Extra income as a software developer

Yorck

Hi all,

I am currently employed full time as a software developer. However, I am looking to get a second job / source of income in order to speed up paying off debts and hopefully contribute towards a house deposit.

I was wondering if there were any opportunities to use my skills in the evenings / weekends in order to earn some extra cash. I was looking to earn approximately £500+ extra a month after tax for working around 20-30 hours extra a week. I do not want to get involved in anything too high pressured / stressful as my main job is stressful enough!

I have experience with C, C++, etc. Not so good with web / mobile stuff as I can't make things look pretty to save my life, which is a shame as that seems to be where the money is.

A quick Google online has revealed a lot of scam websites. The only genuine websites that I have seen include freelancer.com, etc. but looking at the money on offer I would be better off getting a job at McDonald's!

I realise that my requirements may not be realistic at all, but I was wondering if any of you had any experience or advice to offer. Thanks in advance

Black_Dynamite

Yorck wrote: »

Hi all,

I am currently employed full time as a software developer. However, I am looking to get a second job / source of income in order to speed up paying off debts and hopefully contribute towards a house deposit.

I was wondering if there were any opportunities to use my skills in the evenings / weekends in order to earn some extra cash. I was looking to earn approximately £500+ extra a month after tax for working around 20-30 hours extra a week. I do not want to get involved in anything too high pressured / stressful as my main job is stressful enough!

I have experience with C, C++, etc. Not so good with web / mobile stuff as I can't make things look pretty to save my life, which is a shame as that seems to be where the money is.

A quick Google online has revealed a lot of scam websites. The only genuine websites that I have seen include freelancer.com, etc. but looking at the money on offer I would be better off getting a job at McDonald's!

I realise that my requirements may not be realistic at all, but I was wondering if any of you had any experience or advice to offer. Thanks in advance

Hi Yorck,

I use Elance, but I am a web guy, which is where you'll struggle.

Software development (in my experience) tends to be on a contract basis, so they'd want you working for 2 months on their projects. There's a ton of cash to be made in this.

You may get the odd job but I can't see it being a huge market, but it'll be very competitive.

With web work there is a ridiculous amount available for skilled people who can communicate and deliver on time. Can you not begin to learn PHP, MySQL and learn to develop using WordPress? If you're good, you'll be flooded with requests. I get 20+ invites each day to apply for a job on Elance.

You don't need to be able to design, just learn to code.

I charge £20 per hour, I can't compete with the developers in the middle east but I get 100% feedback, deliver on time and I am in constant contact, this makes a difference and is why I charge 4 times as much as the other cheap developers. I'm bringing in over £1000 per month (pre-tax) + my full time salary, so it is possible.

That's all the advice I can offer unfortunately, web development is where the quantity of work is, but if you went freelance / contracting in software development you could earn £300 - £500 per day easily if you're good.

benjus

Unfortunately you'll be competing with lots and lots of cheap developers of the calibre of the person who responded to this ad: http://blog.willbenton.com/2008/11/rent-a-coder-hilarity/ - so convincing clients you actually know your stuff and can justify charging more will be the main issue, I guess.

OhhToria

Have you looked at Odesk? Or, what about Maven[dot]co? Like any of these though, can you show previous work examples? Being a new user, you're going to need to boast somehow about your expertise to put yourself ahead of the chaff - that's the only problem you should have when it comes to competing with the cheap developers.

Using such online services (for buying services), I personally steer clear from under-priced developers as more often than not their more trouble than their worth!

Black_Dynamite

benjus wrote: »

Unfortunately you'll be competing with lots and lots of cheap developers of the calibre of the person who responded to this ad: http://blog.willbenton.com/2008/11/rent-a-coder-hilarity/ - so convincing clients you actually know your stuff and can justify charging more will be the main issue, I guess.

Also, this!

It is really difficult to get selected if you haven't got a portfolio. When I started I essentially charged next to nothing, built a portfolio and then upped my prices.

It's definitely not a get rich quick scheme, it takes dedication and hard work to make any real money.

pathtofreedom

Have you checked your contract and employee handbook for your current work place. You may find you have clauses that mean you can't do work in your own time without declaring it to them, and getting permission first either as they don't allow second jobs, as they expect you to work for them at your best, or due to their IP ownership on any work you do, or depending who you work for might be competing with their clients.

The client one especially is unlikely as I assume you're looking for smaller projects and currently work on much bigger ones, but IP especially you want to make sure isn't a conflict and risk your current job.

Could you not look at contracting in general and just increase your day rate that way?

InsideInsurance

There are plenty of freelancing sites but they are fairly heavily dominated by web and mobile.

I am the same as you in terms of design but built up a relationship with another freelancer that would do the front end for me and I'd do the backend. One of the projects I won was to do the backend for a design firm who lacked the skills to create the functionality their client wanted. I pretty much built my business off the back of that deal and the others that followed it and in the end sold it to them.

Your challenge will always be getting a portfolio/ feedback when you first start and then finding your USP to get people to pay more than the $5/hr that some bedroom developers are willing to work for which often comes in at under that because people always underestimate the effort required.

Finally, in this game being a good developer is only one part, and arguably not the biggest part. You need to learn to sell. Looking at the stats on one of the big sites only around 10-20% of all projects ever goes ahead, you need to learn how to identify the ones you've a chance of getting and who'll value your USP otherwise you'll spend hours a day pitching and never winning.

Yorck

Thanks for your replies, very interesting.

I guess the main issue I am going to face is a lack of a portfolio. Unfortunately, I won't be able to use anything from my current or previous jobs as the code I wrote is not something I can freely distribute. I could look at contributing to open source as a way of getting my name out there.

I understand that this is not something that is going to make me rich overnight, it was an idea that occurred to me not long ago as I am fed up with having to worry about debts and not being able to get a mortgage. I don't mind putting in the work in the short term if it means things will be much better in the long term. The aim is to be debt free and own my own home in 2-3 years time, which will only happen if I get an additional income.

I know there is a lot more money to be made as a full time contractor, and I think in the long term this may be a route that I will pursue - however, because of my current financial position I don't think I will be able to ride out any periods of not being able to find work. Also, I understand being a contractor can make getting a mortgage a lot harder.

There is no clause in my employment contract about having a second job (other than not being allowed to work for another employer during contractual hours / using company equipment) so I think I'm fine in this regard. I will have to check what the rules are about IP - I would hope that anything I create during my own time using my own equipment would belong to me. I do know there is a clause forbidding me from working for any of my employer's competitors, so I would have to be careful there.

I wouldn't mind learning more about web development - I have played with it in the past. What worries me is that it is a very big industry which is continually changing - many of the skills I learned in the late 90's / early 00's - and as a result, most of the stuff I produce looks very dated. However, I do know some PHP/MySQL/Javascript so I don't mind giving it a go. It would also be sufficiently different to my main job, which should hep keep me interested.

Thanks for all your help

Yorck