Finding Programming Work on the Side? 181
vistaconfig wonders: "I work as a developer for a certain fairly small company. I'm very happy with my work/pay and I wouldn't consider changing my job. However, I find myself bored at night since I never take any work home (as per the boss's orders). Since I'm not capable of working without some kind of motivation, I'm trying to find some kind of a side job that pays whatever money, and has deadlines (that's the only way I can work, unfortunately). There doesn't seem to be a website for side jobs. I'm willing to take something on, but I don't know where to go. How do other Slashdot readers deal with finding the side job in the first place? "
OMFG (Score:4, Insightful)
You are bored, because your boss won't let you take work home. You're kidding, right?
OMFG. What are you working for, anyway? Jesus H. Christ! Go out and HAVE SOME FUN. Meet a WOMAN (or a man, if that's your thing).. Go out and DANCE. Go to a production of something. Take some music lessons. See a provocative movie about provocative people with provocative people. Learn how to play bridge, backgammon, how to take pictures, how to bluff a Texan out of a pot. But for fuck's sake DO SOMETHING. EXPAND YOUR HORIZIONS.
Kids these days. Ay carrumba!
Since I'm not capable of working without some kind of motivation, I'm trying to find some kind of a side job t
Working? WORKING? What are you, a retard? This is your SPARE TIME. YOUR TIME OFF.
Find the nearest tall building, and jump. That's my advice, for you are not living and I see very little hope for you.
Re:OMFG (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:OMFG (Score:5, Insightful)
Leave what you do for work at work when you're done at the end of the work day. That way you will continue not to hate your job, you will not begin to loath waking up and having to do it your every waking moment. Use your free time for your interests, for whatever you find enjoyable. If its programming, fine do that but have it be something that is related to your own interests, not what someone who is cracking the proverbial whip at your back tells you to do.
His boss may even realize this and so to keep a happy and healthy employee he tells them not to take work home with them when they are finished work for the day. Most places only make a show of wanting their employees to keep work and their own free time separate.
Re:OMFG (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:OMFG (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:OMFG (Score:2)
Personally, my other suggestion would be: even though you "know" you can't motivate yourself to work on home projects... try. If you always need some external deadline looming over your head to ge
Re:OMFG (Score:1)
Re:OMFG (Score:3, Funny)
Re:OMFG (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, since the two accounts were created consecutively, I'd have to guess that this is only one person, so it'd be a sort of "fight club" scenario.
Re:OMFG (Score:2)
Re:OMFG (Score:4, Funny)
Re:OMFG (Score:2)
Re:OMFG (Score:4, Funny)
Re:OMFG (Score:1, Troll)
Re:OMFG (Score:2)
Re:OMFG (Score:1, Insightful)
I'm always busy playing with the kids, cooking nice stuff, learning guitar, watching movies, reading books, doing some photography, taking some walks at local parks, listening to some music, going on short trips, some minor renovation projects, etc. In fact, I wish I had some time for some pet projects of mine (had some ideas of starting a micro ISV sometimes), but the time just isn't there (not counting house chores either)
I truly
Re:OMFG (Score:1)
Re:OMFG (Score:2)
Want a project & deadline?
Go to http://www.mailzu.net/ [mailzu.net]
I need this thing working completely with amavisd-new 2.4.0 and able to train ham/spam via the web interface by July 31st. A Postfix queue management screen in the admin menu is due by August 15th.
Get to work . . . . please?
(I'm actually already working on these mods myself, but being a C/C++ guy I'm having to lookup every statement
Re:OMFG (Score:5, Informative)
Re:OMFG (Score:5, Funny)
Interested?
Re:OMFG (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't take it personally. Lots of people around here rush to judgement, usually looking for a cheap Insightful mod. Once I mentioned that I sometimes go to movies without my girlfriend. There were a bunch of replies to the tune of "You should treat her better!", never once did anybody mention that not all ladies are interested in sci-fi. Heh.
