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Anyone have two jobs?

B

Blue Velvet

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Jul 4, 2004
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I'm thinking of doing some part-time work on top of my full-time job for about 6 months to a year to bring in some extra cash for some things I'm saving for... not sure what yet though.

I'd like to hear your experiences of holding down two or more jobs: benefits and drawbacks, what kind of jobs they are, how you manage to fit everything in etc.
 
I used to be a workaholic at my old job. The drawbacks would be if you start sacrificing your home life for your work life. You don't need to have two jobs for that to happen though.

I think the main drawback would be that you wouldn't be able to post as much here. :(
 
Absolutely. Ive worked multiple jobs for the past few years in order to pay my house off before im 30. Pulling in an additional 3k a month.

Big fan of it. Just make sure you love what your doing
 
Blue Velvet said:
I'm thinking of doing some part-time work on top of my full-time job for about 6 months to a year to bring in some extra cash for some things I'm saving for... not sure what yet though.

I'd like to hear your experiences of holding down two or more jobs: benefits and drawbacks, what kind of jobs they are, how you manage to fit everything in etc.
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Depends. I worked 60+ hours every week for a couple of years. Had my full time job plus worked in production on the weeknights and weekends. The trick IMO is to for sure enjoy the second job. Doing audio engineering and lighting design for theater, live concerts, etc was also my hobby and I got to work with my friends and make $30. I did have to give it up when I get married though, although I still do a few here and there. Anyway, that's my two cents on that.
 
I've worked for a political party while also working for the government under elected officials. This arrangement is very common in politics, and both organizations make it easy to work at the other.

I'd imagine other fields might have similar arrangements. Police officer full time, reserve Military comes to mind, for example.

It all depends on if you have enough time to do both jobs, and that depends on the jobs themselves.
 
rlove06 said:
The trick IMO is to for sure enjoy the second job.
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Good point. I don't really have much of a home life anyway except for posting here, sleeping, bathing, eating. My flat may as well be a hotel room... :eek:

My day (full-time) job is graphic designer. It would be nice to do something a bit different after a full day of being on the Mac. I'm prepared to sacrifice what little social life I have at the mo for a limited period to make this work.

With other savings from my fulltime job, I'm hoping to put aside about US$1400-1600 per month.
 
i've always had a few jobs at a time. thing is, you need understanding managers/employers who are willing to work around schedules.

if you don't have kids or nagging partner, then go for it.

myself, my current jobs are transferring home videos and looking after my 2 kids and anyone knows, staying at home with kids is a rewarding job, but by far, the hardest job on the planet as well.

so if it's not that, do what you can and enjoy and save, save, save ;)
btw, my wife is a financial planner and she recommends putting the money in a higher interest savings account where it is not easy to take out cash quickly. if it's a pain in the you know what, it will be harder to spend :)
 
There was a time I had two, one that paid monthly, one weekly. Worked out great if I was short of cash, since I was never more than a few days away from a pay day. The second one has to be something you can treat more as a hobby though. Not stressful at all, otherwise it just impacts on the first one too much.

I did bar work. Nice and easy, sociable, and people buy you drinks :)
 
Keebler said:
i've always had a few jobs at a time. thing is, you need understanding managers/employers who are willing to work around schedules.

if you don't have kids or nagging partner, then go for it.

myself, my current jobs are transferring home videos and looking after my 2 kids and anyone knows, staying at home with kids is a rewarding job, but by far, the hardest job on the planet as well.

so if it's not that, do what you can and enjoy and save, save, save ;)
btw, my wife is a financial planner and she recommends putting the money in a higher interest savings account where it is not easy to take out cash quickly. if it's a pain in the you know what, it will be harder to spend :)
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The pluses for me are:

• Flexi-hours in the day job. I can start work at 7am if I wanted and finish at 3pm or start as late as 11am.
• No kids or partners
• And yes, I'm looking into locked-down, fixed-term accounts.

Thanks. :)
 
I've had a second job for about 3 years. I'm working so much overtime at my full-time job lately that I don't work much at my second job. (I do clinical lab work).

What I found is that I appreciate my time off a lot more since I have less of it, I tend to really enjoy having a day off much more than before.

Also, the extra money is great but I realized that I didn't save more, I spent more. I guess I'm not very disciplined.
 
I gave up doing overtime when I got married. I used to do about 18 hours every week for about 4 years. The money was great and it helped me furnish my house, maintain a good social life, and pay for my wedding without getting deeply into debt (bar the mortgage, of course), but I made a conscious choice to stop, as quality of life is more important. I suffered for a while, having been used to the extra money, but the payback is more than worth it.

If you're at a stage where you're willing to give up some of your time now for particular goals, then go for it. Having the money to pay for what you want is better than going into debt (although properly though out debt has it's place too).
 
