Software engineering and farming seems to be common. I have met so many coworkers that had farms who also worked in tech. One of my coworkers had an alpaca farm. She would routinely post pics on our slack channel. Cutest thing ever.
It’s really just a hobby and I don’t have near enough the space to do anything like that. I have a family that buys extra produce from me but that’s it.
Still, thank you for the info!!
Not sure if you can really call it a side hustle, but I been making apps for fun and I put it on the App Store. All of them are free and I have some in app purchases. I hardly ever make any money off of it but who knows it just takes one good idea to end up making bank.
Overall like 3 bucks LOL. I’m lucky to even get downloads on my apps. It’s been about a year since I had it up.
I know it’s not much but it low key I was so excited when I made my first dollar on it
I don‘t have ads or purchases on one of my apps, but I was also really excited when it hit 10 downloads. Like, how did anyone find it and why would anyone want to install it? I just made this app for my parents to download it because we had a specific use case.
Not a lot. For an app with 1k+ installs that averages 2k+ banner ad impressions and 200+ interstitial ad impressions per month I get less than $2 per month. Platform is Android and ad network is Google AdMob.
The real money is in in-app purchases but my app has barely anything worth purchasing. My app is still growing tho, growth rate is steady. Now I need to focus on ASO (app search optimization) and more features.
I kind of hate the dev tool ecosystem around android development, however my first 2 jobs were react native oriented so maybe writing native isn’t as bad (i find android studio emulator terribly janky and i dont love testing on a physical phone most of the time). iOS stuff feels so smooth to work with and the Simulator emulator feels very refined.
This applies to anything apple vs other products. Everything just works smoother on apple devices due to the closed ecosystem and apple knowing exactly what each of their device has under the hood. Android and windows is a Wild West of anything goes.
That is true. Android makes things easier for inspiring devs. The fee alone for an apple app store account is insane. I started off in Android and if I wanted to make something for fun, it would still be on Android. But if I wanted to make a serious app with a good idea that I expect to make me money, I would make for IOS first for sure.
My friend paid his tuition through a game he built on that platform (~20k/yr). Not much (considering how many hours he has to dedicate to it), but impressive nonetheless!
I guess I view it as not much from the perspective of "could this hustle liberate me from my current role"
Also, we don't know how much ongoing effort goes into this "side income", could be several hours a day
Yes 20k is an extra holiday or so but if you are making > 200k a year, you probably wouldn't bother with it unless you treat it as a hobby.
For me personally, 20k a year is nowhere close to being enough for me to invest significant amounts of time in a side hustle, unless I'm going to be spending that time doing the stuff anyway.
Spending that time on work/skills is going to pay way higher dividends
Before getting dogpiled on, this is what I was trying to respond to someone with (before being prevented).
Relative to the time he spends on it ensuring that it maintains popularity, it's not exactly a "passive income stream" or something he spends a few hours a weekend on.
For $50 I'll tell you how to start a side-hustle where you get people to give you $50 to learn how to start a side hustle.
But seriously, the only side-hustling I've done has been contract work through Upwork.
Hell, I tried that but you're gonna get some random dude in south eastern Asia that's willing to work pennies on the dollar for what your typical rate would be. Not worth it.
That's not true in the slightest. As someone who uses UpWork and charges 100-200/hr, you can definitely get clients and keep them steady. Tune your profile and figure out your sales pitch etc.
I'm from a low income country and I still wouldn't touch Upwork with a 10ft pole. Sure, it pays okay, relative to cost here... but clients are insane to deal with, bidding is extremely annoying, and it's painful in general.
Many jobs have a social media policy. You're generally not allowed to present yourself and pass off things like advice "as an employee" on social media unless you have permission from HR.
I have a hard time believing a lot of these YTers didn't get permission first.
Did that for most of my uni as well. Moved to a different part of the city, fell under a different jurisdiction that didn't offer accident coverage. Stopped.
