How many jobs do you work?

vCole

dynamik wrote: »

No, that counts as a hobby since you lose money instead of gain it.

Then what's a wife? A rapidly depreciating asset?

veritas_libertas

FadeToBright wrote: »

Then what's a wife? A rapidly depreciating asset?

Depends upon what kind of wife you have. My wife is a sort of Project Manager if you will. She has helped our home to be managed in a way I would not have been able to do on my own

powerfool

knwminus wrote: »

After spending $630 on two cell phones (EVOs) today I seriously am thinking about staying at my second job for a little longer, just so I can strengthen my savings.

I hear you there. I am in a good position with my day job, but a second job would really help to smooth things out financially, right now. Beyond dealing with the present, there are some upcoming big purchases I would like to make without stressing myself out for the next five-plus years.

Paul Boz

I was worked so hard at my last job (big shout out to Dynamik and Shaquazulu) that the idea of working a second job for extra money seems painful. This weekend Dynamik came over and I was working on my car and he said "man I wish I had that kind of spare time." He's obviously in school so his lack of free time is self-inflicted, but its still no different from working a second job. The small things in life, like enjoying your time AWAY from work, is what makes you able to be fresh for your job. If an opportunity to do remote pentesting after hours and on the weekends came up I'd probably take it, but only because that stuff is fun and I enjoyed it at my last job. At what point does it become too much though? Whats the point in working two jobs if you don't have time to enjoy the extra income? Obviously if you have to work multiple jobs to stay afloat that's one thing, but if you make like 60k and can pay your bills there's no reason to go work a side job making a marginal amount of money.

Rather than working side jobs to make extra money you should spend your time either advancing your career at your current place of employment of focus your extra effort on looking for a new job.

Mojo_666

Jobs are like women, any more than one on the go and its too much hassle for me.

CompuTron99

Right now, I'm working my main job (50hrs/wk). I do pick up a side PC repair / cabling job when I have the time. I've just enrolled in a Cisco Academy Course, and I'm still working on my MCSA in the meantime. The rest of the time is spent with my wife (of 2 months), trying to drop 15 lbs, training a 13 week old Pug, and trying to keep the house from falling apart.

tbgree00

I work one full time and do side repairs. I have essentially stopped my side business though. The client base I have are all sales people who constantly haggle down my prices and refuse to sign the contract* my lawyer created. I still work for the clients who aren't salesmen though.

*I had to get the contract worked up because people would agree on the phone to pay 100/hr to get me to their house within the hour and refuse to pay upon completion, claiming they only wanted to pay the rates I charge for scheduled visits. It's usually after 10pm when I'm done and I just want to get out. I've had two clients refuse to sign so I just turn around and walked out. It also gives me a work order and some protection.

earweed

$100/hr..man I'm way undercharging. I charge $60/hr for speedy service like that.

tbgree00

earweed wrote: »

$100/hr..man I'm way undercharging. I charge $60/hr for speedy service like that.

60/hr is my usual rate for next day service or same day if it is a good client. I would say 70% of the same hour calls haven't had a problem paying that and most of the work is done in one hour anyway. It's the last 30% who work to negotiate free hours and/or big discounts.

One of my clients called me at 8:30pm to get me out to fix a hard drive crash. 3 hours later, after fully restoring all data and recreating her machine on a new harddrive I had brought just in case I was handed a check for 50 dollars and told the rest would be paid when she made her next sale. This was the night before I sat a test. She hasn't responded to my invoices or emails. She got 400 dollars in parts and labor for 50 dollars. That's why I went to a lawyer.

subl1m1nal

Man, I undercharge as well. However, I don't want to do business consulting. I want to do home PC repair. I don't want the responsibility to provide service to a company when I'm busy and can't make it. It'll make the business client unhappy when their server's down and I'm fishing on a lake with no cell service and can't help them.

Home PC repair is what I stick with. I charge $40/hr, with a minimum half hour. I live in Iowa though, and the cost of living is much lower than the rest of the US. However, I am the cheapest in town. My goal here is to get more business. I have a website, but most people find me via word of mouth.

