Help me find a side hustle

April 19, 2023 2:07 PM

I’m looking to get into some sort of freelancing or side hustle to bring in a little more money. I’ve been a successful software developer for several years, but I don’t have any personal projects to advertise myself with. I’ve also done editing/proofreading in the past. I don’t really have any other marketable skills, and I don’t have a driver’s license. What should I look into?

Based on the recruitment emails I get, I could easily get paid more if I switched jobs, but my job is very safe and I don’t want to take risks in the current economy/tech downturn. My job is very nice and relatively low-stress as well so I’d rather take on something extra than leave it.

Freelance coding seems the obviously choice, but I don’t know where to get started and I have no personal projects or GitHub to advertise myself with.

I’m good at writing, editing, and proofreading but my professional experience with this is limited to a job I had several years ago. Otherwise, all my past job experience is either coding, admin assistant work, or retail.

I live in Canada.

Any ideas?

posted by vanitas to Work & Money (5 answers total)

I don’t know much about advertising in the development world, but it seems like you could create a portfolio that was at least somewhat generic as to what you e done in the software works, no?
posted by knownassociate at 9:46 PM on April 19, 2023

You might also look into tutoring or otherwise teaching coding skills.
posted by trig at 2:17 AM on April 20, 2023 [3 favorites]

I don't have experience with it but everyonce in a while I toy with signing up with Moonlight which seems to offer much better rates than upwork type sites.
posted by dis_integration at 7:39 AM on April 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

If your employment history is with relatively well known companies, you don’t really need open source work to get freelance gigs.
posted by redlines at 10:04 AM on April 20, 2023

There's lots of demand for freelance coders. Define your skillset and put yourself out there - someone will bite.
posted by spilon at 12:51 PM on April 20, 2023