Ask HN: Is it worth working two 90% Jobs? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is it worth working two 90% Jobs?

11 pointstetris1139 comments

I already work 60hrs/week, but am paid only for the 39hrs.

Would it not make sense for me to work two 30hr jobs instead?

Other than opting out of the 48-hour work week limit, are there any legal or financial concerns to doing this?

I would pay tax twice I suppose, but the takehome would still be better than what I'm doing now, right?

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Other options:

• Start working max 40 hours per week at your current job.

• Find a new job with higher salary, where you only work 30-50 hours/week.

I'm an X year "forever" post-doc. I have a wide range of tech and analysis skills but employers look at my CV and see no industry experience and will immediately dismiss me as an entry-level tech worker. Also, no one seems to be hiring at the moment despite the deluge of linked-in postings (I no longer trust most of these as legitimate, and instead see it as companies signalling "growth").

I enjoy my work, it feels meaningful, and I get great feedback from it, so I'm happy to put the extra hours in.

I've built good networks in academia over the last few years and I am constantly being courted by separate labs to win me to their team, but the pay is flat and isn't great.

Hence my desire to continue what I am doing, but officially for two teams and officially as two jobs.

You asked HN if it’s worth it. My personal take: To me, no, it wouldn’t be worth it. I have a hard time seeing myself trying such an arrangement. I would rather try consulting instead. But your mileage may vary. If you feel that you have good reasons to try it, just do it. Then evaluate after 6-12 months.

That's fair, and much appreciated on the honest feedback

Are the entry-level roles you're looking at paying less than what you make as a post-doc?

If you took one, would you be making more or less money in 2-5 years?

That's a really good question. Right now I'm making £55k, which is not terrible money, but it's way less than my industry peers are making whilst doing arguably less.

I actually don't know how quickly my pay will scale in 2-5 years in industry. My general feeling is that regardless of how good I might be (or think I might be…), I'd still be older than the other entry-level candidates, and when a promotion would come up, my age might become an issue (e.g. I would be more likely to start a family in the next few years and therefore my work would come second).

I want something that pays at least £65k, which I don't think is unreasonable for my skill set, but without industry experience, I can see why employers might cover their mouths and laugh a little.

Age definitely shouldn't come up during promotions. Once you have a role, people are invested in helping you grow so you can get more done.

You could probably reach out to some people in the areas you're looking to work and ask them out for a cup of coffee to find out what career progression can look like, or you could just check out public information like on levels.fyi: https://www.levels.fyi/

I'd also look into improving at the skill of salary negotiation: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/

Career transitions and non-traditional backgrounds are much more common in tech than in other fields so I'd worry less about that and just start interviewing and see what happens. Worst that can happen is you get no's or low offers, but you might be shocked at what you actually do get.

Those are great links -- thanks a lot for this

I think it depends. If it's difficult to move up the ladder AND move to a new company, and you want the $$$ for whatever reason, then getting two jobs makes perfect sense.

I'm actually considering the option because I don't have the confidence to move into a job I love, so getting better paid and retire earlier is the next best thing. Maybe one full-time job with one contractor job to minimize the risk. I could take home $250K+ pre-tax which is pretty lucrative for Canadians, plus I can expense my laptop and other minor stuffs.

But I have never done that so not sure if I could handle the pressure. It would be nice if both jobs require minimum guidance and meetings.

If you are young, single, and can do this in the moral and legal clear -- then yes, do it.

That being said, if you are young and single, you might want to look ahead 20 years and make sure that this would lead you to the end-state that you want most (think about it, money is just one of many factors).

You want to burn-out faster? If the jobs are not fully remote, you will have to allow for travel time and costs between the two jobs.

Why not get a job that pays better, especially if you are willing to work those sorts of hours. There's much to be said for having a life outside of work and not wrecking your health.

I'll just go to the job store and demand better pay, it's apparently very easy to do. I appreciate the warning about taking care of my health though.

