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The Almighty Buck

Jobs for Moonlighting Geeks? 109

Posted by Cliff from the when-one-income-just-isn't-enough dept.
BreadWinner asks: "My wife and I are adopting a baby in 2003 and it's very expensive. I work for a non-profit that can't pay me what I feel I'm worth. However, I really like my job, my boss, the time off, and my co-workers. So I'm considering moonlighting. I've done private contracting, but I don't think I can do my private clients justice when I'm working full-time. So what kind of job can I find that: I can leave at the job; maximize my $/hour? Anybody done commission-based electronics sales? I'm not an uber-geek, but I'm interested in whatever you folks at Slashdot can suggest."
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Jobs for Moonlighting Geeks? More

Jobs for Moonlighting Geeks?

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  • Best Buy might be an option. The money isn't the best (about $7 to start), but they get 90% of the stuff in the store at 5% over cost. Which means a cheap plasma TV...

    • Re:Best Buy? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by digitalmuse ( 147154 ) on Thursday December 19, 2002 @11:42AM (#4922917)
      Darkness Productions spoke the following out of his ass...
      "Best Buy might be an option. The money isn't the best (about $7 to start), but they get 90% of the stuff in the store at 5% over cost. Which means a cheap plasma TV..."

      If you read the actual question he was asking, he's looking opportunities that will allow him to bring in extra income, not ways of spending an additional low-wage paycheck on material goods that he doesn't necessarily need. Someone who's thinking ahead and planning on how he can leverage his knowledge and skill set into a better life for his expanding family (and kudos to him for deciding to adopt instead of 'DIYing his own.') has better things to spend his money on that expensive trend-whore gadgets.

      And yes, I posted this as a response, instead of just slapping you with (-1 offtopic).

      • Re:Best Buy? (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Joe Tennies ( 564856 )
        Yes, you are right, but the poster was commenting on the fact that working at Best Buy reduces the cost of the entertainment portion of the budget. This reallocates money to thing like paying bills and such. I don't think the example of a plasma TV was a good example. Nor are most of the products at Best Buy aimed towards a child. Therefore, I'm not sure Best Buy would be the place to work for him. If the guy spends a lot on electronic goods, though, it'd help a lot.
      • Actually, the plasma TV thing was meant as a joke. However, the reply was totally on-topic, as he asked for a *semi* tech related job. Best Buy is pretty close (as far as leaving the job at the job, etc). I brought up the 5% over cost thing as well since it might make sense (as someone else already posted), if he spends a good deal of money on electronics/movies/cds anyway. In the long run, he saves money from buying at his temporary place of employment, and it could help him pay for other things. However, I also understand that if he's getting this second job, it's because he needs extra money in the first place, which then assumes that he probably isn't going to be buying any extra electronics/movies/cds...

      • Re:Best Buy? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Bald Wookie ( 18771 )
        What about ebay?

        You get to buy electronics gear at 5% over a national chain's cost. I bet that for certain items that leaves you with a pretty healthy margin. Shop for fairly expensive items with good margins and you should be OK.

        Let's say you can pay $500 for an item that normally sells for $800. Throw it on ebay and hopefully sell it for 600 to 700 bucks. For this example let's say you make an extra $150.

        If you're only working at BB 10 hours a week, you just made an extra fifteen bucks an hour. Add on the original $7 per hour and you're looking at a gross of over $20 bucks an hour for the week. Lather, rinse, repeat.

        Round here, $20/hour isn't all that great. However, in some areas, you could cover your mortgage doing this. There are better paying opportunities I'm sure, but this one comes with very little stress and a flexible schedule.

        • Re:Best Buy? (Score:1, Interesting)

          by Anonymous Coward
          Problem is that the big chains actually hire people to track this kind of stuff down. I used to work at Circuit City and there were people who got caught selling car audio equipment online through ebay, etc. Not a good thing to get caught.

          You'd be amazed at the markup of car audio and any type of cable, like monster... >200% sometimes. If you're smart, you could get away with though and have a nice little profit. The assistant manager paid for a Ford Explorer this way.
          • Do you have to sign an agreement that you
            won't resell the stuff you got at a discount?
            It's not stolen goods, after all; why can't
            he sell it? Also, can you give it as gifts?
            • Do you have to sign an agreement that you won't resell the stuff you got at a discount?

