticed that some items seem to be "from work" and may be "lifted" "from work" - particularly cables and routing equipment.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
I do linux gigs on the side. It's all been word of mouth "Hey, I heard you do linux, is that right?" from people who know people who know of a need for some linux skills - They need a vpn/firewall, a new mail server, or to migrate their webservers from windows to linux, etc, etc. Almost all of the word of mouth customers have become permanent customers, and they call me when they need something done. A few of the customers (a shipping company, a finance company) have become regular customers who have me work remotely several hours a week, and the $500-$1500 per month extra from working from home does come in handy.
Another activity I've done is write for an electronics magazine. There are various publications out there that **want**, and will pay for, submissions. Apart from getting your name in print, and a cheque, it also gets your name out there for people to read.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
If you're teaching the same old class from the same old book, prep time should be less than class time, but if you're teaching from a new book, with a new syllabus, it can be more than the class time. Since you're adjunct faculty, you typically don't get to choose your syllabus or book, so the prep time will generally be 1 hour plus per class. Therefore, you get $3800 for about 15 hours per week times 16 weeks, or about $16 per hour.
I guess that's a little more cash than the janitors get, but you're not getting health benefits, and the janitors are.
See what I've been reading.
Book-wise one of the favoites at the forge I spend time in is "The Art of Blacksmithing."
Very good book with a broad spectrum look at smithing.
Everything I need to know I learned by killing smart people and eating their brains.
I am part of the tech crew for the Glory of Christmas show this year, presented at the Crystal Cathedral. http://www.crystalcathedral.org/
You can see my name in the program this year under Flight Operators (we fly the angels). It pays per show with a very flexible schedule. As a perk I get to hang out with the Angels, dancers, etc and am exempt from the Devotions and other religious cermonials. I am a Lutheran and not big on churches...especially money-centric evangelist churches.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
I work at best buy as side work. Amazingly it is great place to work, the discounts are insane, new videos cards with 100$+ off, tv's, digital cameras.. The prices are great, plus I get paid to play with a bunch of new toys.
Some interesting comments - My above statement is somewhat of a blanket reactionist statement that I make fairly often.
In reality - I help my keep my grandparents computer running (They're in their 80s and do an amazing amount with their computer - but it's an incredible eye-opener in regards to the huge usability failings of computers these days.), hack on some old hardware setting up a home music server, and ripping my CDs to it. (Which I'm thinking of rsync'ing with the one at work.) Etc.
But if I have the time I'd rather be working on my photography hiking, or hanging out with my girlfriend and/or other friends.
It's all about balance - Work / Play (Not necessarily in that order!)
My friends and family know the proper currency to ply me with - BEER. They have to have at least a six on ice for me, and they better be willing to fetch them for me while I work my magic.
Also, if it is a big job (have them describe their problem over the phone) I have them bring just the box to my place and I hook it up to a spare monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. That way I can peck at it here and there while I'm working on something else more important.
Vonnegut was right: Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, "It might have been."
Maybe he should. When I get home, I know that I loathe opening up a programming environment. I've thought about some various side projects and stuff, but I never follow through on them. The reason is that I get paid to program. I think it's fun, but I don't find recreation in it.
I also have quite a bit of IT knowledge: fixing up computers, abolishing ad-ware, fixing user accounts, training, getting things to "work..." I hate it when my aunt says to me, "Mike, I've got a problem with my computer. My scanner..." First off, I dislike the headache I get when trying to fix things, when I could be doing something fun (i.e. playing pool). Second, I hate that I feel an obligation to work because she's my aunt.
A good side job is what I had a couple of years ago. I was a barista in a coffee shop. I could relax, talk to the customers, shoot the breeze with my co-workers, and generally not think about computers at all. I came home tired, but happy. I was refreshed in the morning as well.
You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.
My daughter's sunday school teacher is a single mom with teenage boys. She doesn't have a lot of money, but a family member gave her a new computer last Christmas, and the phone company is selling DSL for only a few bucks more than AOHell. Knowing she can't afford to pay anyone to set it up, I agree to help her set it up, no charge.