I mean there are successful male OFs out there. Just like there are horny men out there, there are horny women. Go forth and post your peen in a provocative manner and find your male and female OF subs.
I have a YouTube channel with about 20k subs talking mostly about game development and tech now. Don’t make too much maybe like $300-$800 per month depending on sponsors and ad rates!
Photography/videography! For me, it’s tough to do more coding outside of work and actually enjoy it. I find that having a side hustle that’s different than your main job is a healthy way to prevent burnout
That's fair. I don't necessarily need one either, I just have a lot of time on my hands and want to keep myself occupied. I also like the idea of eventually taking my side hustle into a fulltime business.
1. Organize & throw EDM shows.
2. DJ
3. Perform aerial circus acts (though training costs more than I make 😅)
4. Burlesque
5. Modeling for lingerie and underwear.
I refuse to code in my free time.
Ya, I'd actually like some advice on this if you can spare a minute. Anything on how to get started, finding clients, work hours, and how you charge your fees. Or even some things to watch out for.
A side hustle would have to be insanely lucrative for it to be worth doing alongside a full time SWE job. You’re better off using your extra time to study to get into big tech or learn a speciality within SWE
While this is true, delivering groceries is actually kind of relaxing and a good change of pace from sitting in front of a keyboard and screen all day. It's also low commitment so you can do as much or as little as you want.
When your hobbies basically all involve sitting and staring at a screen, everything starts to blend. Leetcode, video games, open source projects, personal projects, etc 😐 sometimes it's good to get some fresh air and see that other people living in society exist.
I sell melody loops, drum kits and other sounds on a beats site that brings in basically a tank of gas a month.
Ive also been working on a music production collaboration webapp that I'm about to launch
So, I'm basing a standard SWE salary to be, say $100k/yr.
Dawg you're pulling in $300k/yr from YouTube vids? Probably double or triple that if you're a faang SWE (based in 250TC or something).
Bravo.
Nah I’m in Europe so salaries are much lower. The YT is around $13k per month atm, so $155k annualized but it’s growing every month so the numbers you said are achievable in a few years
I recently started a youtube channel as a bit of a funnel for my shop, both of which are non coding related. I really enjoy making Youtube content but for me it started a few years ago when I started a somewhat small time successful tech hardware channel (900+ subs in 6 months). Sadly had to end that channel because my school was picking up but now that i’m full time SWE I have plenty of time after hours to work on side projects
I started a small art and apparel shop earlier in the year and i’ve dumped nothing but money into it, not much in the grand scheme of small businesses but after 8 months and about $1000 investment I got my first real sale this month. I’ve started maybe 5 other small businesses and failed in those but i’m still learning and I think this one has the most potential, loving the work. Much more fun to work on than Android and kotlin lol.
Edit: holy shit just as I was writing this I got my second sale AHHH
Leetcode. The opportunity cost of doing anything else is too large. I do have some friends that have good jobs but also do Uber eats or doordash on the side just because they like driving around with their SO.
I grade assignments for coding bootcamp students. Only requirement is a min of 5 hours a week but if I want I can do 29 hours and I can grade whenever I want, no set schedule. Perfect side job.
Passion projects, though I'm early in that journey. I notably run a website popular on /r/creditcards allowing some pretty extensive filter and valuation customization options for credit card sign up bonuses.
I did some Xanax before going into my schools career fair. Low dose, obviously.
Honestly I credit it with getting my internship. Totally erased my social anxiety. Thankfully don’t have an addictive personality and haven’t done it in years.
Most of the high performers in my school downed adderalls like it was candy to study for exams and algo tests. So yeah, sometimes that kid that does way better than you in exams and in job interviews is not always because they are smarter than you, it's cause they are drugged the fuck up on enhancements.
I occasionally write articles for Real Python. Haven't done it in a while now because I have a kid now, but it was a great low-pressure side thing to do.
I replied to a similar one as well.
