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Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?

#71

Post by Joeboy »

sirsinsalot wrote: post #22
ChrisRR wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much more money do you need if you're on 200K? That's already like 3-4x the salary of a dev in the UK

Making a value judgement on someones financial ambition is a little ... weak. Does it really matter? I'm on £200k gross in the UK, outside London ... but i'm not done climbing that mountain. Of course £200k is "enough" for anyone, but that doesn't mean you can't aim higher. Ambition should be celebrated

I'm just genuinely intrigued as to why someone on £200k would want to work more. maybe there's a good reason, like they're an "earn to give" person, or some actual ambition the money will help fulfill, or some expensive health need etc. Maybe they'd like to spend less time with their family. Just wanting to exchange more of your life for more money seems weird to me, if you're already in a position to be able to live in luxury.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?

#72

Post by goodpoint »

sirsinsalot wrote: post #22
ChrisRR wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much more money do you need if you're on 200K? That's already like 3-4x the salary of a dev in the UK

Making a value judgement on someones financial ambition is a little ... weak. Does it really matter? I'm on £200k gross in the UK, outside London ... but i'm not done climbing that mountain. Of course £200k is "enough" for anyone, but that doesn't mean you can't aim higher. Ambition should be celebrated

> Ambition should be celebrated

Only if you mean skill growth and self improvement.

But pure greed - no, we have more than enough of that.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?

#73

Post by mxuribe »

rr888 wrote: post #48

Maybe talk to your wife? Friends, family? Keeping physically healthy and healthy relationships allows you to keep working your 9-5. Otherwise I'd learn new skills, if not tech maybe management? I did an OU MBA online which was fun, I didn't want to be a manager but helped me work more effectively in the organization.

Depending on the type of work that you wish to get into (for getting side paid), i would caution this approach...Because when i did my side hustle, i reached to family and friends, and they only ended up connecting me to the typical bagel showps who "wanted a website". you can imagine where engagements went from there. Either the clients want Google/Facebook-level engineering for pennies, or they conduct massive scope creep, or keep saying non-helpful feedback like "my nephew in high school can do this, why are saying it taakes time, costs X money?", etc.

The only scenario where this might work is if your family/friends actually work in corporate America. Why? Because they might understand projects, scope, vendor payment, etc...and they might likely connect you with clients who have similar understanding of project work, etc. I've never had such luck...but maybe that can be a good direction.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?

#74

Post by aaaaaaaaata »

Joeboy wrote: post #71
sirsinsalot wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making a value judgement on someones financial ambition is a little ... weak. Does it really matter? I'm on £200k gross in the UK, outside London ... but i'm not done climbing that mountain. Of course £200k is "enough" for anyone, but that doesn't mean you can't aim higher. Ambition should be celebrated

I'm just genuinely intrigued as to why someone on £200k would want to work more. maybe there's a good reason, like they're an "earn to give" person, or some actual ambition the money will help fulfill, or some expensive health need etc. Maybe they'd like to spend less time with their family. Just wanting to exchange more of your life for more money seems weird to me, if you're already in a position to be able to live…

Two viable possibilities:

1. It's about the money, because you never know when you may have a 5-10 year underproductive period due to health/other unforeseen emergency.

2. It's not about the money, it's about the experience/knowledge gained/distraction/self-worth of accomplishing more.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?

#75

Post by mxuribe »

H8crilA wrote: post #32
atemerev wrote: post #21

Well, if you want money, go with the money. For me it is consulting in crypto and algorithmic trading, but there are other high-paying areas to consider. Like adtech, but I am not sociopathic enough for that. It is harder to find a side gig as a generic (no pun intended) Go developer, you’d want to specialize in something.

Why adtech is more sociopathic than algorithmic trading? Honest question, especially because both are so similar (algorithmic usage of information in fast marketplaces).

