3 ms·

Assuming it's because you have a full-time job that takes the majority of your time: 1. Cut your expenses 2. Go to your boss, negotiate working part time 3.

Assuming it's because you have a full-time job that takes the majority of your time: 1. Cut your expenses 2. Go to your boss, negotiate working part time 3. Use this time to start your side project 4. Make sure you don't use you company's equipment, make sure you don't work on your project during the time you're supposed to do your regular work.

rabidrat 9y ago
Have you successfully followed this plan? It seems to have a couple of holes in it. I tried #2 at 3 separate jobs over 10 years, to no avail. Best I got was "does it have to be on the books?" i.e. I could call in sick or take random afternoons off and my manager would look the other way. If you are in demand, companies want you to work more, not less. I was, however, able to negotiate 80% time at my last job, because I made it a condition of my employment before I started working. But that was a hard sell too. In particular they wanted to make sure I was not going to be moonlighting with my extra time. I don't agree with that attitude (my personal projects certainly take a lot of time and energy, even though I'm not making any money with them), but that's how the market works, even for a software engineer.
- isalmon 9y ago
  I have. Built a multi-million dollar company this way.
  - bostonvaulter2 9y ago
    Can you explain more? I'm interested in the full story.
    - isalmon 9y ago
      I will definitely write something about it one day, I just think it's a little bit prematurely.
- crgt 9y ago
  I also have done this. When companies reach out via recruiters, it never hurts to ask for what you want. Worst case, it's an easy screen; best case, you get what you want..
  - 0xbear 9y ago
    As a rule recruiters won't have answers for you, and they can't negotiate either.
- a-saleh 9y ago
  I have done this as a junior dev to finish my school. I negotiated 6hr days, and I know few people that did something similar to i.e finish theses, e.t.c. People that go i.e. from intern to full-time often stay at 4h a day, untill they finish school. On the other hand, I am not sure how well this kind of negotiation will go once I will want to go back to 6 from. 8 h days. We will see, I definitely plan to do this if we'd have another kid in my family.
- a-saleh 9y ago
  Thinking about this more, certain internal HR hiring-budget structure might be what is putting dent in this plan. In my company, if there is open position, afaik there seem to be two things associated with it, a rack and some budget. Before I learned this I would often suggest things like "why don't we hire these two students on part time, instead of just one of them full-time", but sometimes it turned out we only have one rack, even if we have enough budget for both of them. So, that might be why you have to fight so hard for part-time, because the guys hiring you want as much worked-hours as possible for their limited amount of racks? Still, junior/intern racks seem to be easier to get, so that might be why my company does offer part-times for students. And we have several cs/se university faculties the city, so we would be missing out on really skilled people if we didnt.

rabidrat 9y ago

Have you successfully followed this plan? It seems to have a couple of holes in it. I tried #2 at 3 separate jobs over 10 years, to no avail. Best I got was "does it have to be on the books?" i.e. I could call in sick or take random afternoons off and my manager would look the other way. If you are in demand, companies want you to work more, not less. I was, however, able to negotiate 80% time at my last job, because I made it a condition of my employment before I started working. But that was a hard sell too. In particular they wanted to make sure I was not going to be moonlighting with my extra time. I don't agree with that attitude (my personal projects certainly take a lot of time and energy, even though I'm not making any money with them), but that's how the market works, even for a software engineer.

isalmon 9y ago
I have. Built a multi-million dollar company this way.
- bostonvaulter2 9y ago
  Can you explain more? I'm interested in the full story.
  - isalmon 9y ago
    I will definitely write something about it one day, I just think it's a little bit prematurely.
crgt 9y ago
I also have done this. When companies reach out via recruiters, it never hurts to ask for what you want. Worst case, it's an easy screen; best case, you get what you want..
- 0xbear 9y ago
  As a rule recruiters won't have answers for you, and they can't negotiate either.
a-saleh 9y ago
I have done this as a junior dev to finish my school. I negotiated 6hr days, and I know few people that did something similar to i.e finish theses, e.t.c. People that go i.e. from intern to full-time often stay at 4h a day, untill they finish school. On the other hand, I am not sure how well this kind of negotiation will go once I will want to go back to 6 from. 8 h days. We will see, I definitely plan to do this if we'd have another kid in my family.
a-saleh 9y ago
Thinking about this more, certain internal HR hiring-budget structure might be what is putting dent in this plan. In my company, if there is open position, afaik there seem to be two things associated with it, a rack and some budget. Before I learned this I would often suggest things like "why don't we hire these two students on part time, instead of just one of them full-time", but sometimes it turned out we only have one rack, even if we have enough budget for both of them. So, that might be why you have to fight so hard for part-time, because the guys hiring you want as much worked-hours as possible for their limited amount of racks? Still, junior/intern racks seem to be easier to get, so that might be why my company does offer part-times for students. And we have several cs/se university faculties the city, so we would be missing out on really skilled people if we didnt.