Engineer making $200k/yr. Looking to add side projects to that.
Hey all I currently make just over $200k per year as an engineer from 2 different roles.
Role #1: Takes me about 15 hours per week.
Role #2: Takes me about 12 hours per week.
I'm in the process of adding side projects to this to really try and scale up. Just wanted to share that if you work remotely you can be more efficient with your coding and pull in more money for much less time.
I'm currently building 2 side projects on top of this in spaces I'm fairly passionate about, no revenue yet. Will report back soon.
I'd love to help other people out in some way. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
As an aside: I've previously posted quite a bit in the IH community, but decided to start a new account to stay fairly anonymous. :)
It seems obvious that a lot of people would be interested in learning how to earn 200k/year for 27 hours a week of work.
Knowing nothing else about you or your skills, I'd say stop trying to stay fairly anonymous and start teaching what you know and helping others do the same! Even if you can only help people get to 140k/year in 27 hours of work/week, those people would love you and gladly drop 10k on your course/mentorship package/etc.
Especially if your path doesn't require living in SF or being a US citizen, there's a ton of value to be unlocked.
Anonymity for just Incase someone finds it. Right now I’m not in place to want to risk losing it. :)
Also, I don’t want to sell courses at all. I’d rather just try to help other indiehackers do something like it for free.
No strings attached. I’ll make money from the two roles + side projects
As for skills: Full stack web + React Native for dual mobile as well.
Meant for @alchemist
If you're interested in helping for free, then maybe the best "course" would be a Gitbook or even just a well-organized blog.
From the sibling thread:
Maybe you should be a bit more proactive instead of waiting for questions. Here are some to get you started, though:
Are either of your "roles" in person or are they remote?
Do you believe you're paid more, the same or less than most who have your technical skills?
How did you land the "roles" or how would you recommend others do the same (for whatever their specialization is)?
I'll bet a Rails dev or a Java specialist could follow a lot of the same steps you did. Could a designer? How about a marketer?
How much of your time do you spend on the sales / bizdev part of your consulting business?
What are your unfair advantages and how would you advise a new engineering grad go about replicating them?
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Hey Mick, not trolling or bragging. Honestly just trying to help. I think I can do that if the right questions are asked without speaking directly on where I work or showing my name/face.
Mainly to protect what I currently have.
Though I will say this, if I no longer NEEDED the positions because I have side projects making enough to not need them any longer. I’d drop some of the anonymity.
We’ll see what happens in the coming months :) I hope that makes sense
Wouldn't trust this at all tbh
I’m curious - does your W2 salaried role know that you’re only working a day or two a week, and is that okay for them?
In my opinion, hopefully companies are focusing on value-delivered over "butts in a chair". 37Signals talks about this a lot. With remote work, you really just see the value of the work and don't get deceived by seeing that someone was at the office.
Now, I can't speak to whether companies are willingly ok with limited hours worked even if the value is delivered. But if they aren't it's because they're stuck in assembly-line thinking, which just doesn't work for jobs like development or design.
Oh, I totally agree, and that’s how it works in our company - don’t really care or track hours. However, it’s the company’s prerogative, not the employee’s.
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That's fair. We're ok with our employees having side gigs, and don't really care if they work 30 hours a week or 50 hours a week. Although I'd have to say, if I learned they were also working "full time" at another company, that doesn't impress me or engender much trust in my employees.
I feel like since your new account is anonymous, you understand that your employer wouldn't be very happy with it either.
Of course - 100% agree with you. But I think that's an unfortunate flaw in how people view employees.
I like to think of myself as a business and the services I provide are the services that my business (me) are selling.
I don't like the word 'your employer' because it feels like a sense of ownership over an individual. They pay me to provide a service, which I provide well.
If this was the norm of how people worked - I'd be less anonymous about it.
I can see by some downvotes I'm getting that people don't like it, and that's fair. But at the end of the day we're on a forum called indiehackers for people who are striving to be building their own things and become self-sustaining.
Maybe I'm being faulted for being efficient and not lying to myself about where my time is really going each day.
I think you're obviously an efficient, driven, and productive person, so I don't think anyone is faulting you on that.
I certainly think the way we approach work is outdated, and we're striving to correct that in our own company.
It doesn't really matter if your employer is an outdated dinosaur - even if they do pay you a full-time wage to have your butt in a chair, that's their choice. Just because we don't like something doesn't mean we can just chose to ignore it.
The option every Indie Hacker will upvote? Quitting your job and starting your own thing, without misguiding the folks who write your paycheck.
and just to clarify - I know of plenty other engineers who work 8 hour shifts but actually finish their work in 2 or 3 hours.
Then browse the internet in between to stretch it out and give the impression of a hard days work.
I just don't follow that mentality.
When you say 'Role 1' and 'Role 2' - do you mean they are your indie projects or freelance/contract projects?
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What are these roles? Are they with companies full time? Or are they freelancing or consulting gigs? Currently I have a job but I'm quite productive and that leaves for free time. I can definitely add another role.
Just answered below but Incase you don’t see it.
First role is a 1099 contractor role. Second role is a w2 salaried job.
Honestly; if you know you have free time. Which is where I found myself. Don’t waste it on google and reddit and etc and “looking busy”
First, I found a way to take it remote. Happened over 6 months. 1 day, then 2, then full.
During that time I found a way to really get on top of my schedule and be real with myself about the time it actually takes to do something.
Used to get so annoyed thinking I put in a good work day 9-5 at the office only to be headed home thinking... wtf did I do all day?
Once that was in place i got 1099 contract work. After systematizing and time batching that into my calendar I realized I yet again had free time.
So I could technically find a 3rd role: but I’m at point of diminishing returns financially. So now I’m adding side projects to hopefully fully replace any need of having to rely on others for income
Hey, this is a good point, one I've been thinking myself recently.. engineering time can really be reduced by being more intentional. What kinds of tools do you use to automate? Presumably, unit tests / browser automation, or something else?
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I read through your document. I'm going to have to pass on it. Thanks though. I wish you luck with your product!
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Hey! As engineers I think we take for granted how much of our own work we can automate with code.
For me, I approached it like this:
What am I repeatedly doing that if I just spent the extra 2 hours to build an automation I would never have to do that thing again.
Turns out 60% of my work is automate-able.
I’d suggest trying to find a remote position and then really pairing down your calendar and actually plug in 2-3 hour blocks for certain work.
It’s amazes me how much time I used to waste not actually coding. Until I started to pay attention to the clock.
Now Mon-Fri I do like 1.5 - 2hr block and my work for day is done, allows me to do my own stuff and be free. Just required a little creativity.
Hope that helps.
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