A few months later, she's having trouble - can't log in to some site to sign up for a credit-card processing account so she can accept CC for her Mary Kay side business, and she asks for help. I go over one night after work, and one of her boys is doing his homework at the kitchen table, PC in the living room.
She shows me the error, and I immediately point out that CyberSitter or some similar censorware is blocking the site. "Yes, I installed that to help keep the porn off the computer." I pull up the logs, and it's FULL of porn sites being blocked at times when she was at work. He tried to blame it on spam and spyware, and I was non-committal, just wanted to get the thing working for her, but I think she had a little talk with him after I left.
Can you say "uncomfortable?"
P.S. Still can't figure out why cybershitter blocks a credit card merchant site, but I just told her to disable the software when she logged in to do CC stuff.
-paul
Pistol caliber is like religion: everyone has their favourite, and theirs is the only right choice.
Just like if your brother's a plumber and you have a clogged toilet.
Why should your family pay you to do what you can do? They already did what they could for you, or you wouldn't be here.
Friends and acquaintances are a different story. However, the story's not much different whether a plumber or a computer guy tells it.
-Graham
Oh, and since my main job is telecom, I get asked to run cabling for friends. At various times I've had my entire refrigerator full of beer because of it. barters the way to go. I help my neighbor(who owns a tire shop) set up dsl on his computer and got free mounting, balencing and liftime rotation on a new set of tires for my car. It was 20 minutes of work that he never would have paid me $80 for, but had no problem giving me $80 worth of service for it.
sorry 'bout the mess...
IT people don't have side jobs, they have every friend and relative begging for free tech support. My family complains about me nonstop because I will not be a free source of tech support, and my friends either continue to ask for it, despite my actions of apathy towards their problems, or they have heard me bitch about it so much that they have learned to stop asking.
I don't get it, my old man was an electrician, he fixed minor problems for family and friends, and was always compensated. Expenses were paid, and usually something nice was done in return, not always money, but dinner, or a gift, or something. Why is it that the minute I ask for ANYTHING in return, I become the bad guy in the conversation. They can ask me to drive 45 miles through heavy fog, but refuse to give me even a dollar for gas?
When it comes to side jobs, I work exclusively in the private sector. Until people realize that I have a life I'd like to live, my time is not worthless, and I'm not always thinking about computers to the point that I have no problem fixing your stupid little outlook express problems whenever you want, it'll stay that way.
The only thing that is worse than being asked to donate your time for NOTHING, is the people that ask me for free hardware because I have so much of it laying around. You people need to just die. Last time I checked, I did pay money for that stuff.
--Nuintari
slashdot : where an opinion can be wrong.
did you fuck her?
I grow my own vegetables (and soon fruit and eggs). While this does not make money, it certainly saves money. Long term I hope to be able to do IT part time, and sell high quality organic produce on a small scale.
It you have the room for it, I would certainly recommend it. The quality of home grown produce is far better than what you can buy in stores. It also means you don't have to go around looking for work and you can do it in your own time. It provides exercise and you are somehow encouraged to eat more vegies.
Perhaps, but in return for fixing my Uncle's computer he gave me a $3000 iron filter for my water. (it was broke, but he had the parts to fix it)
Its the family joke, Christmas at his house to fix the computer, Thanksgiving at ours to fix the water. Easter, birthday parties, graduation, and other family get togethers you count on either a water softener being rebuilt, or a computer being cleaned up.
I think I'm a full time tech support for my mom and all of her friends. It doesn't pay much, but it's better than working the poll!
Personally, I'd like to do porn. I actually looked into this because my city is a hub for the adult film industry.
From what I've read, it's pretty hard to get into porn unless you're willing to start with gay sex. Don't act so surprised! Nobody wants to do that shit, but there's money in it. The more appealing route, however, is to make friends with a rising porn star actress and "ride her coat tails" to success. Build a good rapport, be honest and trustworthy with her. If she insists on working with you, then you're in!
