China News Service, Beijing, February 25 (Reporter Yuan Xiuyue) From paid courses that "teach you how to do XX step by step", to the "One Day the Side Business Failed" discussion group to share experiences, and then to "Thanks to the side business for allowing me to earn X million a month" In recent years, the “side hustle craze” has continued to extend from social media to real life.

　　The general picture of young professionals engaging in side jobs is this: most of them do it to increase their income, some do it to explore more career possibilities, and some do it to improve themselves, increase life experience, start a business, etc.

Online flexible jobs such as self-media operations, e-commerce, online writing, and video editing have become the choice of many people.

According to a report, compared with first-tier cities, many young people in new first-tier cities are more interested in doing side jobs.

　　China News Network reporters interviewed a number of side businesses, and it can be seen that the side jobs of contemporary young people also reflect their exploration and thinking about work and lifestyle.

  Xiao Shan is writing calligraphy.

Photo provided by interviewee.

“I don’t want to work all my life”, I tried to do 100 side jobs

　　Li Le from Chengdu posted a hot post on the Douban group "The Day the Side Business Failed" with the title "100 Side Business Pitfalls I'll Help You Avoid First". In the post, she recorded her daily practice of side business, and also immediately Turn off the flag and try to do 100 side jobs.

　　Li Le first started working as a side hustle when she was studying for graduate school. She had to look for information online when applying to foreign schools. She found that there were many people with the same needs, so she put the collected information notes on a second-hand platform.

The official side job started in July last year. She returned to Chengdu from Shenzhen. Her new job income was reduced by half, but she also had more free time.

With the good wish of “not wanting to work all her life”, she began to seriously explore the path of side hustle.

　　She has tried all kinds of side jobs. The one that is relatively stable and accounts for the largest income is the night school she started in November last year.

During that time, the topic of young people taking night classes was very popular. She found that there was no night school community in Chengdu, so she was the first to set up a night school community in Chengdu. Using the advantage of the number of people in the group, she went to businesses to negotiate low-price classes, similar to Pinduoduo for interest classes. , there are currently almost 5,000 people in the community.

  Evening classes.

Photo provided by interviewee

　　Similar to Li Le, Xiao Shan from Hangzhou also started a side job when she was a graduate student. She worked part-time as a tutor and an intern teacher in an education and training institution. The two side jobs combined earned her more than 70,000 yuan, which was her biggest income since starting a side job. an income.

But because she is an "I person" and is not very good at dealing with parents, her side job as a teacher was put on hold.

　　After working for 5 years, Xiao Shan has never had a serious side job. She only has more than ten years of calligraphy skills and occasionally writes calligraphy for friends who are engaged in cultural and creative industries.

Since last year, because she changed jobs and it was difficult to repay the mortgage from her main job, she began to develop Chinese cultural and creative products with her friends, which is also her current relatively stable source of side income.

In addition, she also writes part-time curatorial plans and contributes to columns.

Adding up the three items, the monthly side income is more than 3,000 yuan.

　　For Lin Liang from Fuzhou, doing a side job is more like a transition.

He graduated from graduate school last year. Since he was not very satisfied with the content of his first job and his girlfriend was about to graduate, the two of them agreed to change their life in a city, so he chose to resign.

During this gap period, he started a side job, doing data analysis, providing scientific research services, writing code, making websites for others, and selling tutorials he recorded.

　　In the beginning, the single source of orders was single, and the income was barely enough to survive. As the exposure increased and the order volume became stable, the monthly income can now reach up to over 10,000 yuan, which is a little more than the previous salary.

  The computer where Lin Liang works.

Photo provided by interviewee

Main business VS side business, love VS reality

　　"New flexible employment has become an important supplement to traditional employment, and has even occupied a dominant position in certain specific industries or occupations." The "2023 China New Flexible Employment Report" proposed that how to regulate the development of new flexible employment is a key issue in the digital economy era. Important proposition.

The reporter also discovered that with the development of the digital economy, the “side job craze” is becoming a buffer zone for young people in the process of career changes.

　　In Li Le's view, doing a side job allows you to experience different careers, gain more life experience, and make money on the side. Without affecting the main business, the pressure will be much less.

