When Your Day Job Isn't Enough (wsj.com) 191
An anonymous reader shares a report: A lot of people are pursuing creative side gigs while they hold down big office jobs. It used to be that many had to choose between their creative aspirations and their commitment to a corporate career, but in the era of the side hustle some manage to do both [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled]. [...] Doing both comes with trade-offs and tensions. Unlike the aspiring actor waiting tables to pay the bills, true dual professionals have to balance the demands of both their aspirations, and often face a moment of reckoning where they are forced to sacrifice a step forward in one career path for job stability and financial security in the other.
The two worlds of Theresa Vu -- also known as the rapper tvu -- often collide. As senior vice president of engineering at New York software firm AppNexus, Ms. Vu runs a team of coders who work on a digital advertising platform. As a vocalist with the band Magnetic North, she rhymes and drops beats, and helped propel the band's "Home: Word" album to No. 2 on the Japanese hip-hop chart.
The two worlds of Theresa Vu -- also known as the rapper tvu -- often collide. As senior vice president of engineering at New York software firm AppNexus, Ms. Vu runs a team of coders who work on a digital advertising platform. As a vocalist with the band Magnetic North, she rhymes and drops beats, and helped propel the band's "Home: Word" album to No. 2 on the Japanese hip-hop chart.
IT / coders need an UNION! (Score:4, Insightful)
IT / coders need an UNION!
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IT / coders need an UNION!
Union sysadmin here. Can confirm, life is good.
No (Score:4, Insightful)
A Union would simply interfere with the ability to make gainful additional employment when you're not the type of person obsessed with TV and sports.
If you're the type of person that needs "protection" to not be fired, you're probably the type of person that needs to be fired.
Unions make sense in highly physically demanding jobs where cutting corners could literally get you killed.
They don't make sense in desk jobs. If you don't like your job, get better at it and find another one.
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A Union would simply interfere with the ability to make gainful additional employment when you're not the type of person obsessed with TV and sports.
If you're the type of person that needs "protection" to not be fired, you're probably the type of person that needs to be fired.
Unions make sense in highly physically demanding jobs where cutting corners could literally get you killed.
They don't make sense in desk jobs. If you don't like your job, get better at it and find another one.
You're either sheltered or disingenuous with a viewpoint like that. IT is an essential need that's constantly getting screwed by C-level decision-making reducing benefits, lengthening hours and generally ensuring we're moving closer to wage-slavery with each passing month.
Interested in a job? (Score:4, Funny)
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IT is an essential need that's constantly getting screwed by C-level decision-making reducing benefits, lengthening hours and generally ensuring we're moving closer to wage-slavery with each passing month.
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You sound like the kind of person I'd LOVE to work with!
Looking for a job?
Re: Interested in a job? (Score:2)
You prefer to work with ostriches?
Just keep you head stuck firmly in the sand and sing "la la la!!". If you do, proletarianization and globalization can't touch you!
There really aren't any jobs (Score:1)
You're right.
Btw, if you hear the rumors that are going around out in California, talking about the high-paying jobs and low cost of living in Texas, thry aren't true. There on the coast, you may hear of people who just graduated with IT degrees who can easily afford a 2,000 square foot house. It's not true, thing are way better in California, so stay there. Texas is actually nothing but proletarianization.
" Any readers who have never used the word "proletarianization" as an excuse are welcome to contact m
Zero for three (Score:2)
You're batting zero for three so far. This is fun, want to guess some more?
I'm so glad I did. Best decision I ever made (Score:2)
I owned my job and/or company for over 20 years.
Wow it's so nice to have OTHER PEOPLE, competent marketing professionals, doing the marketing now, so that I make a lot more money. It's so much less stress to let the accounting department handle the tax stuff, while I do what I'm good at.
Self-employed professionals have to file taxes at least six times per year. I did that for many years. Screw that. Not anymore.
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Strange. I've had a lovely career in IT and as I get older my hours per week is dropping nearly as fast as my salary is rising.
C-level decision making impacts everybody, including those in unions. Self determination means I can choose the extent of that impact on my for myself, no other cunt fucking me over because of idiotic things like seniority based progression or reducing salaries to avoid job losses.
Fuck that.
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If you're the type of person that needs "protection" to not be fired, you're probably the type of person that needs to be fired.