Porn can be a very lucrative industry provided you don't get addicted to hard drugs and blow all your money. Why the hell am I telling you my hard earned secrets, anyway?
I trade shares for hobby and at the current rate that hobby will pay enough for me to quit by high paying day job (senior computer systems engineer in a defense company) in 3-5 years (I've been doing it for 2 years). This takes aabout an hour a week (value investing, not day trading).
I also went back to study phsychology and ended up as a qualified counsellor where a see a couple of clients a week to help keep me in touch with real humans. I also do some tutoring work for counselling students (which is all weekend and evenings). This takes a few hours a week plus 8-16 hours when I'm tutoring.
I write written scripts (have done two cartoon episodes for The Toons: Where are they now?) and am working on a self help book and a novel. Not to make money but because I like writing. This is usually only a 1-2 hrs a week (averaged over a year)
Because my day job in IT is so senior I don't get to do interesting technical/creative stuff I do little PC setup jobs for friends and write php/mysql apps for friends businesses (currently doing a 1.5TB image management and workflow system). This is about 10hrs a week at the moment.
I'm also developing some self help workshops which I hope to start running early next year. This takes 2-3 hrs a week (at the moment).
This is on top of my 50hr a week job, a wife and 4 children. I do as much extra stuff as I can after everyone else is in bed (eg 10pm onwards) and sleep about 5 hrs a night (with the occassional 10hr night to catch up).
The idea is to develop paying work that has a very high hourly rate so I can work less hours. The share trading is best, earning several hundred dollars an hour and in future for the same effort this will increase as profits are simpy reinvested and not consumed. Secondly the counselling is experience towards doing the workshops, where you can charge 30 ppl $200 for a weekend workshop (16hrs) to give a similar hourly rate (minus overheads and prep time).
Currently all this augments my income by about 30% (up from 10% last year) so I'm on track to retire within 5 years.
I also used to play in a band (did 3 albums) which was an aweful lot of fun but an aweful waste of time. Once kids came along that something had to give!
The best way to relax is playing with the kids, programming and writing (for me at least).
I still toss around ideas of high tech startups (I had one in the late 90s with angel funding but we never got to the big venture capital stage) but nothing is as assured as 1) value investing with shares, and 2) a 9-5 job.
If money and creating spare time weren't a concern I would probably just counsel people and write, but I wouldn't make a good living out of it (well, I might but it's unlikely - I'm not abuot to plan on an improbably income stream when I have a mortgage and kids!).
pithy comment
I'm a Realtor as well.
With the small town I'm in, they need all the help they can get.
So, by day(and night) I'm a not so mild mannered computer geek; while by night (and day) I run into burning buildings.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
When I'm not slinging software, I cook at a local restaurant. It balances me out and makes me very popular in the office when i bring goodies in for the office parties.
I'm here for the experience, not the Hyperbole.
My weekend hobby is being a gearhead.
I used to rebuild car/motorcycle/marine/industrial engines for a living... and my personal car ran like crap.
Mainly cause I knew exactly what the problem was, and how serious it would be if I didn't fix it..
I'll have to say as a system admin, I now rarely check my email on the weekend and my car runs like a champ. I spend almost every weekend tweaking something to my liking, or on a junkyard hunt to pimp a friend's ride.
What really sucks, is the more people know I can fix both computers and cars, the less weekends I get to myself!
The more I know, the stupider I need to act!
My side job is purposefully different from my work. I referee ice hockey and inline hockey. The pay is pretty decent, $10 to $50+ for a one hour game, depending on the level of play, league, and location. Plus, you get some exercise, meet new people outside of IT/CS, and get to teach new players how to play the game.
Up front costs do stink a little if you start from scratch, $200-$300 is typical for all new gear and 1st year registration. But that's deductible, and if you referee a few games per month, you're back in the black pretty quickly.
