Jobs aren't the only way to make money in IT by the way.
Most blog posts on how to make side income as an IT engineer feels like it was written by the same person or SEO bot: update your LinkedIn, create an Upwork or Fiverr account, charge small businesses 15$/hr for making a WordPress website. It is a method that works however what most of these posts forget is that it is a highly competitive market that is very hard to break into. Here are some lesser known side hustles:
1) Bug Bounties:
If you already have a knack for pressure testing systems, finding edge cases and cybersecurity you will be happy to learn that companies pay third-parties for finding issues in their systems. The rewards are based off of the severity of the issue which can range from 10,000$ to 100$ or more. Platforms such as HackerOne and Bugcrowd host programs from reputable companies such as OpenAI, Nintendo, and even Google. Here, the bounty hunters are tasked with breaking specific sections of the application (as dictated by company rules) and creating detailed bug reports on how to reproduce said issues.
2)TIaaS: Technical-Interviewing-as-a-Service
Many companies recruit the help of freelance technical interviewers in order to help evaluate candidates or even for recommendation for ideal candidates. Difference between a technical interviewer and recruiter is that recruiters mostly do not have the required knowledge to perfectly determine the strengths, abilities or the seniority of an applicant. Technical interviewers are typically active mid-to-senior engineers who understand the day-to-day realities of the job. Because they speak the language, they can easily evaluate candidates across all seniority levels, from junior to senior.
3)Micro-SaaS:
Most engineers, when asked about developing a software for themselves, think in terms of creating an MVP, raising venture capital and hiring a team. Although this is a valid strategy, it moves beyond the scope of being a simple side-hustle to being a full-time employment. What most engineers don’t see is how they can create small tools (extensions, CLI tools, APIs etc.) that solve a very specific but very real pain points. There is also a hidden market of commercial API endpoints listed in markets such as Rapid API, which allows developers to pick and choose which API they wish to use in their projects.
IT Market is an ever-evolving platform where many jobs are lost due to sudden changes but many many more are created as the technology and the people who consume the technology change, and now you have learned more ways to earn from different side-hustles. Which one would you choose?
— Elnur