Life is too short to do this unless you must to survive.

the latter. I don't own property and I'm seeing the writing on the wall.

What kind of writing are you seeing?

Tech careers are fairly lucrative so you should be able to save plenty for retirement.

on the contrary, this would allow you to retire in half the time ;)

If it takes you 60hrs/week to do 39hrs/week, you're not going to be able to fit 2*30hrs/week into 60hrs/week.

The extra hours I do are more for my sense of perfectionism than to do with keeping up.

I fill the extra time because I want to. I just now want to start getting laid for it.

Make the second job at the local gym, that should help.

That's very helpful, thank you...

Believe he was being cheeky about you now wanting to get /laid/ for it

Since already commenting, I’d look into getting some resume assistance. Know you mentioned the kinda work you do is linear pay but perhaps if you reword your skills/what you’ve done in a clearer/relevant light you’d be able to transition easier.

Good luck, thank you for posting

OH! Oh god, I did not see that.

I've been ricing my CV for a few months now. Highlighted STAR stories and projects to show my experience as a Software Dev / SysAdmin / Data Analyst / Matrix manager, made skill charts of all the languages and frameworks I've used complete with years of experience.

It looks fancy as hell from my perspective, but maybe it's time I got a second opinion on it from some professionals.

Cheers.

> The extra hours I do are more for my sense of perfectionism than to do with keeping up

Then why the heck do you do them?

Instead of thinking of yourself as a perfectionist, start thinking of yourself as an insecure person. You’re insecure about the quality of your work so you pretend that if you spend more time on them your insecurity will go away because then they’ll be done perfectly.

Make a list of 10 or 20 things you’ve done perfectly recently. It shouldn’t be hard since you’re a perfectionist, right?

(hostility aside...) I never said my work was perfect, but that I do take delight in polishing work that is more than passable. I can't be the only one here who likes to optimize their work in their free time.

But you did say you have a sense of perfectionism.

And of course your work isn’t perfect. There’s no such thing as perfect work.

So either you get comfortable being done with things when they are done or you get comfortable with doing extra unpaid work because you delight in spending your time making things more than passable.

Which one would you prefer? It’s 100% up to you.

Stop doing the extra, unnecessary work first then see how you fill your time. You might surprise yourself with what you find out you need/enjoy.

"If it takes you 60hrs/week to do 39hrs/week, you're not going to be able to fit 2*30hrs/week into 60hrs/week."

Oh please, there are tons of jobs that say you only need 40 hours a week, but then they basically force you to work more. This is a common scenario, especially for IT.

Oh please, what?

What exactly are you negating here?

The idea that it's taking 60 hours to do 39 hours worth of work.

I have done this for years. There is a whole community of us over at /r/overemployed.

Yeah, you would get fired it caught. But we live in an age of layoffs. You are doomed anyway.

Fired for what though? They are saying they’ll do the hours. They are just “working 2 jobs”. Just make sure the contracts allow it and don’t conflict e.g. both require you to turn up at 9am.

What usually happens is people take two L3 jobs instead of a single L5 job, with different benefits and expectations. One of those expectations is not being just a warm body in a seat for 8 hours.

But at lower levels, you could probably automate more stuff too, at the risk of being promoted to a level where you can't.

Both sides would need to sign-off, if they do then OP would be fine.

I suspect that a lot of over-employed people do not get explicit sign-off from both parties. That becomes a gray area.

I want to do this fully legally.

In Germany you just need to declare to your employer that you have a second job and that it won't interfere with their hours.

I just want to know if its worth it, money/time-wise

then become a contractor, simple.

I'm not sure one can contract one's services to academia like that

> I would pay tax twice I suppose

No?

If one job is in the UK and the other job is in the EU, and I'm living in the UK... surely there must separate tax situations there?

When in doubt, bet on the greedy tax man. How ever you structure it they will ensure you loss. But I would talk with a tax specialist, not a group of techies :-)

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