              When I worked at Best Buy, a few years ago, the answer was yes. You did have to sign an agreement that you would only buy items at discount for personal use or for your immediate family. I don't remember the exact words it used, but it definately implied that you were not allowed to resell the stuff you got at a discount.
    • Umm, I think the poster wanted cash to pay for stuff like medical bills, baby clothing, diapers, furniture, etc. Doesn't sound like he has extra cash to spend on a plasma TV.
    • You don't get a discount on the Plasma TVs. The best discounts are on appliances like washers and dryers, which you could use to wash diapers. And I started at $10/hr. Still not great, and they don't do commission. I would recommend taking a Bartending course, getting iether TIPS or BARCODE certified, and then doing catering/function gigs. they are great for moonlighting, and veryu good money for your time.

  • Consulting but different (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Paladin128 ( 203968 ) <aaron.traas@org> on Thursday December 19, 2002 @11:39AM (#4922889) Homepage
    You could do consulting, but not for development. You could do something that takes lots of time, but not lots of hours, such as HCI (Human-computer Interaction) analasys. Consult for owners of websites and/or small application developers to perform various levels of HCI evaluation, such as analysis and testing. Some clients may want just a detail of obvious (to an HCI designer) problem areas, others will want results obtainable by user testing, and some of them will want designs.

    The first suggestion, simple evaluations, can take you only a few hours at a time to do, and then another couple hours writing a report of suggestions to the client. User testing can be a bit more hairy, but the rule of thumb is for each round of user testing, you'll find all the snags with 4 test subjects, and tests should be 30 minutes or less per subject. Then you use about the same amount of time analyzing the results as the above option. The design-work can take many, many hours of designing, prototyping, and testing, but not every client wants immediate results. Some actually feel better if it takes you a couple months; they feel as if you'd been spending all that time musing over it and tweaking it.
    • I didn't specify something... the "can take you only a few hours at a time to do" was specifically about small applications, like custom database frontends, simple web sites, and even simple custom POS systems. I'm not trying to make the HCI field look like cake work; it's not. But there are lots of small jobs, and lots of developers that are only looking to avoid huge gaping errors, not minor little inconsistencies that wil slow down the user by 500 milliseconds. I've done simple jobs in less than 10 hours, and I've spent months at a time working 40+ hour weeks on much bigger jobs.

  • You have a JOB???? (Score:3, Funny)

    by lostindenver ( 53192 ) on Thursday December 19, 2002 @11:41AM (#4922903)
    Share the secret of how you have a full time job...
    • He works tech and doesn't live in Denver, Austin, Boston, or any other city that tried to become "the next silicon valley/tech corridor" and failed (and, upon failing, watched all the people from the valley stay in the valley). It's unfortunate that entire metros are now tech slums because of the local government jumping all on the same bandwagon a couple of years ago.

  • Weekend Server? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Timinithis ( 14891 ) on Thursday December 19, 2002 @11:43AM (#4922930) Homepage
    No, I mean wait tables. I do this now, but only on Friday night and Saturdays. I get a little gas money from the hourly wage of $2.13/hour, but I also make between $60-$150 in cash.

    This leaves me Sundays off, and Mon-Thur evenings for time at home, and in your case with Wife and baby.
    • I get a little gas money from the hourly wage of $2.13/hour

      $2.13!? Assuming you're in America (as you put it in USD) then that's far below minimum wage. You should be getting atleast $6.75, I believe.
      • $2.13 might be a little low, but waitstaff getting paid below minimum wage per hour is actually legal. The tips are supposed to make up the difference between what they get paid per hour and the minimum wage.

        IIRC, if the base pay + tips don't add up to minimum wage, the employer is supposed to make up the difference, but I'm not positive on that, and I've never heard of that actually being done.
  • That's the ticket. Grab a Console Operator's position for the mid-night shift.
  • When you can cyberbeg [cnn.com]?

    YMMV.

