For sale: 8 hours/week of my time

28 points by gbruins 3 years ago | 44 comments

I have a full time job as a software engineer that I enjoy. I work 4 10-hour days and have Fridays off. High inflation and increased expenses are driving me back into the job market looking for ways to supplement my income, but I don't want to fight for gigs on freelance platforms like Upwork.

Ideally I want a reliable project where I can invest 8-12 hours per week. One idea I had was to offer my services to companies looking to fill full time roles as a 'bridge' employee until they find their full time candidate (I could even participate in the interview process).

I guess I'm looking for a 'long term gig'. Am I nuts? Or is there a job board out there for companies/startups that need just a bit of extra help?

jddil 3 years ago |

You're not nuts but you're viewing this the wrong way. You will be significantly happier if instead of working more to keep up on the hedonistic treadmill you do one of 2 things.

1) Get a raise. There should be 0 reason for a software engineer to need a second job.

2) Spend less. You will never make enough money if your expenses keep increasing

gbruins 3 years ago | |

#1 is too idealistic. Things happen in life. Markets crash. College savings, previously adequate, is cut in half. Maybe other things.

#2 I'm trying but the current administration just wont have it. Like for example, the price of caviar DOUBLED at Whole Foods. Ridiculous! Also, the gas pump just stops at $150 when I try to fill up my Mercedes SUV.

shyn3 3 years ago | | |

#3 earn more is the only way to avoid it. Smart idea, I'm looking for the same myself. Reducing spending never works and multiple sources provide safety.

I was thinking maybe a podcast explaining the tools I use.

mywittyname 3 years ago |

Hobbies that pay for themselves are fun. Get a laser engraver and learn to design cool tchotchkes to sell online. It won't pay nearly what a side-gig will, but it also won't feel like "work" as much.

My partner sells organization plans/charts on Etsy and makes more than beer money off of it. She just does it for fun and throws whatever she makes online. Sometimes it doesn't sell, other times it sells like 3-4 units, and rarely she'll have a hit that sells hundreds.

It's actually pretty cool that every few days, Etsy throws a two figure check in our bank account.

marcinzm 3 years ago | |

I sell on Etsy and while the design/idea phase is fun the rest is just menial labor and customer service. I'd call it an interesting life experience more than fun.

blep_ 3 years ago | |

What do you mean by "organization plans/charts"? I'm imagining someone drawing org charts for imaginary companies and selling them to... I don't know who the customers for that sort of thing would be.

mywittyname 3 years ago | | |

She is a nurse, so she mostly makes printouts that are useful for nurses to help them organize their work in some capacity or another.

valbaca 3 years ago | | |

lol you're off the mark

Think weekly planners and calendars or whiteboard kanban boards.

dayvid 3 years ago |

It may be time to start interviewing for other positions to see if you're not maximizing your salary potential for your position.

leros 3 years ago |

This sounds like contracting. It's a world I'm looking to get into as well.

A friend recently suggested I try this service which has contracts as low as 10 hours a week. http://gigster.com

prenoob 3 years ago | |

It's invite only, though.

leros 3 years ago | | |

Not really. You just apply to one of their "jobs".

gbruins 3 years ago | |

Thank you!

javajosh 3 years ago |

You could sign up on fiverr. Despite the name, you can charge whatever you want.

devKnight 3 years ago |

post in this and next months, "Freelancer" HN post, you might get some bites there

kfk 3 years ago |

We hire people like this in dyvenia to help train and mentor our devops employees. If you have experience and knowledge that can be a good path for a part time.

hnaccount2001 3 years ago |

I’m not sure about 8 hours but I’ve had some success with ~15hrs distributed throughout a week so the employer knows they can get in touch with me most days. Unfortunately I think this that finding these sorts of gigs requires a lot of up-front networking or grinding away on freelance sites until you hook something medium-term, like a half-year contract or whatever.

gbruins 3 years ago | |

Yes I think you are right on. Thank you

IceMetalPunk 3 years ago |

I believe that's called contract work.

gbruins 3 years ago | |

Your belief is correct! The contract work I see seems to fall into 2 buckets: short term gig, or temporary 40/hr per week. I'm looking for a some kind of middle ground: long term 8/hr week.

adrianmsmith 3 years ago | | |

I think you'd need to be a specialist and advisor in something that a company needs and currently isn't good at.

