I love programming and I look forward to going to work everyday, but there are other (non-paying) activities which I would describe as my passion. I dream sometimes of having half my day devoted to this passion of mine, but I've never heard of any employer agreeing to half pay for half a day's work.
Has anybody arranged such a thing or heard of such an arrangement, or is the only alternative self-employment where I can set my own hours? (I live in South Africa...)
You can always ask.
I think it's more common to have a 3-4 day week than to work 5 half-days, though.
I'm currently working at a job where I only have to be on-site one day a week, and the rest of the time I work from home. This allows me to go off and do my training for kayak racing in the middle of the day, and finish up my work in the evening.
It really depends. At my current employer, some people can work 5 half-days and they spend other time to learn/do whatever they like. You may need to go and ask employers for that. They will not bother much to answer you
:) i am looking for the same. i am an artist aspiring to become a full time professional, but for now i have to use my software engineering skills to make a living. i have heard that people work part time and even i worked part time at some point but then the company stopped the project so i had to find a full time job. it depends on what your "passion" is. you can work remotely, or you can have contracts for a part of the year and do whatever you want for the rest of the year.
but please do not tell anyone at work about your extra-curricular activities that you want to dedicate your time to. tell them that you are excited about the new product and your work and that you want to spent all your time working on the product. :)
You can also do contract work where you'll be on a project for 3 to 4 months and the you decide when to take your next contract.
I can often start at 6am so I finish at 2pm giving me time to do other things but retaining 37.5 hrs per week.
There are tons of businesses that need part-time programmers. That usually means that it's not the most exciting development work though. But doctors, law offices and smaller PR firms are always in need of part-time development for internal tools, automation and for addressing some of their custom software. Unfortunately, a lot of them will also consider the programmer their IT guy as well. The easiest way around that is to clarify what you are expected to do, charge more than a desktop support person would charge, and learn to say No.
Employment can take any form the employer and employee want it to take. So, yes... You just need to find someone who will go along with that idea.
It's easier to accomplish this doing contract work, I think. I currently work on projects for three active clients simultaneously.
That number tends to fluctuate between 2 and 5. 4-5 is a short term condition, usually just occurring when inactive clients suddenly become active again. I usually work specific days of the week for two or three 'major' clients, and then I work (some) nights and weekends on smaller, shorter projects for others (or myself).
There's no reason I couldn't just work part time for a single client, which would be approximately what you're talking about.