    Hey -- I just noticed that the preview time is slow by 15:46 hours..

  • an idea (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Here's a service that could be useful. Keep yourself abreast of the latest version of OSS packages and build a database containing what your customers have installed and what version they're using. Whenever something significant comes up, e.g. security hole patched up in product X version Y, you can send mails to your customers who are effected, keeping them up to date. You really could save your customers some money if they're not big enough to have they're own technical staff. Call it technical insurance.
  • I used to work in retail and I can tell you it is good money to have on the side. Usually, the people who do the schedule are flexible and will let you work whenever you would like.

    However commission based sales are a tricky business. Several years ago, I worked at a well-known department store that paid you a base hourly rate and commission. The thing is, if your commission did not meet or exceed what you would have been paid at your hourly rate, you only got your hourly rate and on the next pay schedule, you had to make up the difference before you could start counting the commission you earned toward your next paycheck.

    Some people who work at these stores are also very aggressive and will do nearly anything to get their commission, even if it means sometimes taking credit for a sale you made. Trust no one at first. Handle all of your transactions yourself. Find out what items on the floor pay the most in commissions. Sell the extended warranties.

    I had some internal conflicts before. There was a particular camera that paid $10 for each one you sold by the manufacturer. The thing is, it was a piece of junk that I think was designed to break in 6 months. I sold the daylights out of those but I hated myself for it.

    Finally, it's a little late in the holiday season to be thinking about a retail job. Most department stores are going to start laying off their holiday help in the next week or so. And with retailers reporting less than impressive profits, it will be hard to find work there about now.
    • I would second the suggestion of retail. I worked in a small specialty running shop for three years. The great thing about retail is that it is truly "leave your work at work."

      I got off work, drove home in 15 minutes, and did not think about the job again until the next time I went in.

      My suggestion would be to avoid larger stores and chains. Try a smaller shop. A family owned shop can be nice (there are definitely exceptions to this, but in general...). I would also sugggest something not in the field your major career is in (if you are working in tech I would not work at a computer shop, for example). Smaller shops can also be more flexible at times with scheduling, and generally look for more long-term help rather than hiring on seasonal people.

      It would be far better to use the opportunity to have fun with a hobby.

      Examples:
      * Running stores
      * Outdoor/camping shops
      * Record/CD store
      * Movie rental place
    • Dude -

      I don't know how any honest person could make a decent living working for commission in retail electronics.

      I worked in the training department of a certain nationwide "computer superstore" (yes, THAT one) while some of my friends worked on the floor. The only printers that sold were the ones that offered kickbacks from the manufacturer. Same thing with computers - you'd see four salespeople trying sell a POS computer system because in the A.M. meeting the store manager had promised $x per machine.

      And yes, the competition! One saleswoman was actually PAYING the cashiers to put uncommissioned sales under her ID. Unsurprisingly, she had the top sales each week.

      Making up garbage about virus infections and hackers to pressure people into buying warranties... sigh, *I* just couldn't live with myself.

  • Shareware (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Kevin Stevens ( 227724 ) <kevstev&gmail,com> on Thursday December 19, 2002 @11:52AM (#4923012)
    You could always try your hand at making a useful software product. Note that I said useful. If you can increase productivity with your software then you have a much larger chance of a business buying it, and they tend to be much more scrupulous than the general populous. To make it less risky and intrusive into your life, make it something you will use at work, or your co-workers will use (that way, your life is made easier, and you also get brownie points at work). Obviously, you need to be reasonable in your expectations, I would not expect to earn more than a thousand bucks for each application you release. A variation on this is to use the Microsoft model and create knockoffs of current very popular software- especially software that has gotten ridiculously bloated over time (*coughcough* Word). IE, Implement wordpad with a table of contents feature, page numbering, slightly more advanced formatting, etc. and keep the size small. Market it as a cheaper version of whatever software. There are alot of people looking for legit copies of cheap productivity software that gives them the best features of huge programs w/out the bloat. Most likely, you will make very little money, but mebbe enough to buy a new TV. But, you also have that one chance in hell that your software will catch on, and you could make a considerable amount of money. And programming in the comfort of your home is alot better than working at Best Buy on the weekends.

