Ask HN: Ways to make side income as a SWE?
* Assuming your company allows.
I want to earn some side income. Are there any platforms that pay reasonable amounts for short-term contract or gig work for SWEs?
I want to earn some side income. Are there any platforms that pay reasonable amounts for short-term contract or gig work for SWEs?
94 comments
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1. Job hop into higher salary. For any level, you essentially spend time up front to get the job, then get more money while spending the same time working.
2. Get into real estate. Chances are you make enough money to be able to afford multiple properties, and you can start doing airbnb or straight rentals and earn passive side income without much effort.
Otherwise, if you want to code, the more enjoyable way to make money is to pursue something that you already like doing, so it doesn't feel like work, and monetize it.
Renting is financially beneficial for the large majority of people. If you don't understand this, you don't understand how APR works, or you think that houses always are going to appreciate (a belief that was proven VERY false in 2007)
- Are you currently working as an SWE during your day job?
- Do you just need more money in general, or do you specifically want/need for it to be via an SWE-side-job ?
- Are you located within a short commute of businesses that might need a part-time SWE, or would this need to be hybrid/remote?
- What skills (SWE-related or other) do you have to offer for this side-work?
- What duration(s) are you interested in committing to for a given side-job?
- Are you looking to work as a contractor or as a regular employee?
- Do you have a professional network that you could draw on, or do you need to find opportunities entirely on your own?
With platforms like Upwork it's really hard to compete with lower-cost devs.
I have a client that I'm trying to fire right now, who, rather than hire me for a longer-term contract, has hired an offshore team of interns that are really struggling. What would have been a long weekend project for me has stretched out into 3 months for them.
I wonder if growing a successful 7 figure income is easier than becoming a 7 figure exec.
Besides, by being a 1M small business you're solving problems for society, by being a 1M per year top exec you're probably at the level you're bribing politicians, brainwashing people with ads and woke marketing and generally making the world a worse place.
You are right that 7 figures annually is different than just 7 figure net worth. However, if you have a 7 figure net worth, you could probably get to 7 figures annually relatively easily.
something to reasonably expect, might be be a 4% real return (i.e. net of inflation). that's achievable with discipline and no skill through low fee passive index investment. luck of avoiding catastrophes would also help.
at 4% real return, assuming you paid zero tax, your wealth doubles roughly once every 19 years. To throw off a 7 figure income at 4% real return you need $25m invested. That's 4.6 doublings of your initial $1m, so after 80-something years you're across the line. better start early.
Another way to accelerate the journey is to cheat and convert your money into a currency that is extremely devalued, then your income can have many additional figures even if your wealth is unchanged.
Any director at FAANG will make that much.
Then your priorities are probably fucked. Assuming this isn't just a devil's advocate hypothetical.
An alternative approach might be a marketplace like https://www.moonlightwork.com which I used a handful of years ago but not recently.
Apparently this became common at some point, "over employment" is a thing now, with a subreddit and everything.
I've seen great engineers end up falling flat on their ass because of trying to do this. The majority of people just don't have the ability/capacity to be good at two jobs, and once people notice that you're meh or worse, it's very difficult to change that. Most people are better off just kicking ass at one job, than being acceptable at two.
I think it's a sad reflection of company culture of this time if you can put in 1hr of work per day and coast along.
We really got soft with all this bs. Which is why I don't have employees, just contractors I paid (quite a bit) to deliver results - not butts in seats or doing "anti-harassment training"
There’s no reason to care as an employee. I get paid whether or not our customers are upset (not long term, but long enough for me).
I don't care about arguments regarding the unethical things employers do to employees. It's wrong, period.
edit: what a trash heap of replies.
If the dev is actually not performing/delivering. If there's no complaints, and they are on salary (not hourly), what exactly is the ethical problem here?
For the avoidance of doubt I thought there was absolutely nothing unethical about my coworker who was approached about a job in a different timezone and told everyone he'd taken it but was happy to work before 5pm.
If employers don’t like it then they should pay by the hour for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Your employer pays for your (mental, in this case) energy.
Nothing unethical to having multiple jobs. Plenty of poor people outside of tech do it
Unless you’re religious or something and believe in a global definition of ethics that applies to everyone, there’s no real point in telling everyone what’s unethical. Is it unethical to you? Great! Then you don’t do it. I will do what I want.
No, it isn't. Our society is made up of many countries, something Americans often forget. And fortunately, we don't have everything in common, otherwise it would be a nightmare.
What's the meaningful ethical difference between an individual with multiple W2 income streams, and a sole prop with multiple 1099s?
You should expect exactly that when using phrases like “it’s wrong, period”. There are not many things in this world that are wrong, period. Over employment is not one of them, period.
I'd strongly recommend forgetting about the gig economy. It's a race to the bottom unless you're willing ti put in multi-year effort to build a portfolio so you can stand out and land larger consulting gigs. This is the reason I say if you need fast cash a second job is the fastest path.
Margin rates are something like 13% right now. You might get lucky and see SPY do better than 13% a year, but you are risking a lot. People would not buy a primary residence at that rate, for example, and you can live inside that while you pay off the loan.
If you want to trade on margin, IBKR offers 5.83-6.83% [1] going down as you borrow more. They also pay 4.83% on idle cash.
With that said, you'd probably be better off with UPRO or SPXL for longer-duration holds (since your losses cannot exceed your investment) - and /ES or /MES for short-term holding since futures contracts are 60% long term capital gains treatment no matter how long you hold them.
> People would not buy a primary residence at that rate, for example, and you can live inside that while you pay off the loan.
If that's your benchmark we know people are paying more than 5.83% for 30-year fixed ;)
[1] https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/margin-rates.p...
You will need to qualify (there's a couple small tests and I think a short interview) but then you'll be able to one-on-one live code with someone, there are full "freelance projects" available, code reviews, etc. You set your hourly rate (by the 15 minute interval) and the free lance ones are lump sum ($100's - $1000's)
One downside: it has gotten a bit more popular over the years, so if you want to be selected for a gig you'll need to be quick and/or convincing. It's not nearly as bad as something like fiverr or freelancer but I have a tough time getting in on requests even with a 5-star rating (good ones fill up with many offers quickly).
I've tried to build webapps, websites with content, lots of other things, but I always ended up demotivated by the lack of feedback and interaction. The internet is a very crowded place and there's too much competition. You're either very very good, or lucky (or know how to play the algorithm's games).
My realization is that one should either find a (quite) smaller niche, or it's better to focus in the people around you, where you can engage personally (i.e., in person or email/phone/chat/whatever).
Might as well save the time and play the lotto