I guess it's more about my goals. I want to help people out and make a little extra spending cash on the side. I get maybe 1 or 2 calls a week. It's enough to make some extra dough, but not so busy that I'm stressed. Then I use that money on something fun like a dinner with my fam or a football game.

earweed

I do the same thing although I have been doing a lot of home network setups and have done a couple small offices. I set up SBS at one and for dirt cheap mainly for the experience. I'd never worked with SBS before. I'd like to do consulting myself but I don't really feel confident that I have the skills yet to do it. I've gotten all of my business through word of mouth and having postings at a few local stores.
BTW how is the 70-643 studying going? I'm taking that test next week and am getting nervous as heck. There's so much new stuff I've learned for this test and my practice tests I'm only scoring in the 60's and 70's so far.

Bl8ckr0uter

powerfool wrote: »

I hear you there. I am in a good position with my day job, but a second job would really help to smooth things out financially, right now. Beyond dealing with the present, there are some upcoming big purchases I would like to make without stressing myself out for the next five-plus years.

Officially put in my two weeks at my part time job today. I will love to get my weekends back (only to have them taken from me by school and certs lol)

earweed

knwminus wrote: »

Officially put in my two weeks at my part time job today. I will love to get my weekends back (only to have them taken from me by school and certs lol)

From reading your posts for a while now I have confidence you'll fill your spare time with more studying..

Paul Boz

knwminus wrote: »

Officially put in my two weeks at my part time job today. I will love to get my weekends back (only to have them taken from me by school and certs lol)

It’s just too hard to never get a break, especially when your career is largely spent focusing on detail-oriented tasks such as IT. I don’t take lunch breaks or any breaks for that matter because I prefer to work hard and stay focused. Sometimes I need to take a five minute breather which is why I post during the day. Weekends (or some form of days away from work) are critical to prevent burnout. The work schedule at my last job was hard but manageable because I’d usually get weekends off to relax. When the weekends started turning into travel days I was gone within two months. Those weekends were what kept me glued together.

Devilsbane

I don't take many official breaks, because I get a lot of breaks when there is little work to do. From time to time I need to step away for a few minutes to use the restroom, get a drink, or maybe just to take a short walk. I usually eat lunch at my desk and spend that time studying or something, but I will occasionally speak with a coworker when something is going on.

subl1m1nal

earweed wrote: »

BTW how is the 70-643 studying going? I'm taking that test next week and am getting nervous as heck. There's so much new stuff I've learned for this test and my practice tests I'm only scoring in the 60's and 70's so far.

70-643 is going. I'm working out of the Microsoft Press book. I've been doing the labs using virtualbox, but for some reason, I can't get the boot image to boot for the deployment part. I should have listened and just used virtual PC. LOL.

I've kinda taken a few months off for the summer, but I plan on picking it back up here soon. With school starting up for my wife, it's nice to shut the TV off and focus.

I agree its a lot of new material. I haven't worked much with using a deployment solution like WDS. It's pretty cool though. At least the material is interesting. I'll be sweating it like you when I get confident enough to sit the exam.

I haven't even taken a crack at any practice tests yet. Still focusing on learning the material.

chmorin

knwminus wrote: »

Having one source of income is IMO kind of dangerous. Consider your financial stability like a table or chair. No one wants a one legged table or chair because it is extremely unstable*. I would like to have at least 3-4 sources of income. I want at least 2 side hustles (1 IT related and 1 NON IT related), a main job and of course my wife is looking for a new job in our new city (not so much for money but for savings and such). When I became unemployed I realized just how unbalanced my families personal finances were and I am actively taking steps to improve them. Unfortunately working more does take its toll on you. I don't really want to leave my part time gig so I am going to talk to my boss about reducing the hours to something like 6 hour shifts if possible. That may be impossible. What's likely to happen is for the next 3 school quarters I will be a one job man.

I greatly disagree.

If you associate yourself as a whole to one single job and keep yourself aware of its situation you find yourself pretty safe from being the asset they want to lose. If you associate yourself 75% in one location and 25% in another, and the 75% does not cut the muffin (in a matter of speaking) you will find yourself with just 25% of work and probably just 25% of your money.

There are exceptions to every situation of course, but I find it much more likely that a company will keep you if you work for them and for them well and all the time, than otherwise.