  • Teaching (Score:5, Interesting)

    by 4/3PI*R^3 ( 102276 ) on Thursday December 19, 2002 @11:52AM (#4923014)
    Find a local technical school (i.e. DeVry [devry.edu]) and offer your services. Most are in need of instructors. You can usually teach 1 or 2 courses in an area you are familiar with and make $2-$4K per term for only 8-10 hours per week of work.

    This not only benefits your wallet, but it also improves your professional skills (which is a great bonus if your employer gives you flack about moonlighting).

    • Re:Teaching (Score:4, Informative)

      by sysadmn ( 29788 ) <sysadmn AT gmail DOT com> on Thursday December 19, 2002 @12:00PM (#4923083) Homepage
      This is good advice. Don't overlook the schools of commercial art & design. Most are moving into the "certified (certifiable?) web developer" and "multimedia graphics artist" areas. If you can teach PhotoShop and floppy disk formatting you can earn what works out to $20/hr or more. Plus you get rooms of Macs & Windows to play on.

    • Re:Teaching (Score:2, Flamebait)

      by Doco ( 53938 )
      Absolutely. Teaching can be good. (I do it myself) You just have to resign yourself to the fact that many of the students won't know crap and don't care as long as they get the grade so they can get the piece of paper.

      I went to class to learn something - and was under the dillusion that many of the students were there for the same reason. Many of them aren't.

      Once I stopped caring so much about people who didn't give a crap about the class I found that I didn't spend too many hours on the class and the pay wasn't so bad. Besides - you can spend a good number of the hours preparing class material, correcting papers, etc. at home and with the family. No you aren't as productive when you have to jump up and catch the kids before they knock over the xmas tree - but you do get to see them and interact with them at the same time.
    • Don't forget community colleges. They often have certificate programs in computer science that can be taught by anyone with sufficient experience regardless of whether or not they have a relevant degree.
    • Keep in mind teaching usually requires at least a Bachlor's degree, something not every geek has (or needs). Usually if you're a programmer/designer, you've got one, but if you're a tech, netadmin, sysadmin, etc, I'd say 50/50 you don't.

    • I've been teaching at ITT for nearly a year now. This is a useful and relatively well-compensated method to augment your primary income. I started in order to flex my Linux skills, but I've enjoyed the teaching aspect too. And yes, as mentioned elsewhere, bachelor degrees are most likely required for any length longer than six months -- it's a requirement of the accreditation organization.

  • #1 of a top ten list that I got a giggle out of. (Score:3, Funny)

    by roseblood ( 631824 ) on Thursday December 19, 2002 @11:57AM (#4923056)
    This is #1 from a top ten list of ways to make money with your computer:

    #1) Get a nice solid all steel serve case. Hide in a dark alley. As people move through the dark alley hit them with the case. While they are outcold take their money and other items of value. Wash, Rinse, repeat.

    Somewhere near #5 was:
    Find a not-too-ugly exhibitionist [female] and a web cam. Start collecting the checks and mailing out the once-worn panties at $20 a pop.

  • PC Guru (Score:4, Interesting)

    by doofusclam ( 528746 ) <slash@seanyseansean.com> on Thursday December 19, 2002 @12:00PM (#4923085) Homepage
    You could advertise your pc tinkering/fixing skills in the local newspaper. Plenty of people buy computers and do not have a clue - the going rate in the UK is 10-15UKP an hour or part of, approx 15-22 USD. Some of it's going to be routine and mundane ("I can't find my Bonzi Buddy...") but you get to meet loads of people and cut loose from the house for an hour at a time and i'd suspect most customers would come back again if you were good - i've never met anybody yet who only had an hours worth of questions about their computer...

    And as we're coming up to Christmas, just think of all those computers that have been bought as presents and therefore the amount of stumped newbies on the 25th. You might be busy...

    By the way, good luck with the new addition to the family, too!

    seany

    I was considering this for a while, the only problem being

    • Re:PC Guru (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Fweeky ( 41046 )
      I've been doing this, although I've not advertised anywhere.

