Second jobs?

First, please, no disrespect intended to people on this board who are looking for first jobs.

Those of us still working in newspapers, but thanks to pay freezes/cuts, can't pay the bills anymore: Anybody having luck finding a second job that has steady hours but doesn't interfere with a 40-hour full-time job?

I've stopped being picky. I've looked at overnight night-audit shifts at hotels, stocking shifts at grocery stores/Wal-Mart/Target, etc. Just not many suitable jobs to be found. So if anyone's had luck finding something that's worked as supplemental income, please share. Best of luck to anyone in the same boat I'm in.

 

I think you're going to find more people in the "freelance/stringer" boat. Papers will pay more to familiar stringers, folks that would likely be on the staff if not for the economic situation and likely would have a specific beat.

That's my situation right now. The newspaper work is steady, but the game/feature/news coverage for the beat isn't consistent enough to live on. So I've picked up two other part-time jobs to fill in the holes. It's a nightmare for scheduling, especially when major events like the NCAA Tournament pop up and your beat is suddenly thrust out to Boise or Minneapolis or Greensboro, but you do what you can to make it work.

It helps to have understanding bosses at your other jobs, too. But that's a rarity.

 

In my experience, first- and second-shift jobs are, personally, easier to work together. So long as you get off work at 3 p.m., in order to make it to the field by 4, all you're doing is wearing yourself out and eliminating any free time. But you'll get a decent chunk of change at the end of the week(s).

I need to do that again.

 

I've said it here a couple times, but I caddy during the golf season because it is some good, untaxed money.
My schedule is easy to work around because I work for a weekly paper, but I caddy three times a week during the season (April-Nov) and make 100 bucks each time. Even if I go twice, it's still nice side work.
Plus I have a good relationship with the head pro and he lets me play on their slow days during slow hours and nothing beats tooling around a golf course at 7 p.m. on a Thursday evening.

 

I delivered pizzas on my off-days for a year. Paid off my wedding debt and the down payment on a car.

 

Starbucks.

Start-off pay is good, flexible hours and there's a good chance their insurance is better and cheaper than yours.

 

At my previous paper, I worked part-time for a large retailer. They were good enough to allow me to just work mornings, so I could work my night shifts at the paper. But I also started there full-time during a period of newspaper unemployment, then worked more hours when I started part-time at a new paper. I doubt they'd have done that if I was a new hire.

The extra money was definitely nice -- I generally made 75 to 100 bucks a week, and got paid every week -- but it was draining, to say the least. Nothing like getting off work at midnight and having to go work at the mall at 9:30 the next day. And by the time I quit, my customer service and general level of give-a-shit had declined to the point that I was probably about to get fired.

So long story short, I wouldn't do it just for extra cash. If you need it to actually get by, it can certainly be done, even if it's not much fun.

 

My husband works for a commercial custom millwork company during the day and delivers papers at night for an extra $300 a week.

 

am looking into it now ... have a chance to possibly latch on at a video store, which I wouldn't mind too much, I don't expect.

 

I was pretty fortunate to land a major freelance design job for a quarterly magazine, but I realize that it's a 40/hr a week job that I am only getting part time money for. It is what it is, I need the money and am happy to get it.

 

I know it conflicts with a writer's schedule, but I was a certified soccer ref at one time pulling an average of $25 an hour. This was mostly parks and rec stuff with the side scholastic event mixed into the schedule.

If I wanted, I could work between 10-20 hours a week, but this is seasonal work. I think basketball refs make the same and can work about the same hours.

 

I've found it difficult over the years to do an extra job primarily because the hours on journalism gig seemingly always carried over into a shift I would take on a part time job.