High Paying Job Drains all my Time

[nicksaiz65]

Definitely do not want to get in the habit of working extra hours, it's hard to break, causes lots of extra stress and eventually burnout.

OP needs to answer this tho:

Are the expectations actually realistic and he is not yet at that level of ability yet to do what they expect, or are they unrealistic?

I have had to work extra hours to stay at the curve, for sure. But I think it's actually level of ability, now that I've reflected on it. I need to give a bit more context to this work situation.

So when I applied to this job, it was requesting a mid-level engineer with 5 years of experience. I was an entry level engineer with 2 years of experience lol, but I applied anyways and got the job. I was very lucky to get that.

What I didn't realize at the time, is that I would be the only mid-level engineer in a team of all seniors lol. So I went from an entry level SWE to working in a team of all seniors basically overnight lol. That's why I felt like I was drowning, though lol. I've been able to compensate by leaning harder into it and just working extra hours for the time being. This is about equivalent to the hours I was working when I was trying to get myself out of my financial rut.

I keep bringing up time management, but I think it's going to be the key here. This last week, I was able to stay on top of all the deadlines, and still go on several dates just by being 100% on top of my time management.

I think that over time, my skills will go up and I won't be forced to work so many hours to stay at the curve. One thing that I really like about this company is that the deadlines are extremely clear, unlike my last company. You either made the deadline, or you didn't.

So TLDR:
Kind of in over my head, but I'm enjoying the challenge
Time management/calendar
Working extra hours until I eventually don't need to anymore

 

[nicksaiz65]

That's a very good question to ask. If the first part is true, it would mean he's going to have to rise to the occasion. He's capable of doing so but that would mean he'd be sacrificing his personal life in the short term.

I don't think any of the work at this job is beyond me, it's just going to take a very large amount of effort. You could argue that it's no different than when I had two jobs to accelerate my financial building, just a more efficient way to make money.

 

[nicksaiz65]

Unless the teams are very poorly organized, which is a distinct possibility, he should only be working on one task at a time, ie, having one "card" or "issue" assigned to him.

In fact on our team, the rule is there should be at least one less active card than active devs, meaning they strongly prefer pair programming. It usually ends up being more efficient than single person programming. Teams that shun it are only hurting themselves in the long run.

If they aren't using some sort of tracking like JIRA or AzureDevOps then he has a bigger problem than what he is or isn't doing...the actual problem is where he works is run by people who are incompetent.

Is this a new technology stack versus what you are used to using? If so, then yeah, I could see that taking longer to become accustomed to. However, it normally takes someone at least 6 months to get really comfortable with new applications in terms of exactly how they work, what they do and how they are used on a day to day basis and that can only be done by working on many different parts of the code...at least for any major applications, like ones that contain over 500K lines of code.

Them expecting him to be up to speed and know things the way they do is simply not realistic, unless he is being given guidance on what he needs to do and even then there is a certain level of having to "figure things out" that is normal.

Also, if they are so hell bent on getting things done quickly, how much quality are they sacrificing to do it? Typically you end up spending triple the time in bug fixes than you would if you simply took longer and wrote good, solid, unit tested code by rushing code out the door.

Anyone who has had to rewrite spaghetti code from applications that have been outsourced knows this all too well. Many times they are Fubar 'ed so badly that the only thing that can be done is to build it over again from scratch.

Yeah, that is the main reason that it currently takes me a while. I'm not very familiar with the current tech stack to be honest. But, I've been doing Udemy courses so I'm hoping that that will get me up to speed.

I also have been getting familiar with Cypress. We need more people on our end-to-end tests, so I got picked up on this role.

Again, I don't think any of this work is beyond me, I just felt like I was drowning at first due to not being used to the increased responsibility of being a mid-level developer. I think I'll be able to hack it as I really apply myself.

To answer your questions, we use Jira. At the beginning of each sprint, you'll need to pick all the tasks that you will do and they must be completed by the end of each sprint. I feel that's pretty standard, and it's much better than the way it was handled at my old company imo lol.

 

[nicksaiz65]

Generally, jobs that pay really well require a lot of work. This isn't exactly an epiphany. There are some exceptions, sure. But most of us don't just luck into knowing a rich guy who offers a cushy job that pays six figures + while only working 35-40 hours a week.

