This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/bestofredditorupdates by /u/LucyAriaRose on 2024-09-27 04:05:10+00:00.
I am NOT the Original Poster. That is u/sweetmullet. He posted in r/overemployed.
There was a previous BORU with the first parts of the story here. **New Updates marked with *******
I also re-formatted the older parts due to how the sub has changed the last few years. I added a few of OOP’s comments (not included in the original BORU) but OOP has probably close to 1000 spanning several years, so this is a very small sampling.
Thanks to my friend u/powerkickass for the rec!
Do NOT comment on Original Posts. Latest updates have not been posted on this sub before. This is a VERY, VERY LONG and somewhat technical post.
Mood Spoiler: honestly idk but it’s definitely an interesting look into someone’s life
Original Post: January 10, 2022
I am in IT. I have a fairly niche title that everybody wants right now. I have 5 full time jobs, 4 of which are fortune 500 companies. If I manage all 5 for a year, I will make around 1.2 million in 2022. I made 16 dollars an hour in 2016. I’m still struggling grasping the sheer amount of money dumping into my bank account.
At the start of 2021 I got a new job. It paid around 70k (105k to ~170k) more than I was making at my previous job. I had the inside scoop from a previous coworker, so I was able to name drop and negotiate effectively. I was tempted to keep both jobs, since due to covid both were fully remote. My fiance is incredibly risk averse, so she talked me out of it. As I got situated in my new position, I became increasingly set on getting a second job. I played video games from 8-4, and sat in meetings barely paying attention. I’ve probably done around 15 hours of real work since I started in January of last year. In April I opened my resume to the world and by June I bagged job 2 (82 bucks an hour). Holy crap! Two jobs! I was giddy with the money, terrified of meetings overlapping, and horrified if they found out about each other. As I settled in to job 2, I found the meetings to be tedious. There were around 4 hours of meetings each day for job 2. I suffered through them, agreeing to job 3 (having never stopped interviewing. I just made my salary expectations higher and waited for something to fall in my lap). My thought process was that job 3 (90 an hour corp to corp) would likely replace job 2, as job 1 is a laughable cake walk. However, since I am now in the position of power, I decided to try to flex it a bit. I told my project manager that the meetings were a waste of my time. They got nothing done, and they didn’t contribute to my work at all. I now participate in an average of 45 minutes of meetings each week for job 2. Job 3 is also a cake walk - around 1.5 hours a week of meetings, probably 5 hours a week worth of work.
I continue to field any job that will hear my salary expectations. I am now saying 95 an hour is my salary expectation. Another corp to corp gig comes around, and the hiring manager loves me. Once again being in the position of power, I am able to simply set my expectations with ZERO fear of the results - “Given the scope of the work, my salary expectation is 105 an hour”. “The highest we can go is 100.” “Nope.” They gave me my request. They then tried to push back my start date a week. I told them “I had already gave my two weeks at my previous job, so they will need to pay me for the absent week”. They hemmed and hawed, they tried to say no. I simply told them that I wouldn’t work there then. They paid me 4200 dollars for a week that I didn’t even sign in. I expected this job to fold quickly, as it’s with a VERY prestigious company and there is quite a bit of spotlight on my role. It turns out that I haven’t done fuck all since I started mid October. At 4200 dollars a week to go to a standup each morning to say I have nothing to do since *October*, job 4 is somehow an even bigger cake walk than job 1.
On Monday I start job 5. Initially having agreed to 115, I tried to press them for 127 an hour, but ended up at 120. This appears to be another job that I will just sort of expect to get fired from, but hopefully it turns into another easy 5k a week for doing jack shit.
Let’s talk about things that I think are working for me:
1: Be fearless. After all, once you get job 2 your risk absolutely plummets. It is ingrained in you to be terrified of getting fired. That fear can fucking die when you move into your second role. The amount of relief of not having to worry about what your boss thinks of you, or how you accidentally overslept and that might piss off some clown in charge, it all fades. It’s beyond freeing.
2: Be willing to be fired. I have the luxury of having job 1 be a cake walk with incredible benefits. So, from there, who gives a fuck about getting fired from job x? I try to keep job 1 happy (in the future probably not saying things like “I am going to actively find a new job” lol) and don’t really give a shit about the others. I try to do the absolute bare minimum to keep all the jobs, since replacing one is a pain, but any fear of getting fired just isn’t there.
3: Flex. Your. Power. Be willing to say “I can’t make that meeting” or “This meeting is a waste of my time.” People don’t want to rock the boat. They don’t want to do something that might be stupid. Use the fact that most people also want to do the bare minimum to get by. I have had zero pushback when I’ve asked meetings to be moved, or “Hey, I can’t make the standup today”.
4: Fuck having to defend yourself. Just say “I can’t make it”. I have gotten zero pushback on this.
5: Use your power position in not needing to listen about the job that is offering that paltry 65 an hour. Recruiters have a range. Demand the range. If it doesn’t fit 10-15 bucks an hour more than your current job, tell them no. I EAGERLY accepted a role at 82 an hour 6 months ago. Christmas Eve I accepted a position for nearly 50% more than that. Flex. Your. Power. Job 2 takes the power out of your employers hands and plants it firmly in your own. Use it to climb, grow, and make your life what you want.
I have paid off all my debt already, bought a second house, will have enough money to completely revamp both houses by the end of February, and plan on snowbirding from Florida to WV for the foreseeable future at the ripe age of 35. Since this is all debt free, maybe I will cut down to 2 jobs? Maybe I will just dump money into retirement (starting your own S-Corp is fucking powerful guys. Talk to a CPA). Maybe I don’t really give a fuck? Because the world, for the first time in my life, is MY fucking oyster.
I’m more than willing to answer any questions. Even though I have 4 active jobs right now I still play video games 4-5 hours a day. I have plenty of time. Hopefully this empowers someone to take the leap into this fucking incredibly positive lifestyle.
Some of OOP’s Comments:
Commenter: I LOVE THIS! But I’m curious… do your jobs not ask for statuses on tasks? How do you get away without producing much?
OOP: I think most people think the bare minimum is much higher than it actually is. There’s a lot of sighing, a lot of “ahh this roadblock”, a lot of “I ran out of time this week”.
There’s been a ton of times that even I have been like “There is no way they actually take this excuse” and they always do.
Commenter: What tech stack you using?
OOP: I’m hesitant to give any real details in this vein, but fuck it. I’m a site reliability engineer. I advocate for automating system tasks, along with working towards identifying issues that cause outages or issues that will eventually cause an outage. I mostly work within the Azure cloud, as it’s easiest to hide behind the cloud when I’m ignorant on a topic. I’m honestly an absolutely trash engineer, and I fail any interview that really digs into technical knowledge.
Commenter: are you salary or contract?
OOP: 1 Fulltime, 1 w-2 contract, 3 corp to corp contracts.
(to another): None of them have non-compete. I don’t think it applies, given the scope of work? I was sort of surprised that none of them had one.
Commenter: Corp to Corp is new to me, where can I find jobs like this? Also, what do you put on LinkedIn or job history in your resume while working for multiple companies?
OOP: Most tech roles that are contracts will offer both W-2 or corp to corp. You just need to have your own corporation, insurance, etc. Costs about 1.5k to set up all in all.
I keep job 1 as my job history. I don’t mention any of the other jobs.
Commenter: Congrats on the money OP but there is a thin line we might not want to cross. You may think this is coming out of jealousy (sure, it is) but idk man, this sounds like “stealing”.
OOP: I apologize if I get animated here, but it’s something I am very passionate about.
Every single corporation you have ever worked at doesn’t care about you. They will "…
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