Its not like adtech is inherently evil work...but as @atemerev noted, the industry makes one feel like you *have* to do shady things to achieve goals, do your work, etc. II'm sure there are good, honest people in the induystry. But in essence its basic manipulation...so many people (myself included) have issues working in such an environment, at least for the most part.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?

#76

Post by aregsar »

sedeki wrote: post #35
jjevanoorschot wrote: post #5

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.

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.

Try transitioning from full stack web dev to back end architect working with microservices and cloud infrastructure

Re: Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?

#77

Post by impossiblefork »

rhn_mk1 wrote: post #24
sirsinsalot wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making a value judgement on someones financial ambition is a little ... weak. Does it really matter? I'm on £200k gross in the UK, outside London ... but i'm not done climbing that mountain. Of course £200k is "enough" for anyone, but that doesn't mean you can't aim higher. Ambition should be celebrated

I can get behind celebrating ambition, but only if it doesn't as a side effect involve widening wage inequality in the society.

Why does wage inequality matter? Inequality isn't strongly driven by wages, but is by capital income.

Personally, the way I see it, the more money goes to wages, the better, and if that's because some guy is earning millions a year, I still think it's good.

Income from people starting new companies, that's fine too. What's bad is rent extraction, ossification, monopolies and private institutions that have power over people.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?

#78

Post by conductr »

jack_codes wrote: post #56

I've lucked into some great places being cool with part-time work. That said, just yesterday I spoke with a recruiter for a 40hr gig and they had deep concerns that I've had work overlap (my part-time business + 40hr contract work) on my resume. I've pulled out of consideration for that role because of it but am thinking of adjusting my resume to not show overlap. I would've thought it showed drive but I guess - at l…

Keep it if the work was interesting and you feel like it bolsters your experience. Sometimes I remove dates from my resume as they’ll always be doing the mental math of assembling your timeline and notice all the concurrent items. Duration is a happy medium for me. That frees you from the linearity that resumes often follow, so maybe consider adding a section entitled “Recent Projects” or something similar with the other section called “Employment”

It’s a white lie but I’ve often explained those periods as “consulting” instead of freelance / “entrepreneur”. Then when I discuss it I always make it about the project and work. I never talk about the client except maybe the industry as a lead in to the problem. This way it sounds temporary or something. If they think you have an active client list you’re maintaining, that is always going to be concerning for them. They don’t know if you’ll be distracted or will make the clients the priority. They want to be your top and ideally only priority (sometimes even over family).

If they really press you they’re probably trying to understand how you managed so much project work while being employed full time. This is when you force a step-back from the details and say, “I do occasionally take on a project outside of work, it helps me work with emerging tech and things I’m interested in. I view it as a form of continuing education that is required in many professions. It’s never effected my performance at my job and I ensure to never causes a conflict of priorities. I find I can be 50%+ more productive due to having less meetings and organization overhead.” Or something with that gist

Re: Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?

#79

Post by 3pt14159 »

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.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get side gigs?

#80

Post by Joeboy »

aaaaaaaaata wrote: post #74
Joeboy wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just genuinely intrigued as to why someone on £200k would want to work more. maybe there's a good reason, like they're an "earn to give" person, or some actual ambition the money will help fulfill, or some expensive health need etc. Maybe they'd like to spend less time with their family. Just wanting to exchange more of your life for more money seems weird to me, if you're already in a position to be able to live…

Two viable possibilities: 1. It's about the money, because you never know when you may have a 5-10 year underproductive period due to health/other unforeseen emergency. 2. It's not about the money, it's about the experience/knowledge gained/distraction/self-worth of accomplishing more.

> it's about the experience/knowledge gained/distraction/self-worth of accomplishing more

To me, a side gig means accomplishing more of what someone else wants, with the trade-off of being less able to accomplish (or learn about, or distract yourself with) what you want. Which seems like an odd thing to want unless you need the money. I suppose for some people having a £200k income and not needing the money seem less synonymous than they do to me.

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