In what areas can you earn money without quitting your main job?
Almost a quarter of Russians (24%) did not rest during the May holidays, but took up part-time work. This is evidenced by data from a Zarplata.ru survey conducted at the end of April. Among the most common reasons for going to work on public holidays is the need to save money due to an insufficient salary at the main place of work (41%), the desire to quickly pay off a loan or pay off debts (24%), or financial safety net (21%). Do part-time jobs help you replenish your budget before going on vacation, and who is easiest to find “hack work” in Russia — in the material from MK.
Marina was born and lives in Kostroma, works as a simple accountant in one of the city schools. The woman is not married, has no children, and her parents have long since retired. And there is no one to help her. Our heroine says that she has been working unofficially for two years.
“An extra penny won’t hurt, especially for me, a resident of the province,” she says. — My salary is small — 40 thousand rubles, but I want to have a normal rest, for example, go to the sea. Part-time work is a necessary measure. I wouldn't say that I have any special talents. I don't know how to knit or sew. I sing a little and play the piano. Thanks to my mother for sending me to music school as a child, from which I graduated with honors. But, unfortunately, music was not useful to me in my life. But I'm a good cook. All thanks to my grandmother: I spent all my school and student holidays in her village. She taught me all the intricacies of cooking.”
Marina began her search for part-time work by flipping through newspaper advertisements. But in the end, nothing worthwhile was found, with the exception of working as a waitress, cleaner and courier.
“I respect all professions, but, fortunately, I am no longer at the age to respond to these positions,” she explained. “I decided to explore the Internet, but somehow it didn’t work out there either. Although I was looking for part-time work on an informal basis. So to speak, I was ready to work for a salary “in an envelope.” However, I almost didn’t respond to one ad. We were looking for an accountant who would work from home and come to the office for a full day once a month. Registration — a civil law agreement (GPC), salary on a bank card. But with my work schedule at school, I wouldn’t be able to afford such a part-time job.”
Our heroine’s mother, having learned about her problem, advised her to start giving music lessons at home. Marina liked the idea. There were many advertisements on the Internet looking for a music teacher for schoolchildren. And the woman almost posted her resume on one of the sites. But she came to her senses in time: “I don’t have a piano at home: after the end of the music class, we sold the instrument to a neighbor for pennies. So the idea of music classes at home had to be shelved.”
Marina was already ready to start working on weekends as a call center specialist for one of the online clothing stores. Her friend recommended this vacancy to our heroine. But the work schedule — from 10 am to 10 pm — did not suit her. And the salary of 20 thousand rubles didn’t suit me either. Marina's wealthy acquaintances offered her a job as a nanny on weekends. Her duties were to include transporting a ten-year-old child to various sections. For her services, she was promised 25 thousand “in an envelope” at the end of each month: “I wanted to agree, but, firstly, I don’t have a car. Second: the sections are located in different parts of the city.” And the Kostroma resident refused potential employers.
According to Marina, she had almost despaired of finding at least some part-time work, when she accidentally remembered that all her friends really liked her pickled cucumbers and tomatoes in jars. And she decided to “sell” this idea to the director of the store closest to home: “My parents have long lived outside the city in a country house and grow everything: tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, cabbage, herbs, berries in season. There are a lot of twists in the cellar of the house. We make them in four hands with mom. Surprisingly, the store responded to my proposal. We agreed that I would bring 10 500 ml cans per week. For each she set the price at 200 rubles. Payment for product sales is made at the end of each week.”
For the first order, our heroine earned 2 thousand rubles. The store sold all 10 cans. And he increased the batch to 20 cans. Marina liked it so much that she now wraps 2-3 jars of tomatoes and cucumbers every day after work. And she even started growing cucumbers on her balcony: “Seeds of self-pollinating cucumbers were bought in a store and planted in three glasses. And soon a garden bed appeared on the windowsill. And after a while the cucumbers themselves hatched. Now the pimply balcony ones are also being rolled up.”
