Side gigs: earning money off the job

Hi @Mr.HdLR, sure!

Uni work is tricky and you best start with the University you went to (if you left on good terms) to get the foot in the door. Once you have a lecturing gig somewhere, it’s relatively easy to get other lecturing or speaking engagements at other academic institutions. What worked well for me was to keep in touch with my Uni department, while developing expertise in my ‘real’ work, and offering to talk about it to new students - Uni’s love having their Alumnis talk about how what they learned at Uni was relevant for their job…

I can highly recommend the EU Commission gig to anyone who has some form of relevant expertise: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/become-expert-commission_en
I was lucky and a friend I had met in Juba many years ago now leads this program and was looking for people with my skillset, so she reached out to me. I recently talked to her and understand that they’re still growing their pool, and AFAIK there’s only one introduction course a year (which you need to have in order to get tasked), and it takes place around May/June, so now would be a good time to sign up :slight_smile:

1 Like

You probably need to be european, right?

Not necessarily:

Experts are employed to assist in evaluating tenders and proposals, reviewing projects and monitoring programmes or policies. In order to be selected, experts must

have a high level of expertise in their relevant fields
be available for occasional, short-term assignments
have good knowledge of English and French and/or German
be able to use IT tools
Anyone can register their interest to become an expert, but please note that most experts selected will come from EU countries and associated countries.

Last year, I spent 5 days of my vacation in the mountains, cooking for a class of twelve-fourteen year olds. Between mealtimes, I sometimes joined the class on a hike.
They paid me CHF 500. Cooking for a crowd is something I love doing and I also really love chatting with kids and showing them the ropes in the kitchen. To top it all off, I love the great outdoors.

2 Likes

I try and sell old stuff on Anibis or Ricardo (mainly furniture), it’s quite a lot of work but satisfying to know my old things are not just going to the trash. It also makes me mindful of what I buy now!

I work for a live music production company as a side gig. I take care of artist hospitality for a day and the prep beforehand (arranging catering, drinks delivery etc) this pays 350 chf for the day and is pretty fun. There are other jobs in the live music industry such as driver for artist, roadie on stage etc which you could apply to with little qualification. It typically pays 100-200 chf a day and you often get a free ticket for the show for someone else. I did tell my employer I have this side gig, as my contract obliges me to have their written consent, but I am not declaring it.

My bf found an online gig at TranscribeMe, it’s crowdworking for transcriptions. You listen to an audio file and transcribe it, according to their policies. It’s paid 20 chf/audio hour, so you need to type fast for it to be worthwhile. My bf also does tutoring in real life for 30 chf/hour (math physics and chemistry), and he’s looking into doing it online too.

1 Like

hey @Scolere,
this sounds interesting and compatible with my way of life. do you have any contacts in Zurich that i could ask about side gigging such stuff? or where would you advice me to get to know more about it?

hi @nugget
I don’t have any contacts in ZH, I am in Suisse romande, but you could try Winkler LiveCom (https://winkler.ch/de/) or check who is the organiser of events at Hallenstadion for example. I just did a quick search and found MAAG AG (https://bymaag.ch/) , who are organizing the next ‘Imagine Dragons’ concert there. They always need people to work at these big events, try giving them a call ! Alternatively, sound and light and Veranstaltungstechnik companies are often the ones doing the hiring if you want to work as a roadie from time to time.

1 Like

This isn’t really a side gig, but still:

Many people want a dog because

  • they enjoy being around them
  • they want to be more active
  • their children want to play with dogs.

But a dog

  • is somewhat expensive
  • takes a lot of your time and flexibility
  • leaves hair and smells all over your appartment.

With petsitting24.ch you can get all of those positives without the negatives and get paid to do it.

You can write people and walk their dogs, or even look after them for a couple of days.
The pay is somewhere roughly between 5 and 15 CHF per hour, and you have no costs.

Might not be for everyone and won’t make you rich, but for people who would like to have a reason to be more active and spend time with an animal, it’s quite a neat way to earn a couple of francs.

5 Likes