
Ask HN: What job offers most free time? - mpetkevicius
I believe many of us don&#x27;t have enough time for personal projects&#x2F;startups because of the daytime jobs. Could we find us a job which would allow us to code during work hours? Some of the examples I was thinking of are a librarian, security guard or clerk at a shop that people rarely visit. Would you consider something like that yourself?
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csa
> Some of the examples I was thinking of are a librarian, security guard or
> clerk at a shop that people rarely visit.

If you're a halfway decent programmer, you can easily get consulting gigs that
will earn you multiples of what you will ever make at these jobs per unit of
time.

You could do something like consult for a week and take the next three weeks
to work on your project, or you could consult for a month and take the next
few months off to work on your project. Your financial situation will be
similar or better when compared to the low-paid jobs.

The low-paid grinder jobs you mention are definitely not worth doing in terms
of money or time.

~~~
gargarplex
Where do I go get a consulting gig like this? I am indeed a halfway decent
programmer, proficient in a variety of languages, frameworks & technologies.
Get me some work like this and I'll pay you commission.

~~~
eswat
If you’re in a decent tech hotbed, start by interacting with the local
community. Talk to other developers, agency owners, startup founders and see
if you can offer them help. It’s a different dynamic than trying to find a
consulting gig online and anecdotally I find it far easier to coney the value
I bring to people than through a Skype call, thus being able to increase my
rate.

~~~
gargarplex
Thanks for the nice reply. I will definitely check out some meetups.

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dyslexicmonkey
My wife is a school librarian, and she has less free time than I do. If you're
just a reference librarian, then possibly. But then you need to have your MLA
in order to be called a librarian.

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eswat
Sorry if I’m not quite answering the question. But you can also try
consulting, continue what you’re doing now, and rebalance the three things
that factor into this: time, income and expenses. So if you want to increase
your discretionary time, you’ll need to charge clients more and/or reduce your
expenses.

Unless you were seeking the novelty factor of trying out a new field, and
assuming you’re a hacker, it seems you’d hit the ground running faster if
you’d just switch how you earned your income or spend your money.

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percept
In my experience working for your average corporation or government entity
involves normal (and often flexible) hours, and can be as demanding or
undemanding as you like. Throw in benefits and it's not the worst way to go.

It does entail taxing the same muscles you'd like to use for your own
projects, but at a multiple of what you'd expect to be paid in the other
fields mentioned. (And as has been said before, you could always "pay yourself
first" by doing your own work before clocking in.)

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lscore720
To echo lots of comments here: it comes down to your value per unit of time,
which is largely dictated by a combination of your own talent or outside
market forces/good fortune.

I'm very fortunate to have reached a productivity/income level requiring me to
work only 4-6 hours/week. I enjoy working more, but also love the free time to
pursue outside hobbies, business ideas, pro-bono, etc. Once you reach a point
where you set the price/terms, the sky's the limit!

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platz
The higher status or more rich you are, the less utility your job must
provide, these low societal utility vocations afford more time precisely due
to this fact; this is why programming is a relatively low status field.

* also, the value generated by high status jobs only need to occur in short bursts, only the value-per-time-unit is much higher; the skill required here will also be much harder to acquire and scarcer to find... one needs time and experience to get to this level.

~~~
informatimago
and why so few women want to work in it.

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waterlesscloud
In college I worked as an overnight security guard. The only demand that job
made was that I was in a certain building for 8 hours and stayed awake.
Seriously, the turnover from guards fired for sleeping was a real issue, so
just being awake was a big plus. Beyond that, I could read, study, whatever.
Ideal for school. Coding during that time was possible, but you might not have
internet access.

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Syama
Hotel Night Auditor... gives about 5-6 hours free time per 8 hour shift... at
night when then internet is slow and many programmers like to work...

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hwstar
Looks like you want something for nothing. No job is going to _EVER_ give
enough free time for you to pursue your interests to the fullest. I'm afraid
you'll have to go about this in another way: Live below your means and work
towards financial independence. Only then can you really pick and choose what
you want to work on.

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cmwelsh
I'd absolutely love to work for a software development agency that only
expected 20-30 hours per week on average. It seems like there has to be jobs
like that as an alternative to security guard, hotel auditor, or food service.

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ctvo
Software developer for a US university or local government agency.

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osw
basement dweller

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codecamper
underwear model

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YuriNiyazov
nighttime security guard

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RankingMember
Leftorium Employeee

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fsk
Find a job that only has 8 hours a day work expectation. It is rare nowadays,
but possible.