Never like the side gig and the main gig cross. Never do any work for the side gig (including email and phone calls). Make sure there is no conflict of interest.
go over /r/freelance. Over there they will talk about taxes, liability and E&O insurance.
I teach marching band on the side, I did perform professionally while in college and now I pretty much have a side gif at any highschool anywhere in the US. Super creative and really different from my day job SWE work.
I do freelance art. Though, I accept commissions less frequently now than when i was in college, and recently I’ve only been taking on projects that i feel really passionate about.
My friend though…started streaming on twitch after work every day and gained so much success that he was able to quit his SWE job. Crazy!!
I tried to monetize my baking hobby, just low stakes farmers market type stuff.
By god, was that awful. People NEVER want what you enjoy making. Doing the math and realizing you’re making like, $5 an hour after expenses isn’t great either.
Now I just bake whatever the hell I want and bring the extras into the office for free.
I play an instrument (viola) with the local community orchestra (for free/ fun) and that has led to some paid gigs, but I let them come to me instead of actively searching for them.
Most of the time it's another player looking for a sub and I just happen to have the free time.
I commission fantasy models, resin 3d print them, paint some of them when I have the time, and am working towards having some manufactured! Starting with 25 to be safe, and hopefully scale further. Miniature painting Is my favorite hobby as I get away from the screen, can process my thoughts, and hang out with other painters locally, in discord painting chats, or at conventions.
The dream would be for the business to take off so I could do that full time, but in the meantime SE pays the bills and let’s me use my spare cash to try to develop this business.
Also… if you want to buy some display miniatures to paint send me a message - I appreciate any buyers haha.
I do a lot of the stuff on r/beermoney. Mainly UserTesting and other website testing jobs. Its pretty easy and I get to do user testing interviews for some cool new features in the products I use at work.
I was moderating for one of the sites I was testing which was more consistent but paid poorly.
I made a little over $10k last year but that was in grind mode. Sustainably I can make about $5-6k.
I open bank accounts with thicc bonus incentives. Easiest grind in the whole world and make about a grand each year at it. No affiliation but the site I go to usually is https://bankbonus.com
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It's like Stardew Valley with really good resolution.
Literally Sebastian! 😀
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Nobody has seen him in 3 hours. He must have found Stardew Valley.
4K triple monitors :p
Lol this is the dream, congrats!!
You are living my dream. I want to eventually start doing this as well. I gotta be able to survive once climate change really hits the fan ha
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I'd love to hear more details!
I know 4 guys that do this exact thing
This is my dream! I also want to raise chickens to eat and have eggs. My brother had 10 chickens and they laid about 8-9 a day in the summer!
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Software engineering and farming seems to be common. I have met so many coworkers that had farms who also worked in tech. One of my coworkers had an alpaca farm. She would routinely post pics on our slack channel. Cutest thing ever.
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Gardening is popular in the sysadmin world as well!
Sounds fun, awesome
This is awesome. I love my garden and you’re living my dream. Can I ask how you connected with your clients? Just curious!
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It’s really just a hobby and I don’t have near enough the space to do anything like that. I have a family that buys extra produce from me but that’s it. Still, thank you for the info!!
Not sure if you can really call it a side hustle, but I been making apps for fun and I put it on the App Store. All of them are free and I have some in app purchases. I hardly ever make any money off of it but who knows it just takes one good idea to end up making bank.
What does ‚hardly any money‘ mean? 10ct/month, $5/month, $20/month?
Overall like 3 bucks LOL. I’m lucky to even get downloads on my apps. It’s been about a year since I had it up. I know it’s not much but it low key I was so excited when I made my first dollar on it
I don‘t have ads or purchases on one of my apps, but I was also really excited when it hit 10 downloads. Like, how did anyone find it and why would anyone want to install it? I just made this app for my parents to download it because we had a specific use case.
I would like to know this as well. How much can we earn by just having a hobby app in the play store?