Like women, people of color, homosexuals, and anyone over 40?
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Re:No (Score:4, Insightful)
The only way to have this viewpoint is to be wholly, malignantly ignorant with regards to US labor history.
Re:No (Score:4, Insightful)
I am 100% pro union. My family is at least three-generations deep in the Boilermakers and Electricians trades. I personally didn't join, but ended up managing union projects. Unions currently have their place, and have proven countless times that they are beneficial.
Their place is exactly where you described it. Physically demanding, skilled, and dangerous work that requires significant safety (and skills) training. The part you missed, is transient work. This is where unions are currently proving their benefit. If I have a project that requires 200 (or 1000) skilled people to complete, in somewhere like North Dakota, the unions generally have the ability to provide those workers. And for the most part I know that I'm going to get people who know what they are doing, and can get it done safely. Non-union shops are starting to catch up, but they have a long way to go in this respect
The thing with IT? For the most part, it doesn't check those boxes above. It's not physically demanding, safety training is just about nil, and it's not transient. And in the current market, if you're not happy with your job you can leave and find a new one. I don't want my work life dictated by a union. And I sure as hell don't want to cough up 2% of my salary to pay them to do it.
TLDR; Unions have their place, but it's not in IT
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Umm...nope.
Union member, SEIU 521 of California. Professional software developer with a CompSci degree.
Worked in private industry for 20 years. It's a beast. Now I work for County government in NorCal, writing mission-critical code for public safety systems.
It's the best job I've ever head, and the union protects and defends me on a regular basis. NEGOTIATED PERIODIC SCHEDULED MANDATORY PAY RAISES. Need I say more?
Re:No (Score:4, Insightful)
They don't make sense in desk jobs. If you don't like your job, get better at it and find another one.
Bullshit. It's all about trying to protect yourself from bad management. Our IT group tried unionization. It was led by the two ex-military Rush Limbaugh listening Republicans because they were the ones that our boss wanted to show up early and stay late, and cancel their scheduled family vacations at the last minute to suit the manager's whim. And those were just the straws that broke the camels back so to speak. They had do a good job, like their jobs, were here before the manager, and didn't want their retirement messed up by leaving. Luckily the manager was forced out, not because of all the numerous work violations he committed which were reported to HR, but because he made enemies of other management. Once he was gone, there was no more need for unionization as the next manager was decent. Talking with the older managers that do work over the unionized staff, it was the same case that caused their unionization. too much of managers expecting people to jump just because they say so instead of having clear rules for people to do their work. Even the managers who caused the issues said that things work so much better under the unions who forced those rules to be made, than they'd never go back to the way things were.
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Unions are not all bad. They gave us the weekend, 40 hour weeks, vacations, holidays, sick leave, got our kids out of the coal mines, gave us worker's comp. Read Upton Sinclair's book. You will appreciate unions again.
And most of those are guaranteed by laws now, not unions. As I said above, I am 100% pro union. But unfortunately, they have rested on their laurels of "this is what we did for you at the beginning of last century" for too long, and the non-union shops are starting to eat their lunch.
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Be careful for what you wish for... you can end up with mandatory promotions, fixed career path options (you *MUST* become a manager or an architect after 10 years). I worked in a union shop and even the coffee breaks were regulated. You were only allowed to get one cup of coffee in the morning or afternoon. But other things like genuine flexitime were good - admins loved the ability to go out shopping at lunch-time or get their hair done.
Some companies just claimed they offered flexitime and jammed in a st
Re: IT / coders need an UNION! (Score:2)
Mandatory promotions? Oh noez!!! What if people *want* to stay dead-end code monkeys their entire career, until they are fired at age 35? What about *those* people?
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In one of my first jobs we had a senior programmer with a white beard, who started programming in the days of punch cards. He could write a dozen languages, but was at that time was a Python expert - back when Python was bleeding-edge new. I think we all learned a lot from him, and the code quality of the project was probably a lot higher due to his influence.
But yeah, that's a rare thing to see in recent years.
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People like Kent Beck or Martin Fowler you mean? Industry leaders that gained those roles by continually learning, programming and thinking?
Thank fuck they weren't forced into hands-off roles.
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Mandatory promotions? Oh noez!!! What if people *want* to stay dead-end code monkeys their entire career, until they are fired at age 35? What about *those* people?
