Not YouTube
not social media
no drop shipping
no day trading
no stocks no cryptocurrency
Welcome to Pirate King My name's Daniel a Software Engineer at Microsoft
Ex-Software Engineer at Amazon and ebay
and also a Software Engineering Mentor at two educational startups
Today I'm going to share how I made more than
from my online side hustles alone
It's $5000 purely from my online side hustles and not my full-time job meaning
it's an extra income generated after work, part-time, and fully remote from home
All I need?
Let me also emphasize that these side hustles are very easy to do with
And no, it's not YouTube,
not social media
no drop shipping
no day trading
no stocks no cryptocurrency whatsoever
It is an actual job as a 1099 contractor
So how am I generating this extra income?
Well, apart from my full-time job as a Software Engineer at Microsoft
I'm actively working as a Software Engineering Mentor at two educational startups
Although there are several duties I need to perform as a mentor
they can generally be broken down into two categories:
I also do
on computer science which fully transitioned online after the pandemic
It's these three income sources
mentoring at two startups + online tutoring that generate the additional income
After going over those one by one
I'll reveal exactly how much I earned from each job and my hourly rate
In fact I'll just show you my payroll history
I'll briefly talk about the pros and cons of these side hustles
And close off by sharing how I found these generous online part-time jobs
So enough talking let's dive into 'em
The first type of online side hustle is
So I serve as a career mentor mostly to prospective Software Engineers and sometimes to professionals
The mentorship duties include but are not limited to
giving career advices
editing resumes
reviewing assignment submissions
and providing general industry consultations
You know, acting as their north star
by setting the compass in the right direction in their career journey
This is how it works, for example
I set up some availabilities on my calendar every Wednesday and Thursday from 7 to 10 pm
Mentees book a call session on those availabilities for whatever software engineering related questions they have
Whether they be career advices, resume reviews, or even answering questions on things such as
what is it like to work at Microsoft?
All I have to do is check my calendar daily, join the online call session on time,
and give them the right professional advice or answer any questions they have
Quite easy right?
The calls are either 30 to 45 minutes long
And I get paid the full length of the sessions even if the mentees end the calls early
The second type of online side hustle is conducting
Now, you might be wondering what this mock interview is really about
and why there's even a need for a paid mock or a "practice" interview in the job market
So software engineers are typically assessed in their problem solving skills
by the procedure called technical coding interview
It's the most common pattern of an interview given to a software engineer candidate in any company
and is critical in getting a position at the tech giants like
You know the FAANG (+ M)
In short, to be honest, it's pretty much everything and possibly the only thing a candidate needs to do well in order to walk out with an offer
And because software engineers are paid so well with numerous companies offering six-figure salaries even to entry level engineers
And because that demand for skilled engineers were only accelerated by the online boom due to the pandemic
More and more job seekers started pouring in searching for ways to increase their chance of landing the jobs in one of the prestigious high-paying companies
As we all know, where there is demand, there is supply
And one of the resulting fruits of that niche market happens to be
a ✌️mock✌️ interview
This is where mock interview packages come into play
meeting the demand by offering services that not only are designed to closely mimic the real interviews
But also provide training, practical advices, and constructive feedback
One of the startups that I work at as a mentor provides this service as part of their programs to help people land their dream jobs
The company finds consumers, the job seekers
The job seekers request a mock or a practice technical interview
Mentors supply along with effective strategies and useful feedback of course
Now my third and last online side hustle is
Tutoring is something that I've actually done from time to time even going back several years past
I currently do one on computer science for a group of minimum three people
But I have to admit that I've never done an online one before
Nor have I ever thought of doing such a thing in the future
Due to the pandemic, what was originally an offline class at my home has now turned into an online live video session that my students can simply remote into
I'll be honest my students and I were all initially very skeptical about the effectiveness of learning over a laptop screen
But as we all have adapted and realized, not only is it very convenient but also pretty doable while maintaining the quality
My students now actually prefer to do it remotely and learn from the comfy of their couch
In fact, I would also argue that their learning experience has actually improved by going online
since one they can save time driving back and forth
Two I can now provide video recordings of my lessons using Teams allowing them to replay any previously taught materials
So these are the three types of online side hustles I've been doing to generate extra income
So I get paid around
depending on the call session type
For private lessons I charge $50 per person per 90-minute class for a group of at least 3
I do my bookkeeping on Notion and here's my pay breakdown for July
$3,972.80 from one company that's nearly 4 grand
$840 from the other company
$550 from private lessons one person simply paid a little late in August 1st
The total comes down to
$5,362.80 from online side hustles in the month of July alone
How did I do in other months?
I made $2,474.70 in April
$2,950.25 in May that's almost 3k
$4,104.70 in June
and finally over $5,000 in July
As you can see, the number keeps going up☝️
because the more I do the better I get
Doing well leads to good reviews and good reviews ultimately lead to more people wanting to book sessions with me
In fact, this is what my calendar looked like in July!
Crazy huh?
😮‍💨
So on my busiest day, I would be working
That's 15 hours straight
😵
To be honest though I probably won't be able to repeat that $5,000 per month streak in the coming months
Because I do kinda feel burned out now 🤮
But I have to admit it's rewarding!
Let me quickly and briefly talk about the 8 pros and 2 cons of doing these online mentorship side hustles
I could think of eight pros and they are
One there's literally
Like I mentioned earlier all you need are a laptop and good reliable internet
which most of you probably have already
Two
They require very little preparation if not none You just need to be there and simply answer questions
Three
100% online
you can do these with your pajamas on
Or...
with NO PANTS ON
Thus four
Zero exposure to pandemic
Five
I can set my own schedule
Six
After all it's a new kind of job you'll learn new things by doing so
Seven
or at least I think it's decent
Eight
because they all relate to helping others
So these are the eight pros what about the cons?
Here are the two cons that I could think of
One you have to
I have to be present in the calls and drive the sessions live
Two it drains up a lot of energy
Giving advices and suggestions helping others set the right directions are all rewarding and great
but at the expense of my energy
I'll be quite exhausted at the end of five-hour-straight call sessions
Lastly
Well, let me first explain the motivation behind them
I looked for part-time opportunities simply because I was bored
The economy was shut down due to pandemic
It's no longer safe to go outside
Even if you do there's nothing much to do anyways
So I was thinking to myself hey why not do something constructive and meaningful in your spare time and as well make some money if I can?
I began looking for part-time jobs a Software Engineer can contribute to and found these mentorship opportunities from the two startups I mentioned earlier
I submitted my resume had my interviews
and boom
within a few weeks I became a career, industry mentor
Alright so we've explored the side hustles that brought me more than $5,000 in the month of July
What do you guys think? Do they interest you?
Were you guys even aware that such roles even exist?
Let me know what you think in the comments below
And hey before you go if these do interest you
Try searching for part-time mentorship opportunities for your job role too
because there are numerous mentorship opportunities for other job functions
There's design, data scientist, cyber security, product design, product strategy, marketing, sales
and a bunch of others
I know the list I'm showing you is heavily tech focused
But who knows?
There might be other opportunities lurking around somewhere that I'm not simply aware of
Give it a shot and don't forget to subscribe
Thanks for watching I'll see you on the next one
Bye