Ask HN: Is it worth working two 90% Jobs?
I already work 60hrs/week, but am paid only for the 39hrs.
Would it not make sense for me to work two 30hr jobs instead?
Other than opting out of the 48-hour work week limit, are there any legal or financial concerns to doing this?
I would pay tax twice I suppose, but the takehome would still be better than what I'm doing now, right?
40 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 94.1 ms ] threadYeah, you would get fired it caught. But we live in an age of layoffs. You are doomed anyway.
But at lower levels, you could probably automate more stuff too, at the risk of being promoted to a level where you can't.
I suspect that a lot of over-employed people do not get explicit sign-off from both parties. That becomes a gray area.
In Germany you just need to declare to your employer that you have a second job and that it won't interfere with their hours.
I just want to know if its worth it, money/time-wise
I fill the extra time because I want to. I just now want to start getting laid for it.
Since already commenting, I’d look into getting some resume assistance. Know you mentioned the kinda work you do is linear pay but perhaps if you reword your skills/what you’ve done in a clearer/relevant light you’d be able to transition easier.
Good luck, thank you for posting
I've been ricing my CV for a few months now. Highlighted STAR stories and projects to show my experience as a Software Dev / SysAdmin / Data Analyst / Matrix manager, made skill charts of all the languages and frameworks I've used complete with years of experience.
It looks fancy as hell from my perspective, but maybe it's time I got a second opinion on it from some professionals.
Cheers.
Then why the heck do you do them?
Instead of thinking of yourself as a perfectionist, start thinking of yourself as an insecure person. You’re insecure about the quality of your work so you pretend that if you spend more time on them your insecurity will go away because then they’ll be done perfectly.
Make a list of 10 or 20 things you’ve done perfectly recently. It shouldn’t be hard since you’re a perfectionist, right?
And of course your work isn’t perfect. There’s no such thing as perfect work.
So either you get comfortable being done with things when they are done or you get comfortable with doing extra unpaid work because you delight in spending your time making things more than passable.
Which one would you prefer? It’s 100% up to you.
Oh please, there are tons of jobs that say you only need 40 hours a week, but then they basically force you to work more. This is a common scenario, especially for IT.
What exactly are you negating here?
Why not get a job that pays better, especially if you are willing to work those sorts of hours. There's much to be said for having a life outside of work and not wrecking your health.
Tech careers are fairly lucrative so you should be able to save plenty for retirement.
• Start working max 40 hours per week at your current job.
• Find a new job with higher salary, where you only work 30-50 hours/week.
I enjoy my work, it feels meaningful, and I get great feedback from it, so I'm happy to put the extra hours in.
I've built good networks in academia over the last few years and I am constantly being courted by separate labs to win me to their team, but the pay is flat and isn't great.
Hence my desire to continue what I am doing, but officially for two teams and officially as two jobs.
If you took one, would you be making more or less money in 2-5 years?
I actually don't know how quickly my pay will scale in 2-5 years in industry. My general feeling is that regardless of how good I might be (or think I might be…), I'd still be older than the other entry-level candidates, and when a promotion would come up, my age might become an issue (e.g. I would be more likely to start a family in the next few years and therefore my work would come second).
I want something that pays at least £65k, which I don't think is unreasonable for my skill set, but without industry experience, I can see why employers might cover their mouths and laugh a little.
You could probably reach out to some people in the areas you're looking to work and ask them out for a cup of coffee to find out what career progression can look like, or you could just check out public information like on levels.fyi: https://www.levels.fyi/
I'd also look into improving at the skill of salary negotiation: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/
Career transitions and non-traditional backgrounds are much more common in tech than in other fields so I'd worry less about that and just start interviewing and see what happens. Worst that can happen is you get no's or low offers, but you might be shocked at what you actually do get.
No?
I'm actually considering the option because I don't have the confidence to move into a job I love, so getting better paid and retire earlier is the next best thing. Maybe one full-time job with one contractor job to minimize the risk. I could take home $250K+ pre-tax which is pretty lucrative for Canadians, plus I can expense my laptop and other minor stuffs.
But I have never done that so not sure if I could handle the pressure. It would be nice if both jobs require minimum guidance and meetings.
That being said, if you are young and single, you might want to look ahead 20 years and make sure that this would lead you to the end-state that you want most (think about it, money is just one of many factors).