Marina earns 16 thousand rubles a month in this simple way. And he doesn’t spend this money, but transfers it to a bank card. And he’s already thinking about making lecho salad in jars for sale. And in the summer he plans to finally fly to the sea and get to Crimea.
“I advise all those who want to try to start earning money, not to be afraid! If you know the basics of what you plan to do, if you love this business and want to benefit, you should definitely try it. Be prepared for the fact that you won’t be able to do without financial investments, but it’s worth it!” Marina shares her experience.
Additional income forced our other heroine from the capital of Tatarstan to take two unofficial jobs in addition to her main one. Daria from Kazan is 45 years old, divorced, has a child and a mortgage. A simple math teacher, in her own words, works hard to provide not only for herself and her schoolgirl daughter, but also for her retired mother: “My ex-husband and I have already taken out a mortgage for the apartment for 20 years,” the woman said. — We pay 20 thousand rubles a month. And I am sorely short of money. My salary at school, funny to say, is 45 thousand in hand. I have to pay ten of them for the mortgage. My husband doesn't help. All he has to do is pay child support and buy clothes for her. All other expenses are solely my responsibility.”
Daria managed to find her first part-time job in a short time. The brother of one of her students needed a math tutor to enroll in college. And our heroine agreed without hesitation. Now she studies mathematics five times a week. One of her lessons costs 400 rubles per hour. A month comes out to 6,200 rubles. Sometimes you can earn more. It all depends on the number of lessons.
But, according to a resident of Kazan, she looked for a second unofficial job for a long time: “In addition to higher education in mathematics, I have another one — translation, German. But after graduating from university, I somehow didn’t get along with the work of a translator. However, just in case, when I started looking for part-time work, I began to respond to vacancies that included knowledge of the German language. And in the end I found it.”
One of the companies engaged in literary translation from German into Russian became interested in Daria’s resume and offered cooperation under a GPC agreement. The salary for Kazan was offered decent — 40 thousand rubles for four working days a week remotely.
“Now my schedule is shifted: from Tuesday to Friday I work at my main job. I give extra math classes at school after school. And the second part-time job occurs on Monday, Tuesday evening, Saturday and Sunday. I keep a strict schedule: when, what and in what order I do it. I include everything, including personal time and sports, in my weekly tasks. I separately highlight work, personal, household and family responsibilities. If I work from home, I usually write myself a list of tasks for the day. I highlight the highest priorities that must be completed in time and cross them off as they are completed. In order not to work constantly, I also plan my rest — even exercises in the morning and a TV series on Saturday.”
As Daria notes, with such a work schedule, she also manages to devote time to her child. And the most important thing is to save for vacation. “Of course, I sacrifice sleep and health, but there is no other way,” the woman admitted. “One time I earned about 80 thousand rubles in a month, which I’m very proud of.” Of course, working for a long time in extreme mode can lead to burnout and loss of meaning in life. To a state where you work by inertia and no longer understand why you need to earn money in principle if you have no time and no desire to spend it, but just want to sleep for several weeks in a row with breaks for food. But I hope I won’t bring myself to this point. I have a goal, and I know why I’m doing all this.”
“There are now a lot of teaching programs for IT specialists.”
A resident of Nizhny Novgorod, 29-year-old Nikolay has been working as a front-end programmer (specialist in creating user interfaces) for more than three years. He receives a decent salary for the region: more than 100 thousand rubles, although he does not have a leadership position. “I have a very firm position regarding health: it is imperative to rest well and well. Moreover, with a job like mine, when you have to sit at the table in the same position all day and sometimes all night. My head is working all the time, and even my switches to sports have little effect,” he says.