I am also currently doing extremely well financially. But I have noticed my hours have been dipping up and up the past year or so on average each week. I am probably around 50-55 hours right now and I would like to cut that down to at least 45-50. I don't mind some extra time, but like anything when you give more to something it takes it away from others. It all is a matter of perspective and what is most important to you. Some people are workaholics and need to be putting in this type of hours to actually feel at peace and be happy. Others are OK making less but having more free time and less stress.

This is very true. If I am going in with the goal of increasing my finances, I definitely expect a lot of work. To get out of a rut, I worked 65 hours in the past by moonlighting on top of my day job. I don't need to moonlight anymore, but I can keep that same work ethic. I was still able to go out when working 65 hours, so if I now do that with a remote job, I can definitely still go out and have a little time to myself. That's all I really want, if I have that then I don't really care if I have to work longer hours.

 

[nicksaiz65]

Count me in fo the guy making 6 figures plus while working 35-40 hours. Sometimes even less than that.

When you become a really good software engineer, you can do a lot of work in a short amount of time, then coast since it was expected to take you 2-3x longer than it actually did.

Basically comes down to efficiency. If I can do the work of a normal 40 hour employee in 30, why would I choose extra work to do in those 10 hours?

I used to do that but at the end of the day, it usually doesn't pay off in terms of pay raises or compensation/promotion benefits. Now I am far more in it for myself to some degree after seeing how companies treat people like cattle for decades.

I'm definitely going to need longer to get to this point. My first goal is to just hit 3 YOE, since that has good market value.

 

[nicksaiz65]

Sometimes my most important task requires waiting on someone else. I will switch to a less important task while I wait. I prefer to have that task lined up, so I don't spend time asking what task is next.

I believe there's multiple approaches that can work, so I generally adapt to the team I'm on. Most companies where I've worked rely on code reviews. I have not worked in a team where pair programming was standard practice.

@nicksaiz65 can you clarify if you are assigned more than one task at a time? Does your company uses tracking software? Does your group prefer pair programming?

Typically you're wanted to just work one task at a time unless you are blocked. Jira is our tracking software. I have definitely reached out for peer programming sessions, I will actually be reaching out today to get my work reviewed lol.

 

[BackInTheGame78]

Yeah, that is the main reason that it currently takes me a while. I'm not very familiar with the current tech stack to be honest. But, I've been doing Udemy courses so I'm hoping that that will get me up to speed.

I also have been getting familiar with Cypress. We need more people on our end-to-end tests, so I got picked up on this role.

Again, I don't think any of this work is beyond me, I just felt like I was drowning at first due to not being used to the increased responsibility of being a mid-level developer. I think I'll be able to hack it as I really apply myself.

To answer your questions, we use Jira. At the beginning of each sprint, you'll need to pick all the tasks that you will do and they must be completed by the end of each sprint. I feel that's pretty standard, and it's much better than the way it was handled at my old company imo lol.

Gotcha...that all makes sense up until the "must be completed by the deadline" part.

How much bad code ends up getting written to meet a deadline that ends up taking far longer to redo/bug fix than if they simply would have taken a few days longer? I'd much rather to have someone finish something 2 days late then rush to write sloppy/bad code that ends up taking a week or more to deal with eventually. Always better to take longer to do it properly the first time than to rush it out and have to redo or fix it. As senior engineers, they should know that.

Also, with Agile estimates, I am assuming you are using a point based system and many times until you actually get into something you don't know how difficult it actually will be or how many rabbit holes you may end up going down. There have been many times that something that started as a 2 became a 5 once I got into it. If there is no way to adjust base on that, that is also another problem with their deadline system.

Agile while good in many ways isn't without flaws, and part of what makes it work is it's fluidity.

Adding rigidity to it seems to work against itself and why it's useful in the first place.

All that happened when we missed something during a sprint was it got moved to the next sprint. Sometimes we got more done than we thought in terms of points, sometimes less. It all pretty much balanced out.

 

[FlirtLife]

So when I applied to this job, it was requesting a mid-level engineer with 5 years of experience. I was an entry level engineer with 2 years of experience lol, but I applied anyways and got the job. I was very lucky to get that.

What I didn't realize at the time, is that I would be the only mid-level engineer in a team of all seniors lol.

So TLDR:
Kind of in over my head, but I'm enjoying the challenge

Your 2 years of experience was probably known to those who hired you. You might ask the years of experience of others on the team, while sharing that you have 2 years of experience. If you're struggling, and they know it is partly from being new to the field, that can better set expectations. People are probably more aware of it than you realize, but I can understand putting in extra hours to make a good impression at a new company.