I have also performed freelance home computer services, but playing & refereeing hockey have generally been more fun and better for my % body fat.
I used to use a single box for everything at home. Pentium 133, with 128MB of ram. It was my jukebox, firewall, mailserver, database server, web server, etc. Worked fine, but I didn't like having a single point of failure.
These days, that box *was* my mail server (just now replaced it with a P2 550), and I have a separate firewall, and 'everything else' server (PIII ... forget the speed). The 'everything else' box is hooked to the tv, and has web browsing, Xine, Xmms, and such. (I'm too lazy to build a real mythtv box :) In addition it is doing dhcp, mysql, apache, etc.
Right now, I am using a P75 with 16MB of ram as a smoothwall firewall (that will be the P133's new function), and of course the other two servers I mentioned.
So, yeah, I know what you mean about older hardware. It's great being able to use it. Heck the stuff I have is way overpowered for the amount of work it has to do (watching videos being the exception).
I also own a Toshiba Libretto...now that thing is 'low power'. I have it overclocked to 266MHz, and it can play Mpeg-1 videos pretty well. It runs firefox respectably too. The real bottlenecks seem to be the non-DMA drive in it, and the 64MByte memory limit. But it is a great little box to use as a car jukebox, wireless stumbler, photo repository, and browser when I need it. I put a 20Gig drive in it, and partitioned the LVM so that I can still hibernate it (the bios dumps hibernation right at the 4 Gig mark).
My girlfriend's dad is a highly skilled plumber - he was hired at the nuclear power plant for some special work there. He definitely knows what he's doing.
Nonetheless, when the pipes freeze or a toilet clogs, he, without fail, always calls someone else to do it.
I'm a western man living in Beijing. Westerners are often used here as foreign experts in TV commercials to lend some additional semblance of credibility to the product pitch. I have played a doctor, an Australian scientist, and suit & tie businessmen. Products have included breast enlargement kits, hi-tech underwear, and chinese herbal medicine (the Strong Bones Particles of Six Flavors). Usually I just have to mouth some words because they'll do a voiceover in Chinese later, but occasionally I have to speak - and translate very bad English into something a real person might actually say. Its not very lucrative but it is diverting.
I require them to make a $25 donation to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They can use the receipt in email as proof.
That way they don't feel like I'm just trying to make a buck off them, and I feel more inspired to actually do a decent job of solving their problem. Plus it help out a good cause.
Mind you- I don't consider some basic stuff as "above and beyond".. Eg: configuring outlook for someones IMAP server &etc. Cleaning off adware / viruses definitely warrants a donation- and a short lesson in "what not do to on the Internet."
yes, it's true, I am a "scum sucking bottom feeder." lol. I'm currently attending as a student and also working half-time in the school's IT dept. developing the school website at a below-market but not unreasonable hourly rate. It's a nice, stable monthly check that basically takes care of my expenses other than tuition. On the side, I do more profitable misc. projects for people who need websites done or other design work. When I get in a check from those projects I just treat it like bonus money and end up spending it on hardware, clothes, car stuff, even dress shoes. A law professor at school saw my biz card on my office door and hired me to do her new edition book cover. Other professors who self-publish are interested as well. There's no substitute for word of mouth, but craigslist gigs section is a good place to start. Unfortunately almost all of those are "I was hoping to get it done for free" (i.e. clueless) people posting. Many of us in this thread are probably at the point where we can turn down projects that aren't "just right" since we're not depending on that money to subsist.
if you have a stable 9-5 and some knowledge of web dev, try hiring a couple of college students part time to do larger side projects that you find. After saving some moderate amount of money you can get into property management (borrow to buy an apartment building, then pay the loan with the rent money from tenants), or even open your own dive bar in a college town (my dream). All the skills you get in the side businesses help in your regular job too-- managing people or money, getting things done, handling problems, and so on. The great thing about running small businesses is that everything you make is yours, and you can make a lot of extra cash in the right business. The great thing about law school is it's fairly empowering. You know how to solve big problems.