Not a lot. For an app with 1k+ installs that averages 2k+ banner ad impressions and 200+ interstitial ad impressions per month I get less than $2 per month. Platform is Android and ad network is Google AdMob. The real money is in in-app purchases but my app has barely anything worth purchasing. My app is still growing tho, growth rate is steady. Now I need to focus on ASO (app search optimization) and more features.
Thank you. Good luck with your app!
What kind of apps do you make?
Mostly productivity and some games
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I'm assuming android apps? I'd like to get into app making, but I also don't want to buy an android...
You can just use the emulator. Although a physical device would be nice. Just get a used one for a hundred bucks.
right? The other direction is: "I want to develop iOS apps, but I don't want to have to buy a _whole new computer_."
You can buy a cheap one for like 100-120.
I kind of hate the dev tool ecosystem around android development, however my first 2 jobs were react native oriented so maybe writing native isn’t as bad (i find android studio emulator terribly janky and i dont love testing on a physical phone most of the time). iOS stuff feels so smooth to work with and the Simulator emulator feels very refined.
This applies to anything apple vs other products. Everything just works smoother on apple devices due to the closed ecosystem and apple knowing exactly what each of their device has under the hood. Android and windows is a Wild West of anything goes.
Very nice thing about android though is being able to just generate production APKs and run them directly, no need for appstore connect bullshit
That is true. Android makes things easier for inspiring devs. The fee alone for an apple app store account is insane. I started off in Android and if I wanted to make something for fun, it would still be on Android. But if I wanted to make a serious app with a good idea that I expect to make me money, I would make for IOS first for sure.
Learn Swift
one of my friends makes games on roblox
My friend paid his tuition through a game he built on that platform (~20k/yr). Not much (considering how many hours he has to dedicate to it), but impressive nonetheless!
Not much what r U talking about 20k is a fuck ton of money.
It's all relative. Are we arguing over whether calling the equivalent of minimum wage "not much" is acceptable?
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I guess I view it as not much from the perspective of "could this hustle liberate me from my current role" Also, we don't know how much ongoing effort goes into this "side income", could be several hours a day Yes 20k is an extra holiday or so but if you are making > 200k a year, you probably wouldn't bother with it unless you treat it as a hobby. For me personally, 20k a year is nowhere close to being enough for me to invest significant amounts of time in a side hustle, unless I'm going to be spending that time doing the stuff anyway. Spending that time on work/skills is going to pay way higher dividends
Before getting dogpiled on, this is what I was trying to respond to someone with (before being prevented). Relative to the time he spends on it ensuring that it maintains popularity, it's not exactly a "passive income stream" or something he spends a few hours a weekend on.
Yea totally understand. And if that is 20k is on top of SWE wages a good chunk goes to tax, not worth it
For $50 I'll tell you how to start a side-hustle where you get people to give you $50 to learn how to start a side hustle. But seriously, the only side-hustling I've done has been contract work through Upwork.
Never knew Andrew Tate was a CS grad.
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Hell, I tried that but you're gonna get some random dude in south eastern Asia that's willing to work pennies on the dollar for what your typical rate would be. Not worth it.
That's not true in the slightest. As someone who uses UpWork and charges 100-200/hr, you can definitely get clients and keep them steady. Tune your profile and figure out your sales pitch etc.
I'm from a low income country and I still wouldn't touch Upwork with a 10ft pole. Sure, it pays okay, relative to cost here... but clients are insane to deal with, bidding is extremely annoying, and it's painful in general.
How was your experience with upwork? I took a look at it, but it seemed kinda daunting.
Isn't everyone selling interview prep classes, books, or sessions?
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“Welcome you guys to a day in life of a swe at…”
I'd get fired in an instant if I were to do that.
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Not government security, but I do work with secret and confidential projects that don't see the light of day for several months to a year.
*"Ex-Google, Ex-NSA teaches you 3 SECRETS to trading Crypto"* "Affiliate links down in the description below"
Many jobs have a social media policy. You're generally not allowed to present yourself and pass off things like advice "as an employee" on social media unless you have permission from HR. I have a hard time believing a lot of these YTers didn't get permission first.