Anyway, getting back on topic: Do you have any interest in 3D? There are lots of apps out there (Lightwave, Maya, 3D Studio MAX, etc...) that are darned good tools, but there's always something missing. There's always a demand for new plugins, particularly ones that solve annoying problems. This would require some initiative on your part, but if you were to generate a few plugins and put them up on a site, you could make a few bucks on the side. (Paypal's very friendly for this type of work...) It'd take a little investment up front (Lightwave is $800...), and it'd take some time to get going, but you could generate a revenue stream for yourself for a while. I'm not sure if this is the sligtest bit interesting to you or not, but you'd broaden your skillset. There are a variety of things you can do with a 3D app (image processing, UI enhancement, automation, modelling tools, etc.) Might even find yourself working at a movie studio if this gig you have now ends!
Something to think about.
What? (Score:5, Funny)
You should treat her better!
Re:OMFG (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:OMFG (Score:2)
Doesn't sound like pitching in to an open-source project would really be your thing. It's rare to find one that runs on any sort of stringent deadlines, and rarer still to find one that pays.
I do have a few suggestions in the line of open source work, though. If you'd like to earn some money, you could try looking for exploits in Firefox and earn $500 a pop with Mozilla's Bug Bounty [slashdot.org] program. In addition, Launchpad lis
Re:OMFG (Score:2, Insightful)
If motorcycle riding isn't your thing (or MMOs, hiking, kayaking, whatev), and you just *have* to code, then I'd look towards some OSS projects, or something else for fun, and no money. No, there are no deadlines, but if you actual
Re:OMFG (Score:2)
Here is what I do on my free time and why I do it.
Since I'm a graduate student, I'm pretty acquainted with LaTeX because my job (writing papers) depends on it. So I agreed to typeset a book written by a friend, in Chinese. For that, I'm using XeTeX [sil.org], which is an extension of TeX that has very good multili
Re:OMFG (Score:2)
It's funny but my first reaction was to tell you that you should have included the fact that you already have a "normal life" in your orignal Ask Slashdot question. How strange that the claim "I already have a normal life" seems so unusual here that it feels like you're sandbagging us by not saying it.
But to answer your question, I suggest that you look into doing some volunteer work on the FOSS project of your choice.
Re:OMFG (Score:3, Insightful)
Have you considered pursuing training in basic management skills, so that you will be able to follow your self-started projects to completion without losing focus, getting bored, and abandoning them? Now, you don't have to run out and enroll in business school or anything -- a weeklong Learning Tree seminar might do the trick, or a job skills class at a community college.
Learning to manage you
it's the crash and burn rush (Score:2)
Re:OMFG (Score:2)
Re:OMFG (Score:2)
I could blame the wine I had at the time, but that is no excuse. I could have made my point without being so inflammatory.
Re:OMFG (Score:1, Insightful)
I'll make a different argument, though. Often what makes you productive in your work is experience gained outside of work. This applies especially to crafts like programming, which are as much art as science. What you learn from studying other disciplines will be rewarded in better understanding of and proficiency in your day job. Principles like aesthetics from art, rigor from math, argument and persuasion from literature - these
Re:OMFG (Score:4, Funny)
What? You mean I put on all this weight for nothing?
Re:OMFG (Score:2)
BASE is a pretty severe suggestion just because the guy is bored. Start out slow, like a tandem or something!
Re:OMFGBBQLOLRTFMLLC (Score:2)
And, if he is like some geeks, it's hard as hell or else just not interesting to do 90% of the stuff you listed.
I don't give a shit for dancing, because I think it's a useless expedinture of time. I've done horrible in relationships, because I think it's all useless emotional blackmail.
The "see a movie" advice is plain bad -- a good movie hasn't been released in yea
Re:OMFG (Score:2)
lately, i spent almost 250+ hours working the past few weeks. for myself, and it was crazy.
working too hard is a danger, because you can loose your mind.