 

[nicksaiz65]

Gotcha...that all makes sense up until the "must be completed by the deadline" part.

How much bad code ends up getting written to meet a deadline that ends up taking far longer to redo/bug fix than if they simply would have taken a few days longer? I'd much rather to have someone finish something 2 days late then rush to write sloppy/bad code that ends up taking a week or more to deal with eventually. Always better to take longer to do it properly the first time than to rush it out and have to redo or fix it. As senior engineers, they should know that.

Also, with Agile estimates, I am assuming you are using a point based system and many times until you actually get into something you don't know how difficult it actually will be or how many rabbit holes you may end up going down. There have been many times that something that started as a 2 became a 5 once I got into it. If there is no way to adjust base on that, that is also another problem with their deadline system.

Agile while good in many ways isn't without flaws, and part of what makes it work is it's fluidity.

Adding rigidity to it seems to work against itself and why it's useful in the first place.

All that happened when we missed something during a sprint was it got moved to the next sprint. Sometimes we got more done than we thought in terms of points, sometimes less. It all pretty much balanced out.

As for the bad code part, I can't comment on that yet because I'm too new to the company. I'm just coming up on 2 months. I do agree with you on the bad code though.

One thing I really enjoy about this company so far, is that every time I try to upload a merge request, my code absolutely has to pass the pipeline or it won't even get through. Kind of a safeguard against me uploading crappy code that breaks everything. I'm wondering if that is standard practice everywhere? We didn't do that at my last company.

Yes, we use point based systems. 1, 3, 5, 8. I've had that experience as well. I agree that this is a flaw with the deadline system that tasks can become more complex than they originally seemed. People have moved things into the next sprint, but from what I've seen it looks to be a bit frowned on. We have a "code cutoff" as well so that there is time for all of the merge conflicts to be resolved.

I still do prefer this system to my old company, because it was kind of like a Wild West with how much was expected of me. With this system, I know exactly where the curve is so I can get ahead of it, I felt I couldn't do that at my old company. I do enjoy the clarity here, I just need to give myself plenty of time to finish my work.

 

[nicksaiz65]

Your 2 years of experience was probably known to those who hired you. You might ask the years of experience of others on the team, while sharing that you have 2 years of experience. If you're struggling, and they know it is partly from being new to the field, that can better set expectations. People are probably more aware of it than you realize, but I can understand putting in extra hours to make a good impression at a new company.

I believe the others are somewhere between 5-8 from what I've seen. I'm definitely willing to put in the hours, it's really no different than when I was moonlighting(working extra hours to get out of a bad financial situation.) I need to make sure that I do very good work and get my contract renewed so that I can continue to direct this income towards my goals. Contract ends July 1 but it seems very likely that it will be renewed, it was even stated that there was lots of work to do and more people were needed, especially on the E2E Testing(which I have been moved to.)

I ended up continuing to work on my AWS Solutions Architect Associate, but this is basically an afterthought, because learning the new tech stack is my #1 priority. I pass it whenever I pass it. I just study whenever I have a few dead minutes in my day.

 

[LightIsTaken]

Shoutout to @BPH for pointing out this issue. It’s finally happening, and I needed to make a thread to see if there is anything I could do.

I’ve told this story over and over, but I’m a software engineer, and I recently got a new job that pays me $120,000 per year. This is definitely helping me reach my financial goals.

The issue is, this job drains all of my time away. It’s programming, and they want their work done lightning quick. So I often have to bring my work home with me so I can stay caught up. On top of that, I have to study the tech stack that the job uses in my personal time. After all of this, the job is eating up a significant portion of my time. I barely have any time left over for me.

At this point, going out say once a week, MAYBE twice a week(that’s really pushing it) is realistic. I’m feeling the situation of golden handcuffs here. I need this job to pay the bills, but it takes so much of my time. I feel like I have none left over, for anything really.

I had to cancel a date to stay caught up on my work today. I know it’s the right choice because I need the IT job to stay financially stable, but it’s annoying how it drains so much of my time.

I needed to get some thoughts on this and see how I could handle it over the short term, as in this year. Do I just live with going out like 1x per week or so? Wanted to open this topic up and get some thoughts.

SPOILER ALERT:
I’m thinking the answer is to work several evenings to get ahead of their deadlines, and don’t even waste a single second so that I still have time to do what I want.