I think the absolute worst tech support aside from AOL or Dell has got to be college/graduate school computer help. Often the law students are from fairly privileged families where the standard op. procedure was to call a contractor to fix every little problem at home rather than trying to get things done themselves. So you have a lot of people coming in FRANTIC and DEMANDING that you fix their computer problems right that second. I would say "sorry, drop-in tech support hours are wednesdays 3:30-5" and the typical response is "but it's an EMERGENCY!!!!" yeah. I've never heard that one before. asshole. I have nothing but contempt for the vast majority of my classmates. Yes, these people will soon be the ones you despise oh-so-justifiably. It's nice to have that quiet confidence of being able to fix things yourself, which is one attribute of a successful lawyer. So I got that going for me, which is nice.
Some people at school made the jump from IT to law school thinking they'd be "marketable" to the intellectual property law firms that run rackets in IP litigation. They're probably right, but I'm not sure if they'll be able to look in the mirror at the end of the day. Those places often require a CS/E degree. Many private law schools have a night program, so maybe you can do your IT day job and attend law school at night, though it does take 4 years....
I work part time as a paramedic. I agree with most posters, after 50-60 hours a week of startup grind the last thing I want to do is IT or programming for someone else. What little spare energy I have goes into my personal bits for myself.
Being a paramedic is everything IT is not - lot's of people interaction, some physical labor, outside time. It's also personally rewarding in a way that programming isn't. I've never been applauded for my work as a programmer, something I have had happen a few times as a medic. I've also never been offered a blow job as a programmer, but I have been a few times as a medic. As a married and ethical man I do not require applause nor accept the blow jobs but as a human being and a terminal male I appreciate the consideration present in both.
I originally became a medic because a bit of volunteering as an EMT showed me I loved the work and I thought that (as my plans were at the time) that the medic job would provide a salary baseline and benefits when consulting wore thin. Well - the bubble burst and I'm an employee again but I keep up the medic because it's a perfect escape from the office and if things really go south it's one job I know they _can't_ ship to India.
The wages are not great but when you can work a 24 hour shift and get paid 24 hours for one calendar day it does add up even for a few days a month enough for even an overpaid technoweenie like me to notice.
After 15 years in the development trenches I would love to work full time as a medic and have the energy to expend my skills part time on programming but then I couldn't afford a new GeForce 6600 or flying as often. I also like not sweating that I'm getting the $4 latte instead of the $1.25 cup of joe, something most full time medics have to worry about.
At some point I may make the trade of money versus time for lifestyle as we achieve certain financial goals, but for now it works as is.
I do two types of side jobs. One the exorcism of individuals and of properties which includes items, pets, house, buildings, grounds (above and below).
This includes negative thoughtforms, negative energies, negative entities, and about 200 other things.
I charge $20 per person or property. I get emails from people all over the world for this type of work.
As an example, one individual was in a state mental institute for three months and on heavy medication for schizophrenia... I did a clearing on him as he was possessed by hundreds of entities and now his life is normal, living a typical life without meds.
Secondly I work directly with individuals to assist them in working through emotional issues. It is not hynotherapy, rather the individual goes into an altered state of consciousness and they are shown via a movie in their mind.. just as if it is a daydream only the client has total consciousness as it is occurring. The movie lets them see and sense the truth and the issue falls away.
As an example, a person may have a fear of dogs and be shown in the movie that a memory is present of being killed by a pack of wolves in the distant past. Whether this is a past life, a shared embedded memory, or a pseudo lifetime in not known nor is it important to know exactly for the healing takes place regardless.
Typically a session lasts 3 hours and I charge $200 per session.
Many individuals believe that all physical illness with the body are emotionally or mentally created. I have seen some very remarkable physical healing take place once the emotional issue is resolved.
I find that I am doing less and less computer related things and assisting humanity more in these ways.
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make
I do the following as "side jobs":
Build PC's (duh)
Rave DJ
Install Custom Car Audio (my profession for 6 years while in college and beyond)
Produce tracks for local rappers
Soon I'll add voiceover/vocal acting and recording artist whenever I actually get up offa my duff to get into them.