Google contract programming (Score:4, Informative)
Rentacoder, and others. (Score:5, Informative)
Also check your local (or not-so-local) Craigslist boards, people frequently post there looking for small programming projects.
Also also, call around to local charities, political groups with whom you agree, and other similar operations. See if you can identify ways their operation could be streamlined, and implement them.
Rentacoder = Not Good Use Of Time For First World (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Rentacoder = Not Good Use Of Time For First Wor (Score:2)
Re:Rentacoder = Not Good Use Of Time For First Wor (Score:2, Informative)
I'm an Indian student. I find RentACoder extremely useful. With a week's effort, i can fund my semester. The only problem I face is during transferring funds (from paypal, which takes more than an month). Competition is quite high and that forces peo
Re:Rentacoder = Not Good Use Of Time For First Wor (Score:3, Informative)
You say this was a simple CS lab type project. It is very likely that some of the coders already had usable code in their own library to accomplish the purpose of this task.
I personally have bid 8 hours on projects which would be considered complete networ
Re:Rentacoder = Not That Bad (Score:5, Informative)
I have found that many people were glad I was from the US, spoke English, and was available at roughly the same hours as themselves.
There are plenty of opportunities on RAC, you just have to keep bidding. I highly recommend it.
Re:Rentacoder, and others. (Score:5, Funny)
> with whom you agree, and other similar operations. See if
> you can identify ways their operation could be streamlined,
I think that's a very narrow view of your options. Don't limit yourself! You could find a charity or political group with whom you DISagree, and subtly sabotage them... THERE'S your motivation!
How about... (Score:1, Redundant)
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
If you can't get a life, get a pet project (Score:5, Insightful)
However, if that's not feasible (e.g., maybe you need more money; maybe you don't want a life right now), then how about a pet
You could work on an open source project. Or you could think of an "unmet need" and code the solution, get some angel money, parlay that into VC funding, cash out and criticize the government full time (on
Re:If you can't get a life, get a pet project (Score:2)
Re:If you can't get a life, get a pet project (Score:1)
Re:If you can't get a life, get a pet project (Score:2)
If someone is actually happy what they're doing (actually happy, not moping about doing it), then telling them to "get a life" is counterproductive. What you're really trying to do is make them conform to some ideal that you hold as "proper recreational activities".
Re:If you can't get a life, get a pet project (Score:4, Insightful)
I looked into working on BIG and real stuff in my "free" time a few years back and after balancing the pros and cons I decided not to. If I did take one of the offers I had a few years ago to "code this in my free time" I may have been considerably better off then now financially. Which would have mattered only if I was sane, alive and healthy. There is a limit on what a human brain can endure per day and this limit drops as the years go by.
There is simply no way in hell I am going to look at a BIG project with a deadline in my free time now. I would rather read a book or spend some time with the family.
Now, recreational coding is a different matter. Fixing bugs, polishing rough edges on stuff, writing documentation and articles are something BIG OSS projects always fail on. That is what I do when I feel like coding in my free time. It is an activity that you can do once in a while when the weather sucks so bad that it is not worth it to go to the park with the kid(s). It keeps your brain in shape, it is enjoyable and most importantly it is not stressful.
Most of us get enough shit at work to get additional stress at home after that. Even if you can take it now in 5 years you will not and everyone will still expect from you those 15+ hours of work per day. Worst of all your finances will expect that too.
It is not worth it.