I mean, if you're a company and you want some development done, you probably don't want it taking 5 times as long as it need be. You'd rather hire someone 5 days a week (even for a short period of time) rather than someone 1 day a week.

But for advising the teams companies already have about something they don't know about but you do, it could still make sense for the company. E.g. for a while I helped quite a few companies do MySQL 4 to MySQL 5 transitions (a while ago now obviously!) It was something I became quite good at but companies didn't want to build up the internal knowledge because they only needed to do it once. I would come in and discuss their situation, advise them, come back a bit later to see how they were getting on and review what they'd done, etc.

Focus on things you're good at that other companies might not have knowledge of. Particular programming languages, particular tasks such as optimization or software design, particular databases, particular clouds perhaps. Or migrations and transitions where it doesn't make sense for the company to build up knowledge as they only do it once.

IceMetalPunk 3 years ago | | |

Good luck finding that, but I don't see many employers being good with a schedule like that for a contractor or employee. At best, you might be able to get a paid internship with those hours, but (a) it won't be much of a paycheck, and (b) they'll probably expect you to become a full-time employee at some point, and won't likely hire you even for an internship without that possibility.

nxmnxm99 3 years ago |

How much are you looking to charge? And what skills do you have?

gbruins 3 years ago | |

I'm a front end developer... Vue, JavaScript, CSS, Node.js, design tools (Illustrator, Photoshop).

nxmnxm99 3 years ago | | |

How much are you looking to charge?

svnpenn 3 years ago |

> I have a full time job as a software engineer

> looking for ways to supplement my income

what? Dont Software Engineers generally have huge salaries? Maybe the issue is not on the income side, but the spending side

gbruins 3 years ago | |

OK thanks for the advice. Dad is that you?

FollowingTheDao 3 years ago |

When a full time software engineers are looking for ways to supplement their income we should all be worried.

Whether it is inflation, consumerism, or just greed, something is wrong.

gbruins 3 years ago | |

Not necessarily. I have one child in college and one entering college next year. Things get expensive real fast in this life stage.

FollowingTheDao 3 years ago | | |

Your kids don’t have to go to college.

marmot777 3 years ago |

Upwork would be a good place to look.

tagami 3 years ago |

what is your expertise specifically

samsquire 3 years ago |

Do you know C programming?

bdiouih 3 years ago | |

I am an experienced multi platform C++/C developer. Do you offer such projects?

gbruins 3 years ago | | |

You are also looking for an 8hr/week gig? Hmmmmm... something is wrong. You should spend less. There is ZERO reason for a C++ developer to need a second job.

samsquire 3 years ago | | |

I'm thinking of sponsoring someone to do a deep dive into the Luajit codebase and try explain to me how it works.

mdcds 3 years ago |

off topic: how did you negotiate 4x10 work schedule?

gbruins 3 years ago | |

Probably a confluence of many things, but the list is: * Ive been at the company for over 15 years * The local job market (Bay Area) is (was?) quite hot, and the company is not a sexy silicon valley destination that attracts talent. * The company could not match the FAANG companies, and some folks had already jumped ship * The raise from my annual view was less than desired. When it was clear that more salary was not an option, a got creative and asked for an equally valuable asset... my own time. * Top it off, my boss is fantastic

toomuchtodo 3 years ago | | |

Unicorn role. Absolutely don’t leave, generate more income elsewhere.

quickthrower2 3 years ago | |

just ask. i am doing 3x6.5

mdcds 3 years ago | | |

what kind of company are you at?

BigTech, non-tech BigCo, mid-sized non-tech?

I cannot see how a manager/director at a BigCo would be able approve something like this since everything is standardized (like base pay at each level)

bdcravens 3 years ago |

Look at Codementor.