I'm also a software engineer (more on the JavaScript, React side), but I'm only making around $24k a year. But of course, that means I don't have as much work as you do right now. I'm not sure if it's just us being programmers and coding while sitting in front of a laptop, but I find it difficult to push myself to go out and socialize.

Sure, in your case, since you're making significantly more than me, I'd say it's understandable you've got more responsibility at work, but is it possible there's a part of you that doesn't feel enough excited or interested in going out even when you don't have too much work?

Just a side note and I know this isn't the thread for this, but I'd love getting some help from you in regards to how you got your job and if there's any possibility of referrals. It's not everyday I come across a fellow software engineer here on Sosuave haha.

 

[nicksaiz65]

I'm also a software engineer (more on the JavaScript, React side), but I'm only making around $24k a year. But of course, that means I don't have as much work as you do right now. I'm not sure if it's just us being programmers and coding while sitting in front of a laptop, but I find it difficult to push myself to go out and socialize.

Sure, in your case, since you're making significantly more than me, I'd say it's understandable you've got more responsibility at work, but is it possible there's a part of you that doesn't feel enough excited or interested in going out even when you don't have too much work?

Just a side note and I know this isn't the thread for this, but I'd love getting some help from you in regards to how you got your job and if there's any possibility of referrals. It's not everyday I come across a fellow software engineer here on Sosuave haha.

Awesome man! That's actually the exact tech stack I used at my old job.

I'm always excited to go out lol, but at the same time the work has to come first ya know?

Feel free to shoot me a DM anytime.

 

[FlexpertHamilton]

It's probably most effective to find new jobs every 6-12 months since the first few months of a new job are easy. Start applying after day 1 and quit once it you see your QoL decline. I quit my last high paying remote job after 6 months because it was unbearable to me. Work life balance is way more important than compensation, imo. But you gotta decide that for yourself.

Another thing to consider is commute time. Longer commute times are proven to increase stress and lower job satisfaction. I'd sooner work a job that's within walking distance, pays shvt and isn't stressful over a super high paying job that I have to commute to for 60min a day and lose my mind over it.

 

[nicksaiz65]

It's probably most effective to find new jobs every 6-12 months since the first few months of a new job are easy. Start applying after day 1 and quit once it you see your QoL decline. I quit my last high paying remote job after 6 months because it was unbearable to me. Work life balance is way more important than compensation, imo. But you gotta decide that for yourself.

Another thing to consider is commute time. Longer commute times are proven to increase stress and lower job satisfaction. I'd sooner work a job that's within walking distance, pays shvt and isn't stressful over a super high paying job that I have to commute to for 60min a day and lose my mind over it.

That’s a pretty fast job hopping schedule haha. Usually, I hear that you want to jump around once every two years. Do you do that to give yourself more options and power? What do you do when a company says “you have to accept this new offer within a few days?”

If you wouldn’t mind sharing, I’d definitely be interested to see why the remote job was bad on your end. Hearing other people’s experiences helps me see if I’m overreacting or not.

I work remote as well, I’ve been very lucky. When I was moonlighting too, the bar I worked at was within walking distance, so I’m very lucky to have never had a commute.

 

[Bingo-Player]

What do you value more time or money ?

For me time to do as I please with my days is far more important than money

Money is just paper and numbers endlessly created and printed by banks , your time and overall life is finite

125K a year isnt even life changing money you cant really do anything with it other than prepare for retirement which I may add is not gauranteed

the best years of your life are obviously going to be 20-50 when you are fit healthy , most attractive and sexually active

After that absolutley nothing is guaranteed so the notion of "retirement at 60" to me is highly highly flawed

I would rather take my chances being broke at 60+ and enjoying my life to the max now than being time poor in my prime not being able to do anything other than work all the time

fvck that

 

[FlexpertHamilton]

That’s a pretty fast job hopping schedule haha. Usually, I hear that you want to jump around once every two years. Do you do that to give yourself more options and power? What do you do when a company says “you have to accept this new offer within a few days?”

If you wouldn’t mind sharing, I’d definitely be interested to see why the remote job was bad on your end. Hearing other people’s experiences helps me see if I’m overreacting or not.

I work remote as well, I’ve been very lucky. When I was moonlighting too, the bar I worked at was within walking distance, so I’m very lucky to have never had a commute.