"Although I have only been working for a year and a half, I feel that it is difficult for the younger generation to find meaning in the work itself. If people have too high expectations for work, internal friction will occur, and then they will fail and quit. I am very satisfied with my job. The only requirement is that you don’t hate it, you just need a certain amount of remuneration to support your life, and the rest of the meaning of life and the happiness of making money are left to the side job.”

  Cultural and creative products.

Photo provided by interviewee

　　Unlike Li Le, Xiao Shan is a person who combines her main business, side business and hobbies.

She works in a cultural state-owned enterprise. When interviewing this company, her previous curatorial plan helped a lot. The company also looked at her self-media account and thought it matched their corporate culture very well.

　　"The group also thinks it is good to have your own hobbies, so whether it is the main business or the side business, at least it is not painful for me, and sometimes I am quite happy." Xiao Shan said that her side business is controllable , I write calligraphy one week, curate one week, and write articles one week, spending about 30 hours a month.

　　"I have many interests and hobbies, and I need to spend time improving various skills in order to maintain the output of my main and side jobs." She said that her side job is "more work, more gain", but she still hopes to balance life and work. If In the future, when the income from her main business is sufficient, she may no longer consider doing side jobs, or she may explore more cost-effective side jobs, allowing her to do the things she likes more freely.

　　Compared with Xiao Shan, Lin Liang may take longer.

After resigning and taking up a side job, he became even busier.

Usually there is nothing to do in the morning. In the afternoon and evening, he often sits in front of the computer to deal with things. In his spare time, he also has to learn some new knowledge and skills.

However, his current side job is an area that he is more interested in, and it also highly overlaps with the industry he wants to engage in long-term in the future.

　　"Help others solve some problems, they are very happy, and I will be very happy too." Compared with his previous job, this made Lin Liang feel more valuable.

In his words, he can not only continue to learn what he is interested in, but also use his skills to serve others.

  Xiao Shan's calligraphy.

Photo provided by interviewee.

Be prepared to get caught up and fail

　　Side business has higher flexibility and accommodation, but it also means greater uncertainty.

This is where Lin Liang is currently worried. His parents have always wanted him to take the public exam or become a teacher, but his interest is not in this, and he does not want to live under the demands and expectations of the outside world.

So during this period, he never told his parents about his resignation.

　　But the gap period at work still brought some pressure to him. He made a plan for himself. If his monthly income continued to increase steadily, he would continue to do side jobs, otherwise he would find a job and make multiple preparations.

　　"You have to think clearly about what is the most important thing at the moment and what can generate compound interest in the long term. For example, college students may lose more than they gain because working part-time jobs affects their studies. Newcomers in the workplace could be quickly promoted and increase their income by studying and taking exams, but they use their off-duty time to do work that has no growth potential. It’s not cost-effective to have a side job.” In Li Le’s view, side jobs also require an input-output ratio, and choices need to be made carefully.

　　In addition to social pressure, there are many practical pitfalls in doing side jobs.

If you search for side hustles online, a large number of paid courses will appear. There are also a lot of news about side hustles being scammed every year.

　　Xiao Shan shared that she once signed up for an audiobook course with a tuition fee of several thousand yuan. It was claimed that it would arrange individual orders and quickly pay back the money after the course.

"In fact, there are more than a hundred people in our class, and almost none of them get their money back in the end." In her opinion, when doing side jobs, you should try to combine your own areas of expertise, and don't follow the trend and see what others do, let alone risk breaking the law.

　　"If there is a very profitable side job, everyone is doing it secretly. When it reaches the stage of selling courses, it means that this track has been particularly involved, so be prepared to be involved and fail." After trying several side jobs, Li Le is the biggest My feeling is, don’t squeeze into mature tracks.

　　In her opinion, if you do what you like and are good at, the money will come naturally.

"There are many channels to obtain information now. If you search, you will find a method, but there are very few people who are willing to do it and stick to it. Although every track is very complicated, making big money may require the superposition of factors such as talent, luck, etc., but if you want to make money With a small amount of money, as long as you find something you like and stick to it, you can definitely achieve it." (At the request of the interviewee, the names in the article are pseudonyms) (End)