Side work website (Score:3, Interesting)
Go the whole hog (Score:1)
Apply to work for slashdot - Taco is hiring read his journal
TopCoder (Score:5, Interesting)
Rentacoder et. al. blow and here's why (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Rentacoder et. al. blow and here's why (Score:1)
Re:Rentacoder et. al. blow and here's why (Score:2)
Re:Rentacoder et. al. blow and here's why (Score:1)
if you're good, email me (Score:2)
Regarding the gp comment - I want to work less and feel less pressure to make money, so that I have more time - to work on the programming projects that I WANT to work on. I do plenty of other things with my life, but programming is w
OPEN SOURCE (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:OPEN SOURCE (Score:1)
Tell the Boss (Score:2, Insightful)
STFW? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:STFW? (Score:2)
That said, it might be worth a person's while if they truly have no
Re:STFW? (Score:2)
I used to work a second contracting position... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yup, I was in the same predicament that you're in; home after work, and bored out of my skull. So, I started contracting at night working with a small firm writing accounting software, and with a hotel writing banquet management software. One night when I finally got to bed at two in the morning, my wife looked at me and said "you've been so distant for the past six months, have I done anything wrong?" That broke my heart. I realized that I'd come home from work, eat dinner, and head on upstairs to my home office and code all night.
It was also affecting my full time job. I was constantly late, and groggy and grumpy until sometime around lunch. My boss at the time finally got tired of the complaints and gave me an ultimatum: fix my attitude problem or find another job.
I finally realized what an a-hole I'd been to my co-workers and more importantly to my wife. So, I gave up the contracting work.
What I'm trying to say is that instead of burying your head in coding 16+ hours a day. Take some time for yourself after hours. Hang out with friends. Surprise your S.O. by doing something that's fun, offbeat, and different from your normal routine. To sum it up, enjoy life.
-Scottnods (Score:2)
Get a hobbiest project. Doesn't have to be OSS, just something cool you like to do. I spend time at work all day writing glue code and database reports. When I get home th
Re:nods (Score:1)
Re:nods (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I used to work a second contracting position... (Score:4, Informative)
It isn't healthy to mix what you do with your free time with what you do during work hours. There will be unnecessary overlap and it isn't fair to you or anyone else around you (home or work).
Use your free time to take up another or a new interest. Everybody needs to have variations in their lives.
Hobbyists required (Score:2)
Just because it's programming doesn't mean it's the same thing. Of course one should have other interests, but if it weren't for hobby programming we wouldn't be having this discussion here today.
I know guys who have been writing mainframe reports for 20 years, but go home and groove in Objective-C. It's a good way to not lose your sugar-daddy job when they decide to go modern.
While I'm posting, it would be great if
Re:I used to work a second contracting position... (Score:2)
Re:I used to work a second contracting position... (Score:2)
Normally a good suggestion, but the original poster indicated a problem with self-motivation, which would probably be a disaster if they went into business for themselves.
Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur, I guess.
6 months?? (Score:2)
When I met my wife to be, I was at my computer easily 14+ hrs a day. Now after 6 years of marriage, I can hardly get 14 worry free minutes! Worth the trade off to have a loving wife.
I'd post a link to my wedding site, but last time I did that I got mega flamed... not my wife mind you
Hmm (Score:1)
Volunteer (Score:3, Insightful)
Ok, how about this? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm probably not the only person who can provide the structure. (There are a bazillion project sites out there, but sites != structure.) There are an amazing number of projects out there. The problem is that there are simply not enough people to go around, and the lines of communication between coders and projects has traditionally been poor. Proper requirements analysis and project specifications are rare to non-existant outside of the best-of-breed elite institutions, paid or otherwise. Most of this is because geeks are often poor communicators, so the projects that are interesting (ie: geek-run) are the ones people know least about, and the ones with the best PR (run by marketing) often have the least novel or interesting work involved in them. This makes it hard to find out what REAL work is out there.
Extra work? (Score:2)
If you want extra money, you'll find enough few contract programming jobs (if you're competent) at places like Hire A Programmer [devshed.com] or Xperts 4 Hire [xperts4hire.com]. There are others but you know how to google, right programmer?
