I’ve just found out that one of my friends that I use to work with until recently made over $200,000 last year by working two jobs at once in the technology services area.

In 2010, since the economy appeared to be on the recovery path, he decided to quit working for the company that I currently work for and to start technology consulting as a contractor.  He’s contracting through a large company, but he also has his own business and does some technology work through his own initiatives.  Last year an interesting thing happened to him!  There was a six month stint where he was working two jobs at the same time, with nobody being the wiser and everybody coming away from the situation happy.  In fact, he’s still working at the primary company that hired him on as a contractor.

Opportunity To Work Two Jobs

Through the contracting firm, he was able to land a six figure job that was to last at least one full year.  He worked this job for a few months and understood it and performed it well.  Then a few months later, and much to his surprise, one of this former clients recommended him to another company than needed work done that he specialized in.  Normally, most employees would say, “Oh, thanks, but I already have a job“, and accept the linear pay provided by the company that they are currently work for.  Thus letting such great opportunities slip by (perhaps he read my article: Making More Money By Working Two Jobs At The Same Time).  But my buddy had different plans! 

He knew that the term of this new opportunity was only a six month-long project and although related to the area his expertise was in, was really more of a software engineering task.  As an engineer of a project, you know the design and functionality of the system you design better than anyone else.  So in the future, since he was the architect, there is a great chance that when the hiring company wants modifications or enhancements done, they will do so directly through him.

My buddy was able to get paid almost the same amount that he would receive working for the primary company that he was working for but in six months instead.  Not to mention additional work that the company might want done to the basic design next year, and so forth.

So how was he able to accomplish this feat?

How To Work Two Jobs at Once

• He worked the first job for a few months before the second contracting opportunity arose.  So he knew what was expected and had developed a routine and pace.  The first job required him to travel to the on-site company location initially to ramp up on the company, their expectations, and to develop face-to-face relationships.
• He worked both jobs remotely, in fact each job as in a different state vs the once he currently lived in.  The great distance made it easier to work both jobs.
• Since the six month gig was more of a design vs day-to-day operations kind of work, occasionally he would take a day off to travel for his primary contracting job.
• He added approximately one additional (non-billable) hour to his work day so he could give the second job the focus and time that he needed that might have been lost during his first contracting job.  Of course this varied, but it was pretty close to what he averaged.
• The second job started an hour later than the first job, so the work shifts were staggered, but only by one hour.  So his entire work day was 10 hours long (because he worked an hour earlier than his second job, and added an additional hour explicitly for the second job).
• He cut out social and other performance-robbing activities during his day.

So overall, his multitasking contracting jobs by doing two at once worked out well for him.

Doubling Your Income By Working 50 Percent Less At An Additional Job

So some of you might be wondering how my buddy is able to practically double the amount he would normally make for the year by only working at a six month job?  Basically since he’s not paying the contracting company a huge chunk of his hourly rate, he get’s to pocket all of that money.  And since the rate he charges is twice the amount he get’s paid from the contracting company, he makes out well.  Of course taxes will be more of a pain, but that’s a different story.

This was an excellent example of the article that I wrote about working two jobs at once in the past.  I wonder if my buddy read it, and later unconsciously was affected by the article?

Anyway, I thought it was an interesting example of my past article and I though I’d share.

Happy Presidents Day (those in the US),

MR