Side gigs don't really earn much. If you've got a friend that you've worked with before and they have a startup or something, ask for some peanuts amount of equity as an hands on advisor. It'll do more for your CV than 20 hour side gigs glueing some libraries together. Or pick a well known library / framework and contribute. Or rescue a "looking for [co-]maintainer" library out there.
I earn $10k/mo contracting 20 hours per week. Personally, this extra income helped me maximize my day job benefits (401k and ESPP) and provided liquidity during the home buying process.
Unless you already have top of market compensation, I'd focus on interviewing for a higher paying job rather than do more work on the side. Going by the ££ signs I'm assuming you can get a job in London, where you can make >£200k total compensation as a good software engineer.
I'm already earning near that compensation, was just looking for something on the side as well :)
Why, though? If you're making that much money, it's unlikely you need more. Fill your time with things that will make you happy, not things that will make you wealthier. You're filling the wrong tank.
You're chasing pennies with a side-gig. If you're already at the top of market in terms of pay, it's unlikely a side-gig is going bring in enough to satisfy your ambitions. Why not start your own business? The upside is much better. Yeah, it might fail, but you can decide to start another one what you learned.
Yeah, it seems like I had an idealistic view of what a side gig would be, whereas it's a lot more work than I wish to spend on it. I'm happy in my day job; it's secure, I'm paid well and I get a lot of time with my family. Starting my own business would put family time in jeopardy which isn't an option, especially as I'd have to give up my main income.
Specially if you factor in the marginal tax you'll pay on the side gig, it's almost never worth it imo. I know that was a turn off for me at least, so starting a business if you have the energy will have way more upside
Yea 200-250k is starting base of seniors now. Options, RSUs, bonus on top of it.
Depends where in the US. 200k is not typical for anyone working outside of a FAANG in SV. I've got almost 17 years exp and not making $200k base, and recruiters who contact me balk when I ask for something in that range - to include someone who contacted me on this very site and put me through a multi-week interview process only to offer me considerably less than 200 (or even my current pay). And considering the way…
I am not working for FAANG. I am not in SV. I am based in the US. Working for an early stage start-up. Earning quite a bit North of $200K. My compensation is based on the value I provide, not where I live. Any recruiter or hiring manager who tries to tell me different is promptly ignored.
Side gigs don't really earn much. If you've got a friend that you've worked with before and they have a startup or something, ask for some peanuts amount of equity as an hands on advisor. It'll do more for your CV than 20 hour side gigs glueing some libraries together. Or pick a well known library / framework and contribute. Or rescue a "looking for [co-]maintainer" library out there.
I earn $10k/mo contracting 20 hours per week. Personally, this extra income helped me maximize my day job benefits (401k and ESPP) and provided liquidity during the home buying process.
Depends where in the US. 200k is not typical for anyone working outside of a FAANG in SV. I've got almost 17 years exp and not making $200k base, and recruiters who contact me balk when I ask for something in that range - to include someone who contacted me on this very site and put me through a multi-week interview process only to offer me considerably less than 200 (or even my current pay). And considering the way…
> I've got almost 17 years exp and not making $200k base I am surprised by this. You can check levels.fyi to target the right companies. I guarantee you 100% that you can easily make > 230k base outside FANG for a remote position.
> I am surprised by this
Really? I don't personally know anyone making that much. My mother is a software engineer with an additional 20 years of experience on me and has never made that much (currently makes less than me, in fact).
How would I go about making that kind of money? I'm planning on moving to London next year. My professional background is as a web dev.
> I'm planning on moving to London next year. I found it really hard to find jobs that pay anywhere close to US salaries in EU. Unless things are very different now, I would plan to move to US to make 'that kind of money'.
I was going to say. Unless you have things lined up, I would hesitate to move to UK without a plan. I am saying this as my sister is attempting this very thing ( and me trying to discourage her since its a business pie in the sky kind of dream ). The days easily obtainable jobs ( especially the low level ones ) for other EU members are over. She did not seem to get that memo. On the high end of the spectrum, banking lost some jobs as a result of Brexit. Dunno about insurance.
US has its benefits, but I would consider age as a factor ( if you are younger, you may be able to worry less about insurance and whatnot ).
Networking and Marketing. For 10 years I spoke at every conference, user group, etc. that I could find. I sustained a 9 person consulting company finding gigs through the network of other speakers and attendees that would come up and ask me questions. Every question can be rephrased as “I have a problem you can help me solve”, but you also have to qualify to make sure there is a company with a budget for solving that…
I think that highlights though that a steady stream of decent paying gigs isn't a few hours "after the kids are in bed" sort of thing for the most part. Every now and then I'll do a little (non-coding) consulting for someone I know but my observation--not having looked very hard, mind you--is that anything between having a serious go at it and picking up low-paying scraps is hard to do on a regular basis.
That's a very good point. But at the same time, I do wonder why there aren't more temporary things that are carved out. I think it speaks somewhat to the design of software, because surely people have little pieces, components, libraries, etc. developed that just need some time and eyes on them and don't require onboarding to the full system or long-term commitments or even full-time commitments. But I suppose there's effort in doing that carving out and the way that systems are sort of organically designed and developed doesn't lend itself to that.
I heard a number of complains that Toptal is not worth the time investment anymore. Anybody of that opinion here?
I'm billing $100+/hr with Toptal. I'm currently 0 hours available and they check on my availability every week with possible contracts. Yes, the interview process is a bit long, but opportunities have been non-stop for several years in a row now. Never an issue with pay, although it can border on 6 weeks in arrears due to billing cycles with the client and bi-weekly deposits from Toptal.
As a dev or more on the ops side? How long are the contracts? When you get a client, do they place you in a team with internals, or is there another setup? I guess toptal is like an intermediary, global scale, and they screen/test their freelancers.