      Build and set up a machine -- £50 + parts.

      Troubleshoot some problem -- £15-£30+, depending on complexity.

      The nice thing about this is you'll tend to get more clients the more you do, as people go around telling others about how you fixed their computer and how they should give you a call whenever they have problems.

    • Re:PC Guru (Score:4, Informative)

      by Jucius Maximus ( 229128 ) on Thursday December 19, 2002 @02:22PM (#4924259) Journal
      "You could advertise your pc tinkering/fixing skills in the local newspaper. Plenty of people buy computers and do not have a clue - the going rate in the UK is 10-15UKP an hour or part of, approx 15-22 USD. Some of it's going to be routine and mundane ("I can't find my Bonzi Buddy...") but you get to meet loads of people and cut loose from the house for an hour at a time and i'd suspect most customers would come back again if you were good - i've never met anybody yet who only had an hours worth of questions about their computer..."

      Good idea ... this is how I payed for my first year university textbooks. Once you help out a few people, your name gets around and you get referrals. This is when you start making some respectable money. It's nice to be able to go out for 2.5 hours to someone's house, run ad-aware, virus scan, reinstall an app or two, have a nice little chat about computer safety and come back $60 richer. If it's a business, you come back $100-150 richer. It's good money if you are a jack of all trades in PC tinkering.

  • Small contracting work (Score:5, Informative)

    by Ashran ( 107876 ) on Thursday December 19, 2002 @12:12PM (#4923176) Homepage
    Hiyas!

    Not sure if that helps or not since I couldnt find what exact area you would like to work in, but here it is:
    Rent A Coder [rentacoder.com]
    The main site has problems right now, but I can get to specific subsites by bookmarked URL so it should be back soon.

    With an account you can bid for small scale software dev projects.
    A says "I want an TCP Stack for my microwave oven"
    B says "I've done 10 projects so far and to implement your project I want 100 bucks!"
    C says "I've done 1 project so far and to do your stuff I want 75 bucks!"

    No a gets to choose if he wants to contract B or C.

    I've created an account but due to lack of time didnt land a contract yet, but I've heard some quite positive things about this site.
    I stumbled accross that site when people where talking about making some money in their freetime on some bulletin board - if you're good you can make like 1000$ a month with that.

    Hope this helps!
    Good luck to you & your family!
    • Just checked - the site is back up again.
    • I've an account on Rentacoder too, and have actually done a small job. The problem is that decent work is hard to come by and harder to get paid a decent amount for.

      Most of the possible gigs are nothing more then 'do my homework for $10' or 'clone a major application/website for $100.' Even on the good projects, expect to be underbid by someone living in a low-cost country offering to do it for less then US minimum wage.
    • I looked into RAC once. Most of the projects seemed to be "homework" projects (i.e., the person got a homework assignment and wanted someone to do it for him/her).
      • Actually, 90% of RAC jobs fall into one of 3 categories:

        1) I'm stupid but have a large trust fund. Do my homework.
        2) I'm a cheapskate and want software that works exactly like $EXPENSIVE_COMMERCIAL_SOFTWARE but with some more features but costs less than half the retail of $EXPENSIVE_COMMERCIAL_SOFTWARE.
        3) I'm delusional and want the impossible done. By tommorow. For under $50. And get full source-code & resale rights.

        When I first heard about the site, it seemed like a good idea... a good way to pick up a few extra bucks, but then I realized it was just a bunch of sad, stupid people wanting ridiculous things done.

  • Don't worry: your new job is DADDY (Score:4, Insightful)

    by neitzsche ( 520188 ) on Thursday December 19, 2002 @12:42PM (#4923447) Journal
    You won't have time for anything else. You won't be permitted to sleep for a while either.

  • Stress vs. Simplifying (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jwold ( 124863 ) on Thursday December 19, 2002 @12:47PM (#4923501)
    Another thing to consider is how much stress this second job will cause especially now with a very needy addition to your family.
    Think about working smarter rather than harder.

    A year ago I sold almost everything I owned to move back to my hometown where I now work for the library at about half my former pay. At first I took the job as a stepping stone until something better came along. Like you I found that I really love the job and to my surprise I don't really miss the pay or the stress.