For example, my side projects include:
- FOSS Sudoku [sudoku-koubou.com]
- Postgres Build machine agent [pgbuildfarm.org]
- General BSD OS fiddling
The right business model for sustained work (Score:5, Interesting)
Getting that first customer is the tricky bit, but once you've done that the rule is simple, when the work is either complete or well under way, ask them for a minimum of three referrals for businesses they know personally who may require work, and ask them to put in a good word for you. Always push for three as it covers the odds pretty well and you're nearly always guaranteed new customers. It's difficult to do initially as it feels awkward asking them for that kind of information, but you have to see if from their perspective, they have a valued service that has helped them and their mates should benefit in the same way. I've never had a customer who was not willing to give me referrals in this way.
Fix a rate, do some research into the going rate for your area, don't undersell, don't oversell. After a while you get used to spotting risks, be they technical (in most cases you have to guage the amount of technical risk involved, this will aid in contingency) or political risk.
Don't be afraid to contract other people into the same job with you, just choose people you know, even if they have flaws it's better the devil you know. You can be fussy about the type of work once you have quantity coming through the door, until that point be prepared to do any type of development work.
The discounting thing is the real point though, don't be tempted to do it. Instead of discounting, reduce your services for the same job. Otherwise you'll find yourself doing the same work for one customer at the discounted rate for 10 years and have a hard job trying to increase your rate.
Getting that first customer though, not really as hard as you think. I try to avoid working for friends and family, but if you can get references from friends and family that's the next best thing.
Know your own process. Understand what it takes to go from the handshake to getting paid from an invoice is very important. It's good to know how to gather meaningful requirements, build your own practical specifications, manage customer expectations, managing variations to work and learning to say no at the right time. It's easy to skim over some of these, especially when you first start doing it by yourself, but after a while you realise why they exist and how they can save you time when done right.
A low priority is insurance, professional indemnity is a good one, cover yourself after a while. Not that you're going to be careless about what you do, but the insurance is there for when you get hit out of leftfield. When you get enough income in to pay for the insurance get a broker and invest.
Don't (Score:1, Insightful)
Instead of programming in your spare time, find another area of interest and pursue it. You never know when you're going to snap mentally and not be able to write a single line of code again. My employer doesn't know it, but in the last month, I haven't done a thing, and I don't know what will happen when he finds out... I have reached a point in my life where coding absolutely disgusts me. And I'm not alone - many programmers I know are in a similar position, some have even resorted to
LUG or Sourceforge (Score:1)
Trying not to be redundant (Score:2)
Re:Trying not to be redundant (Score:2)
Re:Trying not to be redundant (Score:2)
Scratch your itch. Start your own. (Score:4, Insightful)
There are still LOADS of gaps like this anywhere from tiny utility software up to enterprise level stuff. Pick one. Whatever one bugs you the most. Write some really good software. Open source it and sell support. Or don't.. whatever. Just write good software.
So you need some deadlines to keep you going? Not uncommon. Have someone do it for you (isn't that what you would do by contracting?). Either get yourself a partner (preferably someone who is keen on handling all the _other_ parts of creating and running a company in exchange for the possible rewards) who is also a good deadline-setter and will not let you slack. Or hire yourself a business coach if you do want to try your hand at the other aspects of running a company and just want someone to egg you on.
Read Paul Graham's essays for encouragement and why starting your own software company is (still) a good idea. http://www.paulgraham.com/ [paulgraham.com]
Oh yeah - ALSO find yourself another engaging hobby or two. They must involve at least the following:
Social interaction. Yes you need this. You cannot work in front of a computer at work and do programming all day and then come home and do it all night. Your boss made that rule for a _reason_ . In order for your creative programming side to flow the rest of your mind must be fed. If you just program all day every day for primary job and then your side job your productivity will drop like a rock. This should ideally involve more than one person - a significant other will severely cut into the time you can spend on the stuff you need (socializing with more than 1 person and getting outdoors (see below)). It is a trade off.