If you know any "code monkey" that was fired at 35 (not during the recession), then you know someone who couldn't code their way out of a Hello World.
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are union electricians and plumbers pushed into management?
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Already done that. Now work as a freelancer, much to the annoyance of those recruitment agencies "retained by the electronics and embedded industries". Funny how those companies who can't find staff are the ones that don't give out references and require long resignation notice periods.
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What IT / coders need is a Human Right Internet Co (Score:2)
What we need is a global online Human Right Internet Court and blockchained policy voting with crowd funding replacing taxes. Micro government for all, and distributed and redundant too! =} Ââ^Ââ
When you're a aizuo (Score:4, Interesting)
Baizuo [wikipedia.org]:
Chinese: báizu, literally "white left") is a derogatory Chinese neologism used to refer to Western leftist liberal elites. It refers to the left faction in the culture wars in Western politics,[original research?] implying support of multiculturalism, political correctness and positive discrimination. In more than 400 answers submitted by Zhihu users during 2015 to May 2017, the term is defined as referring to those who are hypocritically "obsessed with political correctness" in order to "satisfy their own feeling of moral superiority" motivated from an "ignorant and arrogant" Western-centric worldview who "pity the rest of the world and think they are saviours". A related term is shèngm (, , literally "holy mother", title for the mother of an emperor), a sarcastic reference to those whose political opinions are guided by emotions and a hypocritical show of selflessness and empathy, represented by celebrities such as J. K. Rowling and Emma Watson.
Damn. When the Chinese create a word to make fun of you, you're pretty damn pathetic.
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I would say exactly the opposite. That if the Chinese hive mind feels so threatened by you as to create a word specifically to mock you, then they are the ones who are pathetic.
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Since when does mocking someone require feeling threatened? Or do you just not like being mocked?
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Much of the time if someone goes out of their way to mock someone or something else it's because they feel threatened by it in some way. If you go so far as creating a new word expressly for the purpose of mocking someone then that's a pretty clear indication that you find whatever it is threatening in some way.
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Damn. When the Chinese create a word to make fun of you, you're pretty damn pathetic.
I'm sure they have a word in Chinese for Anonymous Coward also.
Health insurance, retirement..... (Score:5, Insightful)
If you want health insurance that you can afford, getting it through your employer is the only way. And if your employer/gig doesn't offer it, good luck on the exchange - especially if you live in a Medicaid non-expansion state. And if the Republicans keep their control after the mid-terms, say good-bye to Obamacare and the law against insurance companies turning down coverage for pre-existing conditions.
That's why like every other western country, we need some sort of public option for everyone.
And retirement - having a company that will match really helps building up a retirement. And with Mitch McConnell and other Republicans saying that the entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare are causing the huge deficit and increase in government debt, you just know they're gonna cut it.
And real jobs want you 24/7 these days so a second gig is just not practical. Unless you don't want to sleep, exercise, or have any down time.
in gop 2020 jail / ER will be the public option! (Score:4, Funny)
in gop 2020 jail / ER will be the public option!
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Re:Health insurance, retirement..... (Score:4, Insightful)
If you want health insurance that you can afford, getting it through your employer is the only way.
Not in Canada, or any other First World nation.
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Maybe try reading the whole post and not just the first paragraph
"That's why like every other western country, we need some sort of public option for everyone."
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Yep. (Score:3)
I once knew someone who was an external auditor for a big-eight accounting firm by day, and a jazz saxophonist at night. Sleep always was an optional extra, but the moment of reckoning came when the travel requirements of the accounting firm and jazz band diverged. Accounting, being much more stable and lucrative, won out.
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I had to stop taking weekday gigs because they had me rolling home around 3:30 am, which severely compromised not only my performance at work the next day, but probably made me a hazard on the road driving to work as well.
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Realistically, you only have 50 hours during the week. If you don't have a family yet, feel free to ratchet that number up to 70-80 hours. Plus 6 hours on the weekend (double or triple that if you don't have a family) and then you realize that side hustle needs to pay money.
Personally, I turned my side hustle into my day job. So that's 20-25 hours a week gone. But leaves me with 35-37 hours to put towards my true side hustle without having to sacrifice my health (still gym 3x a week, still in bed by 10pm
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I'd rather pull one very well paid 40-50 hour a week job (nominally 37 but hey, I enjoy it) and use the rest of the time pursuing personal creative outlets that just don't pay well.