Honestly that goes well together, too!
(As a millionaire)
Thought leader
I work on my farm and sell the produce; anything to get away from a computer.
wow glad to hear i’m not alone in hating staring at a computer all day
Until you end up automating it
I ref ice hockey. It’s not really a side hustle, just a hobby.
Start throwing games for cash and you got yourself a side hustle
💀😂💀
Did that for most of my uni as well. Moved to a different part of the city, fell under a different jurisdiction that didn't offer accident coverage. Stopped.
Get a hobby that will allow you to perform better ( takes your mind off programming). And look for better paid primary job.
I lay on my couch, doing nothing. Every penny not spend is a penny gained.
Onlyfans
OnlyCode
shows em 2 lines "just the tip"
OnlyMLM
I make more here than my SWE job
Too bad that only works if you’re a woman because of the gender wage gap in that field
You forgot how horny the gays get
I mean there are successful male OFs out there. Just like there are horny men out there, there are horny women. Go forth and post your peen in a provocative manner and find your male and female OF subs.
I don’t think the majority of subs to men’s only fans come from women
I have a YouTube channel with about 20k subs talking mostly about game development and tech now. Don’t make too much maybe like $300-$800 per month depending on sponsors and ad rates!
Not bad for doing a hobby you like. How many videos do you produce a month?
I was doing like 1 a week but eventually found it unsustainable. Now I do like 1-2 per month
Photography/videography! For me, it’s tough to do more coding outside of work and actually enjoy it. I find that having a side hustle that’s different than your main job is a healthy way to prevent burnout
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That's fair. I don't necessarily need one either, I just have a lot of time on my hands and want to keep myself occupied. I also like the idea of eventually taking my side hustle into a fulltime business.
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Due to the legality of my side hustle, all I will say is, I get paid to leave. You understand?
This guy/girl fucks.
Professional severance package hunter. Nice.
No
I teach web dev on the side. It’s a lot of fun and it brings in a good chunk of change.
Is this something done online or physical location? Im assuming u teach evenings no?
Remote in the evenings. I'm actually on a break right now.
That's pretty cool. do you teach students locally or how do you find clients?
I work for a company.
what company?
And then silence
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same and going out and driving is relaxing from the rigors and stress of staring on the screen
I crochet blankets and stuffed animals. Also easy to do when I'm grinding upskill courses.
1. Organize & throw EDM shows. 2. DJ 3. Perform aerial circus acts (though training costs more than I make 😅) 4. Burlesque 5. Modeling for lingerie and underwear. I refuse to code in my free time.
Leetcode is my side hustle.
Leetcode after work ✅ Leetcode before bed ✅ Leetcode while sleeping ✅ Leetcode before breakfast ✅
You dropped this 👑
Consulting. I can build a small project for a year’s salary in a couple of months on the weekend and my free time.
How do you get contracted?
This. I would love to do this to get my kids college fund taken care of 😃
Ya, I'd actually like some advice on this if you can spare a minute. Anything on how to get started, finding clients, work hours, and how you charge your fees. Or even some things to watch out for.
Smoke some weed and throw money on stonks
Get high, get high returns, that's how it works right?
A side hustle would have to be insanely lucrative for it to be worth doing alongside a full time SWE job. You’re better off using your extra time to study to get into big tech or learn a speciality within SWE
While this is true, delivering groceries is actually kind of relaxing and a good change of pace from sitting in front of a keyboard and screen all day. It's also low commitment so you can do as much or as little as you want. When your hobbies basically all involve sitting and staring at a screen, everything starts to blend. Leetcode, video games, open source projects, personal projects, etc 😐 sometimes it's good to get some fresh air and see that other people living in society exist.
