What do other sysadmins do to make money on the side?

Posted by TraditionalGold_@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 49 comments

I've been kicking butt and taking names for some time as a sysadmin. Great experiences as an Exchange admin, SharePoint admin, SQL database management. I'm a software developer, fluent in 6 languages. Such a broad range of experience (minus a bachelor's degree or masters). Continuously learning as we have projects migrating to the cloud overloading us. I feel like I need to make more money and this isn't my final destination. That I'm being overworked and that's the reason of this post. Think it's time to make a change. I need to make more money. Also most importantly I'm so busy there's no time to be creative so I can spread my wings and fly. I'm ALWAYS bogged down, even a coworker that has been here 20 years believes we are down 2-3 people based on our workload . He's a lifer, super respectable and cool dude fyi! So I reached out to my boss. Told her I am consistently overwhelmed, that my stress levels are very high. That 2 others agreed (without providing names). I told her for the first time in my life I'm starting to miss things because I'm overwhelmed (my reputation is ultra high quality and efficiency, I'm a workaholic). Asked her what's more important...quality or quantity. Have received annual mvp employee awards at my last 2 jobs. Her response, she set a weekly meeting to talk. The first meeting she brought up a mistake I made. The next week's meeting she listed every mistake I've ever made and threw it in my face like a snowball. The next meeting I had a met with her and HR which she put me on a performance improvement plan. Whoa, I have never been through this before. I'm a smart, competent person. The issue is I'm used to managing a small firm of like 200 employees and this is a firm of 1000. Also she is like 65 years old and compartmentalizes us. So I feel like a bird stuck in a cage. Anyways background info provided, I do love where I work and see so much potential in the company. I need to make more money though and also need to be able to spread my wings. So what do you guys do on the side? Could swear a coworker has 2 jobs as it takes him a day to respond to a teams instant message 😂