Get out. Out of the house. Out of buildings. Gardening maybe. Or hiking. Bicycling. Whatever appeals really. This is important for all the same reasons that social interaction is. It will tend to give your mind a break from thinking too heavily and the opportunity for creative thoughts to bubble up. It will also keep your body healthier. Not Olympic gymnast healthier. Heck - gardening will leave you a fat slob (if you are, and want to remain so), but it will bring your health up a slight notch nevertheless. If you want to be time-efficient, find a hobby that combines social activity plus getting out - this would possibly allow the space to date. But I do feel that doing something relatively mindless (BUT NOT IN FRONT OF A SCREEN - no video games and no TV. They are not mindless enough) is also fairly important even if it is only for a short amount of time..but regularly. At least once per week. Heck - just sit outside in a lawn chair in the sun and make chain mail. No thought involved, but you get fresh air and sun.
Remember, the hobby must be engaging enough that you will continue to do it in spite of the pull to spend all of your time in front of the computer. Try out a few and see which one sticks with you for a while. Plop a reminder in your calendar a few months down the line to start the programming part (ie: don't get so sucked into the hobby that it cuts off your original plans). Plop a reminder in your calendar a few months down the line to re-examine your hobby(ies).
Yes, this will severely cut back on the total amount of time that you spend in front of the computer programming. In fact, you might get only a tiny bit of code done per week (best done in extended-concentration burst I know - maybe one weeknight and 6-8 straight hours on one weekend day). But it will be much higher quality and you will get a LOT more done during that time.
If you are concerned about the time issues and you happen to watch TV cut it out. Watching TV fulfills neither of the requirements for a healthy body and mind needed for programming. If
Side business (Score:3, Insightful)
Help out with Free Software Projects! (Score:1)
You can impose deadlines on yourself. And you probably should if that is the way your mind works.
Just make sure that missing the self imposed deadline has some real repercussions.
No cafeine for a month or something like that.
Seriously though. Get A Life. Find A Wife. Have some children. Watch them grow. Go with the flow. Try to remain sane til then.
Children can easily fill your empty hours. They are the most challenging programming (education) pro
Contribute to FOSS (Score:1)
Money? (Score:2)
Why do you need extra money when you say you are happy with your pay,
and evidently don't have much to spend it on anyway?
If it has to be computer work, do some for a good cause that needs your
help, or work on something fun you don't get a chance to wrestle with at
work, or just make something that you think ought to exist, but forget
about the money.
If I can tempt you away from the keyboard for a second:
Learning a new skill is a good way to p
Don't. (Score:2)
A good contractor is self motivated and can produce quality work without having someone getting in their hair all day. They also have more availability than "after hours". Are you ready/able to handle client communication du
Accumulate some good karma instead.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Accumulate some good karma instead.. (Score:2)
Help my OSS project? (Score:2)
Well, if you know anything about windows driver programming, why don't you click the link on my sig and help me and my project with what's left to do? Otherwise look at the sourceforge.net "jobs" thing (although it's unpaid).
But huh, as all the others said, you need to get a life, and if you really suck at hookin up with girls in a club or something, find yourself one on Myspace [myspace.com] or something (whatever people say about Myspace out here it's still the best thing on internet to meet girls), unless you're marri
I won't say "get a life" (Score:3, Funny)
LK
Same boat. (Score:2)
Check the House Rules (Score:3, Informative)
So I do volunteer web work for no-profits.
One more vote for "get a hobby instead" (Score:2)
Technical Theater (Score:2)
How I Do It (Score:2)
Re:join a club (Score:2, Insightful)
-Get a life outside of work. But, if that's not right for you,
-Craigslist seems like a worthy option. Local jobs and contacts. You never know...
-Robots for fun is a worthy idea, as is pretty much any other OSS project, as (many) other people have mentioned.
Personally, I would say that you should FORCE yourself to do something non-programming related.
-I'm guessing you're in your early 20's.
-20 years from now, you'll be kicking yourself for spending all your time coding and not d