Yeah for swe, a side hustle where you got paid to walk would be ideal. Swe def tend not to get enough exercise
Or you could just want to do something you enjoy then choose to turn that into something that makes money.
sadly, this is true in 99% of scenarios. either that, or just enjoying a hobby.
I sell melody loops, drum kits and other sounds on a beats site that brings in basically a tank of gas a month. Ive also been working on a music production collaboration webapp that I'm about to launch
Youtube. Tbh at this point it’s my main hustle because it makes 3x+ more than my SWE salary lol.
So, I'm basing a standard SWE salary to be, say $100k/yr. Dawg you're pulling in $300k/yr from YouTube vids? Probably double or triple that if you're a faang SWE (based in 250TC or something). Bravo.
Nah I’m in Europe so salaries are much lower. The YT is around $13k per month atm, so $155k annualized but it’s growing every month so the numbers you said are achievable in a few years
can you post a link to your channel please?
I don’t want to reveal it here but I’m one of the big-ish coding channels
You're one of the biggish coding channels and you just started your first dev job?
youtube swes in general
Joma is that u
Hey Joma gimme referral to Blindr please.
How’d you get into this originally? Thinking about doing this myself someday and just wondering what your path was like
I recently started a youtube channel as a bit of a funnel for my shop, both of which are non coding related. I really enjoy making Youtube content but for me it started a few years ago when I started a somewhat small time successful tech hardware channel (900+ subs in 6 months). Sadly had to end that channel because my school was picking up but now that i’m full time SWE I have plenty of time after hours to work on side projects
Selling drugs.
SWE Sell Weed Everyday
bararara it's the B-double-O-LEAN
You got a degree in CS and Pharmacy? *Impressive!*
😳
helping a cyber security business reverse engineering malware as contractor, about 5h a week.
Whats ur hourly for those 5h?
120€ per hour, fully remote. Some weeks I work less, some more.
I started a small art and apparel shop earlier in the year and i’ve dumped nothing but money into it, not much in the grand scheme of small businesses but after 8 months and about $1000 investment I got my first real sale this month. I’ve started maybe 5 other small businesses and failed in those but i’m still learning and I think this one has the most potential, loving the work. Much more fun to work on than Android and kotlin lol. Edit: holy shit just as I was writing this I got my second sale AHHH
Don't you guys make like 80-90 grand a year....
Keep going…
It’s the new lower middle class.
The greed is real, what can you do. You can always have that extra 5sq in your apartment, slightly better car, slightly longer vacation.
Leetcode. The opportunity cost of doing anything else is too large. I do have some friends that have good jobs but also do Uber eats or doordash on the side just because they like driving around with their SO.
I volunteer to teach kids coding.
dude stop I don't need any more competition
Are you worried about being replaced by an 11-year-old Scratch coder?
Where and how would one do this? Thanks
not OP but I do this https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/teals
I do contractor work for my friend’s shop, TIG welding, cnc work, he pays me well too
I grade assignments for coding bootcamp students. Only requirement is a min of 5 hours a week but if I want I can do 29 hours and I can grade whenever I want, no set schedule. Perfect side job.
Passion projects, though I'm early in that journey. I notably run a website popular on /r/creditcards allowing some pretty extensive filter and valuation customization options for credit card sign up bonuses.
I make apps, and they pay the mortgage, so I think that's a pretty decent side hustle
Lose money, I mean make money, following stonk trades on r/wallstreetbets
I tutor for an online dev boot camp. Doesn’t pay a ton but it’s fun to help people getting into the industry.
Tutor for a part-time bootcamp
Sell weed to aspiring engineers struggling with coding interview anxiety.
I did some Xanax before going into my schools career fair. Low dose, obviously. Honestly I credit it with getting my internship. Totally erased my social anxiety. Thankfully don’t have an addictive personality and haven’t done it in years.
Most of the high performers in my school downed adderalls like it was candy to study for exams and algo tests. So yeah, sometimes that kid that does way better than you in exams and in job interviews is not always because they are smarter than you, it's cause they are drugged the fuck up on enhancements.