    My life is more stripped down than it was but (now that I'm used to it) I don't feel the least bit deprived. In fact I am actually saving a bit of dough where I used to live nearly check to check before. I still travel and indulge in the arts and geeky hobbies and spend time and have fun. Mostly I just drive a payed for car and don't pay full price for stuff or eat out as much. Oh, and I won't be too extravagant about the Holidays although I never really was.

    Think not about what you can do without, but what you could be free of. The quality time with the wife and kid are worth a lot more than any part-time job will pay.

  • Hitman (Score:4, Funny)

    by sporty ( 27564 ) on Thursday December 19, 2002 @12:50PM (#4923527) Homepage
    A hitman is the perfect job for you. You go, shoot someone. When they ask where you were, say you were at work! :)

  • Have you thought about going on the game? It's the worlds oldest profession after all.

    It actually fits in with a geek lifestyle fairly well too, you do most of the 'work' at night, and it's all about networking...

  • I used to work a part-time job as a sound reinforcement/monitor tech for a small (me and the owner) outfit. We specialized in acoustic performances and smaller festivals so there wasn't a lot of show-biz phlegm.

    I only worked once a month or so and though it was intermittently hard work, it always seemed like a vacation from my day job because it was a totally different, fun and layed back atmosphere. Plus I learned a bunch, met some great people and got to indulge my geeky and artsy aspects as well.

    How I lucked into this job? I volunteered as a stage hand at a festival ONCE (to stalk^H^H^H^H^H see Mary Chapin-Carpenter) and my future employer liked my work ethic and started calling me with offers. Neat how that works sometimes.

    Anyways, don't restrict yourself to mainstream jobs that suck. Look between the cracks. Follow your bliss, etc. etc. etc.

  • Moonlighting (Score:3, Insightful)

    by frotty ( 586379 ) on Thursday December 19, 2002 @02:25PM (#4924291)
    Programmers ought to contact graphic designers or even "web designers" who are light in the pants when it comes to coding, server side work, etc.

    With the WYSIWYG boom, lately, it's becoming easier and easier for non-pros to emulate pro work... any graphic designer who changed 47 style sheets on a few hundred pages by hand because they forgot to put the text in Paragraph tags will tell you that they wish they had the skill and knowhow to efficiently do the programmy stuff based off of their illustrator or photoshop spreads.

    I can get a web job for $3,000 as a designer. I can come up with the design (paper prototypes) for about 1/3rd of that. The other 2/3rds is spent hacking through code, when a "pro" would take not even 1/2 that time. . . it is then, obviously, profitable for me to hire a freelance programmer (repeatedly)

  • Will your wife be a single parent? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kawika ( 87069 ) on Thursday December 19, 2002 @02:54PM (#4924574)
    Before we had kids, my wife and I both spent long hours working and I could not really understand people who weren't "committed to their jobs". After kids, our hours aren't as long because of other commitments (ballet, bowling, music lessons, play dates, etc) and I'm a bit more sympathetic to those people. It's changed our lives a lot and there's no way we could have seen the whole impact except to live through it.

    Anyway, you've both decided that you want kids badly enough to adopt them. I assume you want to spend some time with them, but you're planning on taking a second job. When will you spend time with the kids? Instead of increasing revenue, can you maybe reduce expenses? I'm not trying to be mean or judgemental here, just want to make sure that you realize the tradeoff you are making.
    • he is planning on adopting on sometime in 2003. he could be talking next fall. that gives him 6-9 months worth of saving money towards the baby. this is a smart thing to do.

      if he is really smart he'll stash some of it in long term investments.
    • Go to estate auctions. Buy boxed lots. Take pix with a digital camera. Write up. Post to ebay.
    • Any call centers in your area? Help desks almost always need part-time shift workers. The ones that handle corporate calls can pay a half-decent wage.
    • Get a retail license and sell PCs that you deliver to customer's houses and set up. Offer training sessions to add value.
  • That's United Parcel Service. I worked there in college, and there operation revolves around 3-5 hour shifts - Day, evening, night, and twilight

    Advantages:

    - Best benefits of a part time job you will ever find - full health, savings plans, etc.
    - $8 to start, at least when I was there
    - No brainwork, and you definitely leave the job at the plant when you go home.
    - Good job security - It's the Teamsters, remember?