Blue Velvet said:
I'm thinking of doing some part-time work on top of my full-time job for about 6 months to a year to bring in some extra cash for some things I'm saving for... not sure what yet though.

I'd like to hear your experiences of holding down two or more jobs: benefits and drawbacks, what kind of jobs they are, how you manage to fit everything in etc.
Click to expand...

I work enough hours at one job today to equate for two. ;)

But there have been times when I've worked three jobs. The best advice that I can give you is that if you're going to do it-- you may as well make sure that the second job is doing something that you really do love.

I don't know what that is for you-- if I needed/wanted a second job I'd go get something at a motorcycle dealer or perhaps at a high-end audio/video place.
 
Blue Velvet said:
Anyone feel like paying me to post bollocks on MacRumors? :D

One option at mo includes teaching evening classes...
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I think teaching sounds like a great second job. You really seem to have nothing to lose by just trying it. If it turns out that you don't like it, and you miss your time just relaxing then you can always quit. I say go for it :)
 
Blue Velvet said:
One option at mo includes teaching evening classes...
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Be careful with teaching gigs. If you're at all conscientious, a teaching gig can easily turn into a minimum wage gig (when you include prep time) that starts eating into your daytime job. Depending on what you're teaching, the various levels of your students (how much differentiated instruction you have to provide), etc., the prep work can be a killer - especially if it's material that you're learning or re-learning as you go.

My best advice is to make sure that one of the two jobs is a mindless job. If your daytime job doesn't require a lot of thought or creativity, then get a night-time job (like teaching) that does. If your daytime job does require your thought and creativity, then you want a nighttime job that doesn't. Otherwise, the two start competing with one another for your attention.
 
jsalzer said:
Be careful with teaching gigs.
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Good points and noted. I do have previous teaching (of adults) experience but when I was doing that, that was my only job. Perhaps something a little more mindless might be better as my day-job is fraught with deadlines demanding a high level of concentration, task-juggling and ego-smoothing.

Thanks all. Definite food for thought. :)
 
Hey Blue...

I know you said you wanted to stay away from graphic design, but freelance may be your best option. You can get $50-75 an hour (here in the US...not sure about the UK), which is far better than what you can earn from a part-time job. Plus, you set your own hours. Although I was up 'til 4 last night getting work done! For me, its actually more rewarding than my full-time job - my clients usually give me a free rein with designs (touch wood!!!!).
 
Black&Tan said:
Hey Blue...

I know you said you wanted to stay away from graphic design, but freelance may be your best option. You can get $50-75 an hour (here in the US...not sure about the UK), which is far better than what you can earn from a part-time job. Plus, you set your own hours. Although I was up 'til 4 last night getting work done! For me, its actually more rewarding than my full-time job - my clients usually give me a free rein with designs (touch wood!!!!).
Click to expand...


Ideally, I'd like it to be something different than freelancing although that's always an option. It was my first thought but I'm not sure if I can handle an 80 hour week just doing artwork at the mo, especially if something slips and impacts on my day-job. I really can't manage print or even be available for freelance clients sitting here at my desk in the office.
 
3 jobs over here, usually works out at about 60 hours a week. :eek:

Work 9-7ish Mon-Fri then All day Saturday for my local football (Soccer) club and then all day Sunday at GAME.
 
i teach design part-time in addition to being a full-time designer, and i find the teaching keeps me balanced and focused on making great design, whereas when i do not teach my creativity and overall quality of design takes a bit of a dive. the hours i spend teaching are hours i would almost gladly pay for.

i am going to get my MFA starting (hopefully) this fall so that i swap that to full-time teaching and part-time designing. having a fulltime teaching position allows me to be more picky about what projects i take on in my off time.

the thing about being a designer to me is that its like being a cop - you are a designer 24/7/365; i can't turn it off; so i may as well get paid for it since i am going to spend my off time doing it anyway.
 
I do two jobs, mainly because my main (contractual) one allows me to get my hours done in three long days (12 + 1hrs), which gives me four days 'free'. I'm using this to do massive overtime at the moment, 60-70 hrs/wk.

It's nice to have the variation, the money is nice, but it's so damn tiring. To be perfectly honest rather than recommending a second job, I'd suggest doing something you enjoy that also brings in extra cash and - most importantly - that you can drop in and out of.

AppleMatt
edit: Alternatively I'd suggest something you wouldn't normally ever consider, a polar opposite to your current job.
 
My $.02 about the teaching gig....

I taught a Java certification course for a summer after finishing my degree. It wasn't so bad because a lot of the material had already been prepared by the previous instructor so all I had to do was to familiarize myself with the material and make revisions where I thought necessary. The second time teaching the course was even easier since I'd already made the changes to the material that I wanted.

So, if you find a teaching gig where you are not having to do all the course prep work it may not be so bad (a bit more mindless) for a second part-time gig.
 
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