Actually, IT IS my side job nowadays. I left IT a few months ago to work as an account executive for a mortgage lender. The competition for jobs is entirely too tough and there aren't enough jobs left unless I want to move the family to India...
Fifty watts per channel, baby cakes.
... lots and lots of pot.
I used to work tech support at one of the rare well-managed, worker-respecting tech support places, and fairly frequently we'd get calls about things we don't support. Standard procedure was to refer them to the consulting companies we had deals with. Because of these contracts, our users got good deals from them, but only for major projects, since they'd typically have minimum fees that would be rather exorbitant for the small odd jobs they often needed. We'd often get calls back asking if anyone wanted to drop by for a half hour after work and do whatever the odd job in question was for $30 or so. Our manager actually encouraged this practice, since we were still supporting everything we were supposed to and honoring our contracts, and our users were getting the unsupported odd jobs done that were too small for formal consulting. This required our manager paying attention to make sure we were really doing our jobs properly and not trying to screw our customers, but I believe I already mentioned we had good management.
WARNING: there is a trojan on your
Liking working in IT doesn't mean you necessarily like scraping the crudware out of relatives' computers. That's equivalent to saying Bruegel or da Vinci should be overjoyed to paint their brother's house because they're painters.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
Installing wireless LANs is my side job. For families sometimes, but mostly small businesses - large enough to want them but small enough not to have the in house skills. Wireless is stupidly complex from the point of view of most non-technical users (especially after they've read almost anything about security), so they're happy to pay me to take care of it for them.
ben_ the technologist and platform agnostic
I dj at several clubs, hip hop and downtempo mainly.
the pay sucks, but I'm used to that, and it comes with all the free drinks you can handle. A couple gigs a month pays for buying more records (yeah I got cds and mp3s, but nothing beats vinyl for hands on manipulation)
On extra good nights I get picked up on by drunken girls (and occasionally boys).
I also fix the computers at my girlfriend's work for cash under the table, which also goes to records...
CIA Industries - Running the world for fun and profit
In my Sociology 101 book I found some interesting facts.
When they are at home, blue collar workers don't do anything. They usually watch TV and do small tasks. Thats because their work is so physically hard that they are exhausted when they arrive at home.
White collar workers when at home usually do some hobby unrelated to their actual work. They do some sport or any other hobby.
Managers (or the upper class) usually do the same job when they come home. In a way they do the same job the whole day. That is because their work is not physically demanding so they can work the whole day.
Trolls are like broken clocks. They show the truth two times a day. The rest of the day they talk nonsense.
Some of these I do for money, others for self amusement.
I'll let you decide which is which !
Just because I'm a computer tech / Oracle DBA / Unix Geek / Net Admin
for most of the week, doesn't mean that I can't have fun
doing something that doesn't involve a keyboard...
If a friends water line breaks -
Good excuse to rent a Back Hoe, and spend the
weekend playing "Tonka Toys" while tearing
up his front yard, to trace & replace his pipes.
If I've spent too much time smothered in computer code
lately, and feel the need for grease under my fingernails-
there's always something mechanical to be done
like replace those C.V. joints that have worn
out on the car, or change the timing belt,
or replace squeaking brake pads for a quick fix.
If the computers have REALLY gotten on my nerves
then it could result in a complete tear-down
and overhaul of both motorcycles, then new paint!
On the other hand, Carpentry can be a good relaxer
I'm in the middle of building custom kitchen
cabinets for my girlfriend's Mom's house, due
to aggrivation over Cisco "nOtwork" issues.
Just start with the dimensions, and make your
own plans, then uupp out the a table saw, and
combine with creativity & lumber- voila !
With hardly any notice, some of the best stress relief
and "group therapy" I've found, is Dance.
