Second jobs for a little extra income

dirtychinchilla · 11 Feb 2021 at 11:30

I'm just curious if anyone has any advice on finding a Saturday job. Is that the sort of thing people do nowadays? I'm just wanting to prop up our income a little bit.

I'm fairly well qualified, BEng, and I'm middle management in a low carbon technology company, skilled with a couple of CAD programs and am a self-certified Excel wizard.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I often wonder if I could help streamline small businesses, but it might be a bit overreaching. The other idea I have is doing drawings for extensions etc, but I'm a bit nervous about that because whilst I can do the drawing, I don't understand the building industry well enough.

Cheers!

dirtychinchilla

Martynt74 · 11 Feb 2021 at 11:40

I sometimes consider this, but always end up finding that rates are so low due to people outsourcing to India etc that anything Excel related just isn't worth the time.

I'd also be hesitant doing drawings. I know personally if i want that doing i'd be going to an architect/architectural technician.

Most other things would end up being unskilled bar/shop work etc and again not worthwhile given your career and presumably decent salary. Unless you need the income i'd just look to find hobbies to invest your spare time in and enjoy life.

The only other option would be trying to set up something like @randomshenans and Cheezus etc. I imagine that'd be much more fulfilling if you follow more of a passion.

dirtychinchilla · 11 Feb 2021 at 11:48

Martynt74 said:
I sometimes consider this, but always end up finding that rates are so low due to people outsourcing to India etc that anything Excel related just isn't worth the time.

I'd also be hesitant doing drawings. I know personally if i want that doing i'd be going to an architect/architectural technician.

Most other things would end up being unskilled bar/shop work etc and again not worthwhile given your career and presumably decent salary. Unless you need the income i'd just look to find hobbies to invest your spare time in and enjoy life.

The only other option would be trying to set up something like @randomshenans and Cheezus etc. I imagine that'd be much more fulfilling if you follow more of a passion.

I'm happy to support Cheezus if he includes cheese for the lactose intolerant or indeed, dairy intolerant.

I know exactly what you mean though. Some jobs I just think, is it really worth it? Like I could try and get a job in ASDA, but I'd slave away for less than £100 a day and right now, be very much exposed to corona judging by our local ASDA.

As far as the Excel stuff goes...maybe my perception is wrong, but when I used Fiverr (where I am currently advertising) to commission a logo, the fact that the guy's English sucked made it so much more difficult. I have just reduced my prices though as I understand actually getting jobs bumps you up on their algorithm.

Martynt74 · 11 Feb 2021 at 11:54

Oh i agree with that. I sometimes consider evening work in a pub, it'd be a bit of extra cash and if you get a decent pub then you get the social aspect of it too which i liked the idea of vs just slaving away in a supermarket. I never went ahead with it though. Since working from home i've also grown to try and appreciate the time out of work even more and make the most of is. I think because of having the extra time it makes it easier to fit things into the evening without the commute as previously by the time i get home make tea etc it's getting a bit too late to get stuck into something so i ended up just veging out watching tv with the wife.

I did do some Excel/Access based jobs through People Per Hour a few years ago, but i ended up getting to the point where the prices got so low that i was quoting for less than minimum wage to try and win the job, and in the end i just gave up. This was back in 2015 though so perhaps things have changed.

randomshenans · 11 Feb 2021 at 13:08

dirtychinchilla said:
I know exactly what you mean though. Some jobs I just think, is it really worth it? Like I could try and get a job in ASDA, but I'd slave away for less than £100 a day and right now, be very much exposed to corona judging by our local ASDA.

I had this convo the other day actually. I remember when I lost my job in recruitment, was back early 20s and I was on a decent wage. I got a 12k (public sector) first line support job, which was less than half my previous salary. With that, I had to move home and try and get rid of the debt I got when out of work... with a 12k salary! I got a job in a pub, 3-4 nights a week, so I got in from work, grabbed something to eat and right out to work 6-11ish. I earned like 50quid a week, or whatever it was. Due to tax and all that **** I got really low amounts out of my time, I was shattered and it just wasn't sustainable, or smart for that matter.

I decided it literally wasn't worth my time. It was a push for me though to improve myself and my skillset and use that instead. I spent my evenings teaching myself more technical IT stuff so I could progress up from my 12k position. I spent all my time I would have worked setting up test envs. and just cramming in loads of learning. Within 3 months I was taking on way more at work and within that time promoted up to 17.5k. I was then offered even more training at work (I decided on the MCITP EA it was called at the time as it was the most "difficult" they had) which all my night time training had meant I thought I could do it. Took all that, passed it and then got a job on 28.5k utilizing that cert. All this was in under a year in the end.

I suppose my point is, what's the goal and what would be the best, long term use of your time? If it's just for a bit of something to do, do something you'd enjoy. If it's for extra cash, remember it'll eat into yours and family time and soon gets tiring. You need that push or pull to keep you going.

For me, I know I have issues. If I was on the streets with nothing, I'd put my last 1quid into buying something to try and turn around and make money on... which means I am way more risk forward and I really don't do it for the money, I do it because I love it. The process, the journey and the building things. You have to if you're putting in all your evening and weekend time!

|TL;DR - use your time wisely, you only have so much of it. Would the value be increased for your wages if you spent the time training/ learning? If this isn't an option, look at what you enjoy and see if you can monetise it in some way.

Beerbaron · 11 Feb 2021 at 13:19

I've been considering what I could do in my spare time to earn more money. Ideally something that would start earning for me which I can do from home.

randomshenans · 11 Feb 2021 at 13:52

One of the things I'm in the process of doing, along with every other ******* thing, is setting up a course for product management. I know there is demand out there for product management 101, not for product managers, but everyone else in a product based org.

Same for things around product operations. There isn't much out there but it's getting bigger and something I do both with cheezus and at work, so I want to make a course. Great thing about it is, once you've made it and got the SEO done well, you should hopefully be pretty set. I'll be charging $495 a person per course, so it's not small money. Even if you got 1 every other month, it's a nice little amount. Get 3-4 a month and you're talking serious extra cash.

https://hopiumlabs.com is the rough start but you know, need to get around to it!

I've also sold my services on FIVERR and UpWork. I have designed business models for companies and done some validation testing for them, or given feedback on them for things they need to go off and do. Got about $50 a time for that and it's easy. Upwork did more UI work really. It's fun and I like doing mockups in Adobe XD so done some of those.

BennyC · 2 Mar 2021 at 20:38

dirtychinchilla said:
I'm just curious if anyone has any advice on finding a Saturday job. Is that the sort of thing people do nowadays? I'm just wanting to prop up our income a little bit.

I'm fairly well qualified, BEng, and I'm middle management in a low carbon technology company, skilled with a couple of CAD programs and am a self-certified Excel wizard.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I often wonder if I could help streamline small businesses, but it might be a bit overreaching. The other idea I have is doing drawings for extensions etc, but I'm a bit nervous about that because whilst I can do the drawing, I don't understand the building industry well enough.

Cheers!

dirtychinchilla

My OH paid for services recently via Fiverr, a CAD render for a planned Permitted Development. And also some Architectural Drawings. Might be worth a look if CAD renders are your thing.