Well, that's an ideal scenario. Applying to jobs is exhausting, almost a full time job itself between the applying and interviews and all that. But if you have the energy to constantly keep applying even when starting a new job, you should. And I've never taken a job that required I start immediately, but that's such a red flag I would probably skip it.

My remote job was basically high level software support for a small company of under 100 people. A few senior employees in my role/department quit within the first few months that I started, and I basically had to pick up the slack. They did hire 3 new guys after me but the 4 of us were clueless. They had to resort to having the training guy and engineers taking tickets to help out, wearing multiple hats and I'm sure they weren't paid extra for it.

The training was abysmal and I didn't feel like I understood the companies hardware and software (automation for agronomy industry) after 6 months any better than I did on day 1. I also felt like none of the skills I was learning would be relevant elsewhere, and I would just end up being hyper specialized in stuff that was largely wasn't useful to know. The worst part was that I had to be on call every 3 weeks for 7 days straight, by myself, and was only paid $250 for it + regular wages (which ended up being OT usually, but still). And, there was no "hour minimum" or anything, if I had to wake up on Saturday at 6am to work for 15min I would get paid for 15 min at the regular rate. And it sucked because everyone there was very friendly and helpful but we were just stretched too thin.

Idk if you ever do IT, but if you ever work a job that's on call, don't do it unless they pay you very well for it, either reflected in the base salary or in the on call pay itself. If you have to be on call for a week you should get $1000+ AND get paid a 1-2 hour billable minimum for every ticket you take.

 

[nicksaiz65]

Well, that's an ideal scenario. Applying to jobs is exhausting, almost a full time job itself between the applying and interviews and all that. But if you have the energy to constantly keep applying even when starting a new job, you should. And I've never taken a job that required I start immediately, but that's such a red flag I would probably skip it

This. Applying to a new job is very exhausting. It took me about 80 applications to get my new job. Out of those 80 applications, I had 3 interviews offered, I just took one. I believe that's a good ratio, but still exhausting.

Keeping your resume in date, practicing for interviews, and constantly upskilling is absolutely a full-time job within itself. It makes you wonder, how the hell am I supposed to do what is basically a second job when I already have one full time job? I'm thinking that the best solution is to always be prepared to interview at any time, and upskill over the course of the week, even if it's as little as 30 minutes a week. I remember hearing from somewhere that you should never stop practicing for interviews.

My remote job was basically high level software support for a small company of under 100 people. A few senior employees in my role/department quit within the first few months that I started, and I basically had to pick up the slack. They did hire 3 new guys after me but the 4 of us were clueless. They had to resort to having the training guy and engineers taking tickets to help out, wearing multiple hats and I'm sure they weren't paid extra for it.

The training was abysmal and I didn't feel like I understood the companies hardware and software (automation for agronomy industry) after 6 months any better than I did on day 1. I also felt like none of the skills I was learning would be relevant elsewhere, and I would just end up being hyper specialized in stuff that was largely wasn't useful to know. The worst part was that I had to be on call every 3 weeks for 7 days straight, by myself, and was only paid $250 for it + regular wages (which ended up being OT usually, but still). And, there was no "hour minimum" or anything, if I had to wake up on Saturday at 6am to work for 15min I would get paid for 15 min at the regular rate. And it sucked because everyone there was very friendly and helpful but we were just stretched too thin.

Idk if you ever do IT, but if you ever work a job that's on call, don't do it unless they pay you very well for it, either reflected in the base salary or in the on call pay itself. If you have to be on call for a week you should get $1000+ AND get paid a 1-2 hour billable minimum for every ticket you take.

Oh, fvck that. I would've quit too lol. Being on call 7 days a week? There's no amount of money that could get me to do that

 

[nicksaiz65]

What do you value more time or money ?

For me time to do as I please with my days is far more important than money

Money is just paper and numbers endlessly created and printed by banks , your time and overall life is finite

125K a year isnt even life changing money you cant really do anything with it other than prepare for retirement which I may add is not gauranteed

the best years of your life are obviously going to be 20-50 when you are fit healthy , most attractive and sexually active

After that absolutley nothing is guaranteed so the notion of "retirement at 60" to me is highly highly flawed

I would rather take my chances being broke at 60+ and enjoying my life to the max now than being time poor in my prime not being able to do anything other than work all the time

fvck that

What do you define as a "life changing" amount of money, out of curiosity? I don't feel a super strong need to job hop right now because I feel that I'll have trouble beating my current salary unless I were to apply for senior engineering positions. $120K for 2 YOE is very good, but I do agree that it's not life changing. My original goal was to make 6 figs within 3 years of working, but I was able to do it in 2.