I'm a good photographer but I'd have to be a world famous and great one to earn more than I do in my day job.
I'm a good author but the market is saturated and my books struggle to cover the cost of the ISBN.
I'm a good dancer but professional gigs are for young fit aesthetically pleasing dancers that are much better than I'll ever
Respect their work ethic and energy levels (Score:2)
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I've known several VPs of engineering who would do a much better job if they had an outside interest. It would limit the amount of damage they could do inside.
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No. 2 on the Japanese hip-hop chart, dame desu (Score:3, Insightful)
You're as curious about Japanese Hip-hop's #1 as I am : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu5G443dQ4A
What the fuck is WRONG with these people?
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You're as curious about Japanese Hip-hop's #1 as I am : https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
What the fuck is WRONG with these people?
They evolved the most aggressive society in the world, started a war, got nuked, and discovered they were pacifists (with apologies to Neal Stephenson). The aggressiveness is still there, but it's being suppressed. The internal pressure results in... strangeness.
It's called a hobby (Score:2)
You're not reinventing anything.
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Don't ruin it now! This whole "side hustle" thing has been a great source of amusement to me over the last couple of years. It's as if an entire generation grew up somehow completely unaware that their parents did anything other than work at one job and make them sandwiches.
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I suppose nowadays a big f*ck you to family/friends quality time is the norm.
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I have family time as well, normally every evening. We eat together and sped time together.
But outside that, every free minute goes into my blade smith hobby which turned into a side business long before FiF became a thing.
I have a large network of friends around the world that I talk to / communicate with on a daily basis. There are yearly events I travel to to meet with them and hang out in real life. Some of my best real life friends live on a different continent and I try to visit them or meet up when i
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It has it's pro's and cons.
On the plus side, she is very practical and pragmatic. And she is perfectly ok with me spending (some of) my evenings in the shop without being upset.
On the flip side, if I want to be hugged, I have to ask for one. And then internally she is probably counting 'one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi' and we're done. Last time I bought a surprise box of expensive chocolates, her reaction was 'I didn't really have a need for this, but ok...'
As I said, there are good side
Weekend band (Score:4, Insightful)
No, people who work for a living and then play/sing in some crappy band has always been a thing. Always.
>> As a vocalist with the band Magnetic North, she rhymes and drops beats
Cha 13, Int 14, Wis 8
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"Ridiculous expensive necessities" seems like a contradiction.
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This isn't about a job not offering enough money. It's about intellectual satisfaction. Even as a STEM researcher which in itself is fun, I still like to pursue other more artistic activities that make money just because I have the drive and curiosity to do so.
This is an American thing, mind you. (Score:1)
I'm from Germany, and around here, nobody even knows that you guys apparently work two, three, or even four jobs, just to stay afloat.
And quite frankly, it shocks us a bit.
Around here, having to work 8-12 and 13-17 for a 40 hour week, for a single job, with 28 days of paid holidays and of course health care, is already considered a bit much. We have mothers working 20 hours a week, and getting a lot more days of paid holidays, full overtime compensation (with a legal cap on allowed overtime), an 1.5 extra m
Re: This is an American thing, mind you. (Score:1)
Yes, we understand you feel that way. But that is because you are a commie loser who doesn't understand the incredible ambition of real Americans, neatly all of whom are merely temporarily inconvenienced billionaires just waiting to get a big piece of that Trump kickback. We little people will get kids any day now. Any day. He promised once he got rid of the darkies and heathens that we real American White Christians could stick it to the others instead if turning the other cheek like a pussy. The fact that
I often wonder what I'm doing... (Score:3)
I have a day job in IT and have a photography business primarily for evenings and weekends. (Weekends for shoots and evenings to retouch photos and manage the business.) I typically burn up about half my vacation each year covering events for which I sell the photos. I love my photography work; I tolerate my IT work.
The photography business pays for itself, barely. I make enough money to pay for equipment, maintenance and repair, and the website where I sell my photos. I have a fantasy of supporting myself on photography when I retire from IT. But I don't know how realistic that really is.
I don't sleep much. Watching TV is a special treat, not a nightly occurrence.