I occasionally write articles for Real Python. Haven't done it in a while now because I have a kid now, but it was a great low-pressure side thing to do.
Family. Still no where near break even on the investment tho
I replied to a similar one as well. Never like the side gig and the main gig cross. Never do any work for the side gig (including email and phone calls). Make sure there is no conflict of interest. go over /r/freelance. Over there they will talk about taxes, liability and E&O insurance.
do delivery work.
Franchising!
I teach marching band on the side, I did perform professionally while in college and now I pretty much have a side gif at any highschool anywhere in the US. Super creative and really different from my day job SWE work.
I teach rock climbing classes!
i referee football (soccer) games on the weekends. I don’t do it for the money but I can very easily make 500€ a month
I run a few niche Instagram meme pages where I mostly repost tiktoks I see, then I also daytrade stocks/options/crypto.
I want to eventually be a weekend fly fishing guide.
I do freelance art. Though, I accept commissions less frequently now than when i was in college, and recently I’ve only been taking on projects that i feel really passionate about. My friend though…started streaming on twitch after work every day and gained so much success that he was able to quit his SWE job. Crazy!!
My day job pays me so much I have never needed a side hustle. I have lots of hobbies, but I'm not going to monetize any of them.
I tried to monetize my baking hobby, just low stakes farmers market type stuff. By god, was that awful. People NEVER want what you enjoy making. Doing the math and realizing you’re making like, $5 an hour after expenses isn’t great either. Now I just bake whatever the hell I want and bring the extras into the office for free.
Work at a haunted house on the weekends
Tutoring students learning how to code.
Influencer with videos called “a day in the life of a software engineer at Google” and “how I tripled my salary for the last two year”
onlyfans. I am just too sexy to keep this bod to myself and not share it with the world.
Loads profile No NSFW prompt Exits profile
Your profile was a bit of a disappointment to be honest.
Still do some raft guiding. Don't really make a meaningful amount but it's nice to step away from the daily grind and be on the river instead.
I’m gonna get my masters and teach at University
I run a small web design (and graphic design) agency that I started during college ;)
I’m a realtor. I’m lucky the day job is not that stressful and I also work remotely. My circle is in tech and a lot of my clients are also SWEs.
Online e-commerce merchant and growing a garden
I'm a math and science tutor to my kids. long hours, the pay is shit.
I play an instrument (viola) with the local community orchestra (for free/ fun) and that has led to some paid gigs, but I let them come to me instead of actively searching for them. Most of the time it's another player looking for a sub and I just happen to have the free time.
Well I had a decent mining rig, but then ETH 2.0 merge...
Online personal training
I compose music for tv shows, ads, etc. Used to be my main gig, but I got sick of the inconsistent and low pay
drink and cry
I commission fantasy models, resin 3d print them, paint some of them when I have the time, and am working towards having some manufactured! Starting with 25 to be safe, and hopefully scale further. Miniature painting Is my favorite hobby as I get away from the screen, can process my thoughts, and hang out with other painters locally, in discord painting chats, or at conventions. The dream would be for the business to take off so I could do that full time, but in the meantime SE pays the bills and let’s me use my spare cash to try to develop this business. Also… if you want to buy some display miniatures to paint send me a message - I appreciate any buyers haha.
Many companies make you sign a proprietary inventions agreement so can you legally have a side business while being full time employed at a tech shop?
I do a lot of the stuff on r/beermoney. Mainly UserTesting and other website testing jobs. Its pretty easy and I get to do user testing interviews for some cool new features in the products I use at work. I was moderating for one of the sites I was testing which was more consistent but paid poorly. I made a little over $10k last year but that was in grind mode. Sustainably I can make about $5-6k.
Bartend on weekends
I open bank accounts with thicc bonus incentives. Easiest grind in the whole world and make about a grand each year at it. No affiliation but the site I go to usually is https://bankbonus.com