You are not happy with your take-home at the end of the month. You have racked up your finances with a seemingly never-ending home loan. Or you want to stack up your wallet with a few more bucks. What would you do then? Job-hopping, perhaps.

What if the time is not right to jump the job and there is no scope of hike in your full-time salary? Then you should augment your salary with a supplemental income.

You can get a second job—part-time or a temporary weekend job—which will not only get you more cash but will have plenty of other benefits.

When should you look for Second Job

There can be many reasons other than heightened cash flow for a second job.

• You have lots of extra time after work hours or on weekends and you are tired of killing the valuable time watching a Netflix series or a boring daily-soap. You don’t want to kill your time browsing social media that drives your esteem low for so many reasons. You can then get yourself a second job, a small engagement that will get you some money and you can use your time effectively.
• You have seen some of your friends or coworkers who have a second job and they enjoy doing it. You also want to give it a shot. No, we are not asking you to follow the herd but unless you start, how would you know?
• You want to learn some negotiation or sales skills, a style of communication which could help you in future for securing a perspective role or start a venture of your own.
• You want to try out options for a new career as your current area of work is not satisfactory or interesting. Starting slow and small would help here.
• You have a hobby, which you want to monetize now. After all, why not earn some extra moolah out of your leisure and passion.
• And of course, you are not able to save a good sum for a car or a house that you wanted to buy for some time. Simply saying, you want some extra cash as your full-time job is unable to provide you the sufficient sum to save for future, pay off the on-going loan or worse meet your expenses.

What are the possible choices?

If you look for possible options, you might find too many ways to get yourself a second job.

Part-time

Working in the late evening for 2-3 hours in weekdays—maybe 3 days a week—or on weekends would help you to get that extra needed cash. You can take up a role according to your qualification or area of interest. Such jobs do not have an obligation of a two months notice period like the corporate houses, so you can quit with a week’s advance notice if the second job does not suit you.

Self-Employment

The landscape of employment is changing with the booming technologies. You can run an online e-commerce site which does not need your presence full time, can take up web designing, graphics designing or writing gigs that pay decent and can lift your finances. You can also think of investment options online like share market which only needs a small amount of time but involves a great deal of knowledge and often risks too.

Consultancy

If you think you are a master in your skill at work, you can take up consultation service outside your work. Tie up with an agency and get some small clients looking for consultation in your niche.

Since you know your skill, be it a technical or a sales job, there would not be any additional effort to learn and deploy in your alternate job. If you are into sales in your company, you can pitch for part-time or short duration sales vacancy, which would be beneficial only and can encash the known skills. Thus, a secondary job would come as a perfect option if it complements your primary job.

Hobby Nurturing

The ‘work what you love’ fits here perfectly. If you have a knack for painting, why not showcase your art in exhibitions and sell them. You can also take painting classes for kids and adults too if you are proficient at it.

If you have a flair for cooking, you can start a side business of cookery classes. Cloud kitchens are in rage since some time with the mushrooming of food delivery apps and food-tech startups. You can join in with such ventures and start a kitchen of your own at a minimal cost.

If writing is your hobby, you can convert it by writing blogs and articles for the websites and companies. If you have flair for business level communication and corporate etiquettes, you can work with a side job in institutes that take up such professionals. This is in great demand these days.

Coaching and mentorship

If you carry a sharp knowledge on your graduation stream and subjects, you can tutor college students or higher secondary classes. There are many online training systems like CueMath where you can register and take math classes. Master of the regional language? Offer schooling the children or interested people.

Likewise, there are options to coach on the sport you play well or give music lessons to the children in your house premises. All such mentoring would easily bring in good cash if you take 3 classes per week.

How to find a second job

Newspapers

Skim through the newspaper pages of advertisements in your local area or neighborhood. There would be many postings based on what you can offer as a service. They are still good, if not competitive like online job portals.