 

[FlexpertHamilton]

This. Applying to a new job is very exhausting. It took me about 80 applications to get my new job. Out of those 80 applications, I had 3 interviews offered, I just took one. I believe that's a good ratio, but still exhausting.

Keeping your resume in date, practicing for interviews, and constantly upskilling is absolutely a full-time job within itself. It makes you wonder, how the hell am I supposed to do what is basically a second job when I already have one full time job? I'm thinking that the best solution is to always be prepared to interview at any time, and upskill over the course of the week, even if it's as little as 30 minutes a week. I remember hearing from somewhere that you should never stop practicing for interviews.

I have to do about 50 applications for every 1 callback. To expedite applications, I would avoid doing any applications that don't use a simple "put in your contact info and upload your resume" system. If they require you register an account, fill out several pages of information, take "personality quizes", or god forbid, aptitude tests, before even getting an initial contact, 100% skip it because it indicates the company is a horrible to work at. Doing 1 step applications lets you easily do like 50 applications per hour. Personally I use Indeed, Ziprecruiter, and WeWorkRemotely. The only issue with mass applying is all the extra time it would take to custom tailor your resume to each position or what I call the "hunt and snipe" method where you screen hard and put extra care into each application. Not sure which method is more effective.

Either way, you basically have to not-try at any job unless it's a really good job that you can actually see yourself staying at long term. Do the bare minimum to not get fired and use your energy to do applications, interviews, and side hustles. Some people take this even further and become "overemployed" working multiple WFH jobs at once and jacking them around endlessly. Even if you get fired, you will have 1-2 other jobs to fall back on, and you keep repeating it.

Oh, fvck that. I would've quit too lol. Being on call 7 days a week? There's no amount of money that could get me to do that

Originally we were supposed to do it once every 5 weeks but it turned to 3 and that was just miserable. It basically means you cannot do *anything* for an entire week every month. To pay $250 for that is laughable, and I heard it was even less before I had started. I'm surprised I even made it 6 months.

 

[nicksaiz65]

I have to do about 50 applications for every 1 callback. To expedite applications, I would avoid doing any applications that don't use a simple "put in your contact info and upload your resume" system. If they require you register an account, fill out several pages of information, take "personality quizes", or god forbid, aptitude tests, before even getting an initial contact, 100% skip it because it indicates the company is a horrible to work at. Doing 1 step applications lets you easily do like 50 applications per hour. Personally I use Indeed, Ziprecruiter, and WeWorkRemotely. The only issue with mass applying is all the extra time it would take to custom tailor your resume to each position or what I call the "hunt and snipe" method where you screen hard and put extra care into each application. Not sure which method is more effective.

That's a good ratio, especially when you were saying you could do 50 applications a day. I freaking love Indeed. I've gotten both tech jobs and side hustles from there. I'm not a huge fan of LinkedIn. I personally am of the camp that you should send out a generic resume since it lets you chaingun out more applications out faster. But I think either strategy can and does work.

They want a cover letter? I'm out!

Either way, you basically have to not-try at any job unless it's a really good job that you can actually see yourself staying at long term. Do the bare minimum to not get fired and use your energy to do applications, interviews, and side hustles. Some people take this even further and become "overemployed" working multiple WFH jobs at once and jacking them around endlessly. Even if you get fired, you will have 1-2 other jobs to fall back on, and you keep repeating it.

I had considered OE, if I were to do that it would wipe away my debt very quickly. But, because my previous job needed a security clearance, I couldn't do it. I don't want them coming after me for time fraud. I also thought it would exacerbate the original issue I was talking about in this thread. I remember that even just working a tech job and working a side hustle 20-25 hours a week was very taxing. That side hustle on top of my tech income really helped me get out of a financial jam, though.

I believe they call what you're describing churn and burn lol. Financially, it's better to be average at two jobs than great at one for OE.

Maybe one day as my skill level continues to rise.

Originally we were supposed to do it once every 5 weeks but it turned to 3 and that was just miserable. It basically means you cannot do *anything* for an entire week every month. To pay $250 for that is laughable, and I heard it was even less before I had started. I'm surprised I even made it 6 months.

Yeahhh that's ridiculous. Totally justified in quitting, imo. What do you do now?