The best vacation for Nikolai is traveling to unfamiliar places, as exotic as possible, so that he will have enough impressions for a long time. Having decided to go to South Korea, where the man dreamed of getting to know the IT industry there, he decided to find a part-time job to save up more money for such a vacation. It was possible to take a hack and find a project where he would also have to program, but the Nizhny Novgorod resident did not want to spend all his time at his desk, so he called out friends and colleagues, and also began studying posts on social networks and the corresponding groups in Telegram, about who and where is required.
“I always liked communicating with people and sharing knowledge,” says Nikolai. “Therefore, the offer to work as a programming teacher for high school and college students under the state personnel training program seemed interesting to me.”
He submitted an application, passed an interview and was invited to the project, where he suddenly discovered his fear of public speaking. The phobia had to be worked through with the help of special exercises and practices that Nikolai found on YouTube. At the same time, he achieved personal growth, gained experience working with government agencies and made good money: in four months he managed to save 120 thousand rubles while working three hours in the evenings, three times a week. The entire amount was then spent on a trip to South Korea later, but we managed to spend more time in this country and see several cities, not just Seoul. The experience inspired the Nizhny Novgorod resident so much that he now recommends this option to his friends if they need money.
“There are now many teaching programs for IT specialists, and not only in the public sector,” says Nikolai. “The earnings there are also normal, and you can get additional skills in public speaking or in algorithms for creating manuals, which is also useful.”
< p>According to a study by the financial marketplace Compare, the majority of Russians (70%) intend to spend no more than 50 thousand rubles on their vacation in 2024. A fifth of respondents will allocate a budget of up to 100 thousand rubles per person for vacation, another 8% are ready to part with an amount of up to 200 thousand, and only 2% are not averse to spending more. It is curious that the majority of respondents believe that you need to take a vacation with the money you earn: 84% of citizens do not plan to resort to loans or take on debt for the sake of a vacation. At the same time, every tenth person allows the use of a credit card and only 3% of respondents said that they would pay for the trip entirely with credit money.
Some Russians already have a second job. Thus, according to the Superjob portal, 22% of respondents said they have a part-time job; 6 out of 10 have additional work for less than 10 hours a week. It brings in less than 10% of the total income per month for 36% of part-time workers, and for every third — from 10% to 30% of the total income.
There are also more impressive numbers. “According to our data, a quarter of Russians (25%) do part-time work,” said Alexander Veterkov, deputy general director of the Rabota.ru service. — Among them, the most common are marketers (26%) and IT specialists (25%). 52% of respondents are still planning to find additional employment. This is what employees from the construction (56%) and financial (55%) industries are planning to do.”
How much you can earn by doing a part-time job depends on the profile of your activity. According to Veterkov, 47% of respondents admitted that part-time work brings in up to 10% of their total income. Most often, among them there are those employed in the fields of production and agriculture (53%), as well as marketing and PR specialists. 28% of study participants — trade workers and construction workers — expect 11-30% of income. 16% of respondents — mostly bank employees — answered that additional employment brings them from 31% to 50% of their income. More than 51% of the basic income is received by 9% of Russians surveyed, mainly marketing and PR workers.
According to SuperJob, vacancies that involve part-time work today concern mainly blue-collar jobs and general laborers. In conditions of personnel shortages, employers are ready to adapt to applicants and offer various employment schedules. Similar data is provided by the Zarplata.ru portal. As a survey of this platform showed, the top most popular professions for part-time work during the May holidays included courier (16%), taxi driver (9%), administrator (8%), handyman (7%), salesperson (6%), goods picker ( 5%), call center worker (4%). And a nanny, a promoter and a worker at a recreation center were listed as vacancies for part-time work by only three percent of respondents.
But citizens who are far from “manual labor” should not be upset. “The modern employment market can be called very flexible: if you want, there is always a chance to master remote professions, or find something that can easily be combined with your main income without risks,” notes Veterkov. According to him, it is best to look at areas in which the applicant has experience, or at those areas where no specific knowledge and skills are required. Of course, monetization of your favorite hobby will be a great success for applicants.