Balance work and fun

Question

It is very hard to find a good development job where you can concentrate only on doing a job to your satisfaction, ignoring all the other factors. There is always a compromise required if you are working for money. Thus, I would like to work on my own projects which will be based on pure interest rather than anything else (like business feasibility, ROI, blah blah blah).

Since I am looking at doing this for a long term, I would need a means of sustenance without depending on my own projects for the money. Are there any opportunities out there where I can work part time (say 20hrs a week) and get some money to sustain me in my endeavor?

I am a developer (Level 5 - Working Programmer) with good programming skills (in Java, PHP, Perl, C). I have 5-6 years of development experience and have worked on all aspects of product development (requirements, design, development, testing, maintenance).

Answer 1

Slowly build up a client base, and start working for yourself? Whatever you do, make sure you make your move before you buy a house/get married/have kids and become a wage slave... ;)

Answer 2

Working part time for a long term is going to be hazardous to your health (at least in the United States) unless you have a significant other earning benefits to continue health insurance. Other than that, it depends on your expenditures, and how many frivolous pleasures you will allow to become casualties to your new lifestyle and income.

The only way to make decent money programming on a light, self managed schedule (working for someone else, at least) is freelancing or consulting, and those markets are increasingly feeling the burden of worldwide unemployment rates rising. In addition to that, you'll have to manage yourself and pick jobs carefully, or you might find yourself dedicating more time than you intended to a job, or end up without income for months.

I'm not trying to be a dream crusher or anything, but maybe you should consider picking personal projects that have some chance of earning you income one day? If you keep a part time earning schedule going for the true long term, you're going to be boned when you want to retire.

• About.com Guide to Beginning Freelancing
• Stack Overflow: How do you become a freelance developer?

Answer 3

I've all but given up on the idea of working part time in IT. This was a last ditch attempt at ideas: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2055669/how-to-find-part-time-development-it-work But seriously, if i have to find my own clients for part time IT work, I'd rather work full time in my own business in another profession i feel passionate about. It's a shame the IT world is so narrow minded about flexible working conditions...