What kind of intellectually stimulating work can I find on weekend nights?

June 27, 2010 10:16 PM

What kind of intellectually stimulating work can I find on weekend nights?

I'm going to be free on Friday and Saturday nights for a while, so I'm considering finding a part-time job during those hours to make money and do something interesting.

I'm a software engineer in my mid-20s with good people skills. I have excellent academic credentials.

I prefer work that is intellectual or technical. I dislike work that involves:

- High stress situations
- Heavy multitasking (for me this rules out bartending or serving food)
- Lots of repetition
- Lots of physical labor

Any recommendations?

posted by lunchbox to Work & Money (8 answers total)

Do you have any hobbies that could be - forgive the use of the word - monetized? If you do something like chess or fencing, you can tutor people. If you make things, you can sell them on Etsy. If you're involved in a hobby that has specialized gear, you could set up a site to sell the parts online.

(The obvious answer is to suggest you start using a freelancing site like Elance to pick up some coding jobs.)
posted by ErikaB at 11:02 PM on June 27, 2010

Night desk at a hotel? (None of the things you hate, but such a position generally pays about minimum wage.)
posted by goblinbox at 11:18 PM on June 27, 2010

Just a side note as you are presumably employed already, check your employer's moonlighting clause before getting paid for any other work. You may be under some restrictions.
posted by girlhacker at 11:19 PM on June 27, 2010

Freelance doing whatever it is you do already - or something similar that you'd enjoy more than that.
posted by emilyw at 2:26 AM on June 28, 2010

I can't think of any work that's intellectually stimulating, and <10 hrs per week, at nights, but you could probably find some "null" work, like front desk guard/clerk/receptionist for a hotel/business/condo/parking lot and fit in some intellectually stimulating reading on the side.
posted by aimedwander at 6:16 AM on June 28, 2010

I'm a software engineer in my mid-20s with good people skills. I have excellent academic credentials. I prefer work that is intellectual or technical.

nothing anyone's suggested so far will pay anything that's worth anything other than tutoring or freelancing. if you live near affluent neighborhoods, tutoring high school students trying to get into good schools can pay more per hour and be less stressful than freelancing.
posted by lia at 7:03 AM on June 28, 2010

Clerk at a bookstore?
posted by kjs3 at 3:20 PM on June 28, 2010

Invest the time into your own project - something that stimulates you, with the idea that it will pay (handsomely) someday, but is essentially high-risk - you may or may not make it viable, but you follow your heart and mind, learn and gain a lot on the way, and take a gamble with your time now while you're young and without a family, and able to take such risks.

Make your own business doing something you do well.
posted by -harlequin- at 9:18 PM on June 28, 2010