I often ask myself why do I do it? Working two jobs is definitely not making me rich. Things would be so much easier if I could work a regular job, go home and watch TV for a couple hours, and then get a good night's sleep. Spend my vacation at some resort ogling the beach bunnies instead of out in a field trying not to step in horse poo.
But then I look at photos of breathtaking scenes and heartbreakingly beautiful women (I don't call them "breathtaking photos" because that seems arrogant) and it all seems worth it.
So I think the answer is, there's things you have to make the effort to do, or learn to live with the regret. I've chosen to make the effort.
Re:I often wonder what I'm doing... (Score:5, Insightful)
Working two jobs is definitely not making me rich.
From your description, you're not working two jobs. You have a job, and you have a hobby that pays its own expenses. That's totally legit, and a choice, and it's great that you get to do that.
Re:I often wonder what I'm doing... (Score:4, Interesting)
From your description, you're not working two jobs. You have a job, and you have a hobby that pays its own expenses. That's totally legit, and a choice, and it's great that you get to do that.
I think that's a rather unfair characterization of amateurs who doesn't make enough money to quit their day job but who's really trying to go pro. It's highly unlikely that anyone will hire a photographer at professional rates without a good portfolio, practically nobody jumps from not getting paid at all to a living wage. If he's just doing the gigs he wants with the income as a bonus that's a hobby. If he's genuinely trying to make a profit it's a business, even if it's not very successful yet. I mean most photographers don't get paid at all...
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I do operate it as a business. I pay income tax on sales and take equipment off as capital expenses.
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It's a good point.
The examples I saw weren't necessarily people doing two jobs as much as having a job that supports them and another job that they enjoy. Singing, photography, acting, etc. While I can think of plenty of actors who wait tables, a friend of mine on Wall Street had an assistant who was an aspiring actor. He made pretty good money working as an assistant but his passion was acting. The job was such that he could manage to take a few hours off during the day to go to auditions and the like.
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Don't keep me in suspense...what's your photography company's website?
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Don't keep me in suspense...what's your photography company's website?
Can I post that here? I thought Slashdot frowned on commercial promotion?
I'm like every other guy (Score:5, Funny)
Sometimes I throw on a dress and head down to the wharf. I can meet a few sailors and collect a few dollars on the side. It's good honest work...
Been there, done that (Score:3)
Before my wife had a serious talk with me, I was doing at least 12 hours and growing on weekdays, a full day Saturday, and helping at races on Sundays some weekends. Truth be told, I was eating it up. I don't do well sitting around. But in the balance of priorities it had to go.
I've since switched to metal working (machining, welding, scraping, etc) in my garage at home. Lets me get out some of the desires, but a more sane pace...
cancel mod (Score:2)
How sad is it we need 'side hustles' to survive? (Score:4, Insightful)
Does posting comments on Slashdot a side hustle? (Score:2)
This all got ridiculous (Score:3)
When Uber started advertising "Side Hustle", as if working 24 hours a day at two or three jobs was sorta cool.
It's not.
There's nothing new about this. (Score:2)
Exhibit A: Brian May, forced to choose between his astrophysics doctorate and his career with Queen, didn't go back for that doctorate for several decades.
Exhibit B: Tom Scholz, electrical engineer from MIT. Also multi-instrumentalist and founding member of Boston. He had to be convinced to market his (ultimately successful) Rockman product line, because he thought it would distract from his musical aspirations.
Exhibit C: Tom Lehrer. He ultimately walked away from a successful "novelty music" career to retu
News flash! (Score:3)
This has been going on since jobs were invented. It continues to amuse me how often tech workers think they pioneered most of the shit they're doing.
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Not tech workers. Millennials. Just like they think they invented roommates, renting out you house, hitchhiking, ...
And "side hustle". What is this, prison?
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You're right! I stand corrected.
tried this once (Score:2)
Working 12 hours a day is not for everyone. In several months i earned about 20K (I did not work 12 hours), I became a nervous wreck.
If my side gig turned lucrative.... (Score:1)
work all time (Score:1)
Why is a "part time job" now called "side hustle"? (Score:2)
Or perhaps it's the same thing but millenn
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Think writing blog posts, or driving for Uber just on the occasions that you've got nothing better to do.
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When I was a kid it was commonly called a "side job". At some point it was called "moonlighting" although I think that also implied it was a secret you were keeping from your primary employer.
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