    Disadvantages:

    - Can require physical effort - not a classical Geek strong point
    - No brainwork - can be crushingly dull (I viewed it as soothingly monotonous)
    - May not be hiring now with slowdown in economy.

    • I have some friends who worked at UPS, and they swore up and down that it was a bitch. Even if it is 3-5 hours, you will work every millisecond. Lifting, scanning, pushing, pulling. The money and benefits are good, but the stress and efforts levels are off the map. Not exactly moonlighting.
    • The physical effort not being a "Geek strong point" may be true - but the physical effort will eventually make you a Geek who has overcome those limitations. Just as you work hard to become a good (insert favorite language here) coder, working hard phyically will improve your physical fitness without going to the gym. I speak from experience - a math nerd in high school, I became much stronger operating a cardboard compressor at a grocery store where I had to stack 250-300 pound bales of cardboard. And as an "older" geek, let me tell you you will appreciate some physical fitness later in life, too. Being somewhat fit can help you avoid some of the common problems of aging - strong leg muscles support the knee, which prevents knee problems and arthroscopic surgery, for example.

  • Try something non-tech. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by pete-classic ( 75983 ) <hutnick@gmail.com> on Thursday December 19, 2002 @05:39PM (#4925841) Homepage Journal
    I work security at a night club on Friday and Saturday nights.

    I have to tell you, it is a lot of fun. In a way it is like being able to live out the BOFH fantasy. I work at a pretty swanky place, and I get no end of catharsis through getting in the faces of executive-types.

    I guess what I am saying is that variety is the spice of life. It is great that you are doing something that you enjoy doing during the day, but there might be something else you can do that you'd like just as much at night.

    Good luck!

    -Peter
    • I do the same man, I work at a karaoke club though.

      Do you drink OTJ? I'm allowed to but I have more fun staying sober all night. Do you notice when you don't drink you can actually tell how drunk the crowd is by the amount of alchohol on their breath? It's like a beowulf cluster of beer breath in my club because people are packed so tightly. The more beer I smell, the more I know shits gonna get crazy.

      Leave it to a geek to look at shit like that :/

      Cheers :)

  • I heard a good idea from a letter read on NPR this morning. Identify a home or business you intend to burglarize and send them a letting giving them the opportunity to opt-out of burglary proper by a certain date. If they don't opt-out, well, there you go. It's perfect.
    • Good idea. Surprisingly, unlike direct marketing, burglary is largely unregulated. You don't have to worry about checking each address against do-not-burgle list (federal or state!). You aren't required to clearly identify yourself to each customer, either. You do still have to be careful with contacting customers that have unconventional sleeping or activity patterns, though, so it's not all roses.
    • that's funny.

      A lawyer-friend of mine told me a story about some notorious local criminals... these 2 brothers ran a roof repair shop, and they would go out and drill holes in people's roofs, to drum up some easy business.

      Later on, one of the brothers got greedy and killed the other with a ballpeen hammer.

  • Lease the baby back out at a profit (Score:5, Funny)

    by Sloppy ( 14984 ) on Thursday December 19, 2002 @07:07PM (#4926541) Homepage Journal
    Find other couples who are interested in adopting a baby, but maybe part-time, and let them rent the baby at a rate greater than or equal to your expenses.

    If it works out well, you could even expand and get more babies. This is great, because your revenues will scale linearly with the number of babies (at least until you start to reach market saturation), but some of your expenses will scale up at a lower rate (that first baby is the most expensive, doesn't have any hand-me-downs, etc).

    Another good thing about a massive baby rental business, from a geek point of view, is that you can handle some of the issues in innovative ways. For example, suppose the couple on the street behind you wants a baby for the evening, and they have a special request for Little Joey. But here's the problem: do you have Little Joey in stock right now, or is he still rented out to the Finkelstein family? You go out to the baby stockade where all the cribs are, but it looks like the cubicle complex in Tron (which you recoginize due to being a geek). Fortunately, you've planned ahead: every time a baby gets back, you use your CueCat to scan the barcode that is tattooed on the back of each baby's neck. This updates your MySQL or PostgreSQL database so you you always know which babies are available. When the family on the street behind you asks you on the phone if Little Joey is available, you have an instant answer.

