IT millionaire with five jobs.

Story: $1.2M With Five IT Jobs – u/SweetMullet

The following is a success story from u/SweetMullet with some light edits. Visit our Reddit community r/Overemployed.

From $16 Per Hour To $1.2 Million A Year

I am in IT. I have a niche title that everybody wants right now. I have five full-time jobs, four of which are Fortune 500 companies. If I manage all five jobs for a year, I will make around $1.2 million in 2022. Just for some perspective, I made $16 per hour in 2016. I’m still struggling to grasp the sheer amount of money dumping into my bank account.

My Path To Becoming An IT Millionaire

At the start of 2021, I got a new job. It paid ~170k, which was around 70k more than I was making at my previous job. I had the inside scoop from a previous coworker, so I was able to name-drop and negotiate effectively. I was tempted to keep both jobs since both were fully remote because of Covid. My fiancée is incredibly risk-averse, so she talked me out of it. As I got situated in my new position, I became increasingly set on getting a second job. I played video games from 8-4 and sat in meetings barely paying attention. I’ve probably done around 15 hours of real work since I started in January 2021.

In April, I opened my resume to the world on Dice. By June, I bagged job 2 at $82/hour. Holy crap! Two jobs! I was giddy with the money, terrified of meetings overlapping, and horrified if they found out about each other. As I settled into job 2, I found the meetings to be tedious. There were around 4 hours of meetings each day for job 2. I suffered through them, agreeing to job 3.

Always Be Interviewing

I never stopped interviewing. I just made my salary expectations higher and waited for something to fall in my lap. My thought process was that job 3 ($90/hour corp-to-corp) would likely replace job 2, as job 1 is a laughable cakewalk.

However, since I am now in a position of power, I decided to try to flex a bit. I told my project manager that the meetings were a waste of my time. They got nothing done, and they didn’t contribute to my work at all. I now participate in an average of 45 minutes of meetings each week for job 2. Job 3 is also a cakewalk – around 1.5 hours a week of meetings, probably 5 hours a week worth of real work.

I continue to field any interviews that will meet my salary expectations. I am now saying $95/hour is my salary expectation. Another corp-to-corp gig came around, and the hiring manager loves me. Once again, being in a position of power, I am able to simply flex my expectations with ZERO fear of the results.

Me: “Given the scope of the work, my salary expectation is $105 (per hour).”

Recruiter: “The highest we can go is $100 (per hour).”

Me: “Nope, that doesn’t work for me.”

u/SweetMullet

They gave into my request. They then tried to push back my start date by a week. I told them “I had already given my two weeks at my previous job, so you will need to pay me for the absent week.” They hemmed and hawed and tried to say no. I simply told them that I wouldn’t work there then. They paid me $4,200 for a week that I didn’t even sign in.

I expected this job to fold quickly, as it’s with a VERY prestigious company and there is quite a bit of spotlight on my role. It turns out that I haven’t done sh*t at all since I started mid-October. With $4,200 per week to go to a standup each morning and say I have nothing to do, job 4 is somehow an even bigger cakewalk than job 1.

Now Onto Job #5

On Monday, I start job 5. Initially having agreed to $115/hour, I tried to press them for $127/hour but ended up at $120. Not bad for someone earning $16/hour five years ago. This appears to be another job that I will just sort of expect to get fired from, but hopefully, it turns into another easy $5,000 a week for doing jack sh*t.

My 5 jobs “assembly line” setup.

Let’s Talk About Things That Are Working For Me

1. Be fearless. After all, once you get job 2, your risk absolutely plummets. It is ingrained in you to be terrified of getting fired. That fear can f*cking die when you move into your second role. The amount of relief of not having to worry about what your boss thinks of you, or how you accidentally overslept and that might piss off some clown in charge, it all fades. It’s beyond freeing, this feeling of empowerment.

2. Be willing to get fired. I have the luxury of having job 1 be a cakewalk with incredible benefits. So, from there, who gives a f*ck about getting fired from job x? I try to keep job 1 happy (like not saying “I am going to actively find a new job” – that was stupid) and don’t really give a sh*t about the others. I try to do the absolute bare minimum to keep all the jobs, since replacing one is a pain, but any fear of getting fired just isn’t there.

3. Flex. Your. Power. Be willing to say “I can’t make that meeting” or “this meeting is a waste of my time.” People don’t want to rock the boat. They don’t want to do something that might be stupid. Use the fact that most people also want to do the bare minimum to get by. I have had zero pushback when I’ve asked meetings to be moved, or say “Hey, I can’t make the standup today.”

4. Stand up for yourself. Just say “I can’t make it.” I have gotten zero pushback on this. Don’t need to even make up a lame excuse – just own it.

5. Use your new negotiation power. You don’t need to listen about the job that is offering a paltry $65/hour. Recruiters have a range. Demand the range. If it doesn’t fit $10-15/hour more than your current job, tell them no. I EAGERLY accepted a role at $82/hour six months ago. Christmas Eve, I accepted a position for nearly 50% more than that. Flex. Your. Power. Job 2 takes the power out of your employer’s hands and plants it firmly in your own. Use it to climb, grow, and make your life what you want.

Thoughts On This Crazy, Empowering Lifestyle

I have paid off all my debt already, bought a second house, and have enough money to fully renovate both houses by the end of February. I plan on snowbirding from a rather cold home location to a sunny state for the foreseeable future – at the ripe age of 35.

Since this is all debt-free, maybe I want to cut it down to 2 jobs? Or maybe I will just dump all the money into retirement. Maybe I don’t really give a f*ck? Because the world, for the first time in my life, is MY f*cking oyster. Sidenote: when you’re banking over $1M, start your own S-Corp by talking to a tax lawyer.

I’m more than willing to answer any questions. Even though I have four jobs right now (five by the time you read this), I still play video games for 4-5 hours a day. I have plenty of time. Hopefully, this empowers someone to take the leap into this incredible lifestyle. Overemployment for the win.

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