In particular, Contra Dance. See the web site
at www.contradance.org for a good example,
or photos at www.pbase.com/bobbennett/dance
Live bands, 200+ people, all ages from 17 to 70
and a new girl twirling into you arms every
60 seconds or more !
Of course, Swing, waltz, etc. are fun too -
Massage can be fun / theraputic for the masseuse
as well as the one being massaged.
a few years ago, I had been a licensed EMT
ambulance attendant - and later found that
the sam eknowlege of human anatomy was quite
usefull in giving theraputic massage. If you
visualize well, you can just about see all
of the muscles, joints, tendons, and nerves
that you are workign with & around. Go another
step, and you can relax the same muscles in
you own body that you are working through on
someone else's physique.
Hit & Run Home Building (Habitat for Humanity)
If you want to do something good with your spare
time, and work out any frustrations you may have
by pounding on something with a hammer, while
learning something new at the same time-
Then "Habitat" may be for YOU--
Join lots of other people, who take Saturday
and just go build houses for fun. The finished
homes are sold to low income families, who
can get a modest but new home, that included
some of the sweat equity and design of their own!
see: www.habitat.org with more details.
Inventing would have to be one of my favorite creative
hobbies. The ultimate "think outside the box"
brain buzz - where even the box may not yet exist!
Teach yourself to look at the puzzles, challanges,
and shortcomings of the every day world- and
see room for improvement. Decide how that can
be engineered, what is really practical instead
of just dreaming. What are the best design
options for structure, utility, cost, materials
ergonomics, flexibility, manufacturing, etc.
This can be a GROUP activity as well- finding
friends with MANY different backgrounds and talents,
to contribute more perspectives. Decide what
is needed, and how to make it happen !
And YES- my spare time STILL includes learning more
about computers. Extra features to use, new
languages, utilities, hardware, protocol
-- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero
I think the shedding is nearly over. I've seen a lot of people quitting to do other things, and a lot of genuine folks enduring the bad wages because IT is what they want to do.
get over your myths
Get over your own.
If Tibet was so miserable before the Chinese "liberated" them, why did the flood of refugees leaving Tibet occur AFTER "liberation"? Your myths are just Chinese propaganda used to excuse China's imperialism. Though the Tibetans had a theocracy, not a democracy, it was still based on things they believed in.
The Chinese invaders simply want to take their land, and are imprisoning, torturing, and killing anyone who tries to stop them. You must be so proud of them.
I speak Chinese, and I picked up a couple of People's Liberation Army soldiers on the road near Mt. Everest in Tibet recently. They were bragging about how they had just managed to capture some poor families trying to escape over the mountains. These soldiers were so proud at how they had hunted down these poor, half-frozen women and children. Real People's Heros.
I asked them if they didn't consider it ironic that they called themselves Jiefang Jun, the "People's Liberation" Army, yet their job was to prevent any hope of liberation. Their answer, not surprisingly, was the same Chinese propaganda coming out of you.
don't try to pretend like it's not one country now
Don't try to pretend it IS one country. It's two: China and Tibet, but Tibet is full of Chinese soldiers ready to imprison and torture anybody who dares say so, so I'll say it for them. If the Tibetans could vote, they would overwhelmingly vote to throw out the Chinese occupiers, but the "Chinese People's Government" doesn't even allow its own people to vote, much less people in neighboring countries that they have invaded.
Your argument that fifty years of occupation makes it one country didn't persuade the Chinese that Hong Kong was British, or that Taiwan after more than 50 years is now an independent country, so why should it make Tibet the property of the Chinese?
It doesn't, and it's not.
"Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded."
When I'm not doing my FT I.T. job.... I'm a Paramedic for the city EMS/911 service. Otherwise, I do private IT consulting when needed.
heh, an insightful swerve into ea's sweatshop reputation.
As for not in usa, I don't doubt that there'll be some decrease in how many IT jobs are here. But I think that there remain so *many* difficult problems and so *few* (percentage-wise) members of the population willing to study/solve them, that I'll still have people with fun computer-ish puzzles for me to solve the day I die.