    But that's not all! Put a web-based front end on the database, and they can look up the availability themselves, without you having to man the phones. Now do you see how well this whole adoption thing can work out? Well, we're still not done. You see, that other family wants you to take the baby over to their house or get a large discount if they have to pick up Little Joey themselves. But as a geek, you can come up with all sorts of clever ways to handle the transportation. There's solar-powered rovers with robot drivers (fun to design!!), pheumatic tubes, etc. And it can all be automated and run at a profit. The sky is the limit!

  • I work high tech here in Colorado and right now, there is very little chance to improve my pay with a down job market. I thought of getting a weekend job working the ski slopes and besides, I can get some free skiing in ;)

    I didn't move to Colorado just to work, I moved here to enjoy the recreation it has to offer. Another job I have considered is working in a 4x4 shop. Totally different from being a Unix Admin.
  • Instead of investing the time in a second job, why not invest it in your child? The first few years are *unbelievably* important in the bonding process and you can never have them back.
    Never.
    No amount of money can ever make up for lost time with a child.
    So forego all of the latest and greatest Barbie/Furby/Who knows what and just concentrate on being a father.
    Cut some corners: eat more at home, shop Salvation Army and Goodwill stores, dollar stores, see second-run movies, hold off on the X-Box games or that spiffy MP3 player you've been wanting. The investment in a human being is more important.

    The biggest problem I see in America today is the government picking up the slack of the average parent. And, from what I can tell, the government is doing a piss-poor job trying to make up for the screwed-up priorities of an entire generation.

    So, forego the second job until your child gets to know you better. Then ease in a few hours at another job later.
    A new human life is nothing to take lightly.

  • It's unfortunate there's a stigma against blue collar work. Sometimes it pays pretty well, much better than you think. But the biggest advantage is that it's amenable to making your own hours, and it's much easier to get a business going. Everyone nowadays is trying to be a freelance web designer, programmer, graphic artist, technical writer, etc. It's a crowded field, and with the economy being a little slow there just isn't enough work to go around. Not to mention that any bright high school kid these days can/will do this stuff for pocket change, and the opportunities are slim.

    However, with everyone trying to land a glam white collar gig, there's still plenty of gritty work to be done, and it pays pretty well. You could easily clean pools, wash windows, do landscaping, property management, handyman stuff, paint, etc. The demand for this stuff never goes away, even when the economy is slow. And the people left doing it are often incompetent and flaky. If you have your shit together, you already have a huge advantage. All you have to do is show up for work, because chances are the other guy didn't.

    The "good" $/hr figures being quoted in this thread seem like a total joke to me in comparison. My window washer in Irvine, CA, for example, charges around $40/hr, and has almost zero overhead. Pool men make almost that much too. So do carpet cleaners. Most painters are complete flakes, but the ones who aren't are booked all the time.

    So get off your fat ass, do some honest work, and collect a real paycheck. Part time anyway, it will be a nice change of pace, just good exercise. Your time is valuable to yourself and your family -- don't give it away. Anyone who would take a job at Best Buy for $7/hr is a moron. Jobs like that are for kids who don't know any better. Anyone over 19 should have figured out by now what else is out there for them.
  • I have two and a third may be coming soon. You learn to reorient your priorities. If you can pay your mortgage, grocery bill, and some sort of affordable transportation, you'll do ok.

    I worried about where the money was going to come from when my kids were born. It turned out that I didn't really need to be that concerned. You probably already have the money in disposable income. You just don't know it yet. Don't go moonlighting right away. Caring for a new kid is something you don't want to leave to your spouse.

    You may briefly go in to debt while you reorganize your priorities, but you will probably come out of it in better financial shape than you thought. But if you go moonlighting, you'll never know what you've missed...

    Congratulations and Good Luck!

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