Job Boards

The market has numerous job boards for freelancers who want to sell a service in writing, designing or work as virtual assistants. Join them and they can get you an easy gig through which your cash flow can be increased. There are ample opportunities posted daily on platforms like Naukri, Indeed and Monster which can help you find part-time or temporary employment.

For freelancers, many famous job boards such as Fiverr, TalksLegal, Freelancer, Upwork are available.

Networking

There is nothing beneficial than networking in this area. If you connect with the right people in places like Facebook and LinkedIn, you can easily find the right options for you. There are specifically designed groups on Facebook which can help you land a good gig.

To secure the role of a coach or mentor, you can contact local institutes based on your area of interest. For working as a tutor, you simply need to inquire in the neighborhood you stay at and share the details with the apartments so that needy people can contact you.

Implications of a second Job?

Benefits

Needless to say, the extra bucks generated through these secondary jobs are good. A very big benefit. Another advantage is the networking that grows with the second job. If you are working part-time in your own industry or skill, it will definitely aid your full-time job and will get you more tips and learnings. If your secondary job is not related to your primary job, you might create a new circle of friends around your second job.

If the second job is related to your hobby, you can nurture your passions and that will bring in satisfaction too. Earning out of the hobby is bliss in itself. Isn’t it? And you would not regret the time spent on the secondary work too. Perhaps, you might grow fondness to this parttime work so much that you might want to switch as a full time.

We are living in a time where our jobs are too tiring and get monotonous at times. So indulging into a hobby and extracting some finances out of it is really a success. Many have switched careers and have succeeded in setting up a good freelance business out of the hobby. If you are working as a freelancer in any area, you might not need to travel at all and that saves you a lot of time and energy. Working part-time in only weekends is also worth spending your time and sweat.

These secondary jobs might not bring you many laurels or promotions but they definitely would help in spinning extra funds which you can use in future. The icing would be if these jobs do not force you to travel and allow you to work from home.

Negative side

Think before you leap.

Every coin has another face. The flip side of the side job could be too weary on you and you might lose the spirit to carry your primary job. Sometimes, the energy your secondary job might call for would churn your body and you would not get a good night’s sleep. This might be tiring and emotionally draining. You might want to save the earnings in some other way rather than earning more.

If you focus on taking charge of the same field as your primary job, revisit the offer letter of your current organization for any conflict in the interests. Your employer might not like you offering consultancy outside the office premise to a competitor or other clients as an individual. So, it is always advisable to check the legal boundaries of your primary job.

If you have a family and kids, giving them quality time would become a distant dream for you if you take up a part-time job. So decide giving weight to this aspect before you work out an option for an additional job.

Some tips to handle the second job

• Many a time, you would be aware that you have taken a second job to pay your debts or to save for the future. But you are not bound by legal obligations or terms and conditions like your primary job, which may take away the seriousness, your second job needs. Pay attention that this does not happen else you will be more exhausted than you should.
• If the second job has created a positive stir in your life and you plan to make it full time, you should think seriously from economic and growth perspective.
• Don’t let your second job leave you with no learning or enthusiasm. Perhaps, selecting a job completely different from the primary job is a great idea as this will give you the much-needed change of work culture and industry quite often. Also, you will learn a new thing or two.
• The time that you devote to churn more money should be compensated with family in some way. Make sure, you are not ignoring them.
• Measure the time and effort you are spending on your secondary job versus the salary you are making out of it. It should not look like a worthless burnout. Otherwise, think of alternate options on working out your personal economy to make your current salary work for you.
• You should not be making up excuses for your absence from your primary job. Choose your working time slots for the second employment accordingly.

Taking a secondary job in India during weekdays where the working hours are already as high as 45-50 hours might not be wise and you might be completely devoid of personal time. So, a weekend job is a better idea to mull at.

But if you are still keen to earn some extra cash or nurture your hobby towards commercial benefits, you can use our tips. Do you have more to augment our article? Please drop a comment below.