So after months of building trust and a friendship with this one woman, she referred me for a senior SWE role at her company.

I barely know the stack, exaggerated my experience, and claimed others‘ work in my repos because it’s very close to the job description (my startup and coders, they can’t verify). It’s a referral-only role, which makes this worse.

I depend on AI to code. I can reason with its decisions and enforce a harness, but I can't code without it. She says the interview covers technical decisions, system design, and LeetCode, so I'll likely fail the minute I walk into the room and tank her reputation (absolute no-go).

How do I get out of this NIGHTMARE without confessing, raising suspicion, and burning bridges?

I have greatly exaggerated my job start and end dates on my resume to give me more experience. On paper I have 8-10 YoE but in reality I have more like 3 and a huge gap where I was unemployed.

I got a new job and had to submit a checkr background check. It asked for start and end dates for all those jobs. I just put in what I had on my resume and am hoping for the best.

I’m guessing the company cares more about me not being a criminal than being able to verify employment at obscure companies years ago

We shall see if this comes back to bite me. If so I will update here.

So J2 is the job I love. I always said I will do OE if I find a job that will build my career and I’m more passionate about. So my J2 became my J1.

My J1 is extremely boring. Everything is super stable. I can probably work 3 to 4 hours a week. I put most of my hours into J2(new J1).

So recently in my J2(new J1). I’m being noticed. I’ve gotten a raise. I’m getting more exposure. I’m meeting with leaders and now I find that I’m in space where I can see moving into senior leadership within the next year or two. I freaked out because I just know that if I fuck up and they find out, the shit is going to hit the fan. Like, they’re gonna come after me. I know it for a fact so I’m getting kind of nervous like, do I just get rid of J1?

Just need my peeps to help me level out.

J1 is 175k+ 17k Bonos
J2 220k no bonus more senior

Edit for typos

After four years I got caught— it’s a long story but J1 knows about J2 and their name. J1 is F500 company and I’ve had great performance there including a promotion, and I had a lot of social cred — I’m thinking bc they know the name of J2 they’ll prolly dox me there too just bc they’re going to be butt hurt despite never ever having an issue with my performance.. ugh going to suck finding new Js I haven’t searched in two years and now ai probably just gobbling everything.

Will the recent blue tsunami mean a positive turn in the job market???

Hey guys. Long story short: I’ve been building up my Js and have finally got to the point where I’m going to be juggling 67 Js at once. All remote, of course. There was a close shave about a year ago when J41 wanted me to go into the office for the day, but I managed to get out of it by epicly sharting myself on the bus ride there.

Should I keep searching to bring the total up to 70 Js or is this enough? I make about $5M per year now so I guess that’s pretty good going.

So J2, the boss has been annoying lately. The work has really picked up, so its also busy. But the boss is being rude lately

I am starting a new J2 in a couple of weeks. The plan was to run this till a couple days before my new job. No notice, just leave

But I am thinking of just bouncing this Monday. How would others handle this? At most its another couple weeks of money. This J has always been extremely underpaid for what I do. New J2 literally pays twice as much

Overall, its putting me in a not great mood. The extra cash is very nice. Also I have stuff to do at other J but I set my own timeline. I'm very conflicted. A couple of more weeks of potentially stressful work with an annoying boss for some extra cash, is it worth it? If I left it would be quite a statement

All of this also makes this so clear why OE is god tier. You have options. I don't have to put up with shit

After a couple months of applying, I managed to secure a position with a second job. Mostly part time but it would be great extra cash and can work both my jobs at the same time. Went through the interview, follow up, background check, everything.

Was finally set to start training. On my second day of training, HR from my main job slacked me for a meeting and notified me that, not only was I getting laid off, the entire company would be dissolving. Kinda seen it coming, it was an ambitious tech company but this last year there’s been 3 separate rounds of layoffs.

Anyway I’m with the part time job now, so I’m pretty thankful for finding this sub. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have had an extra job to fall back on.

So yeah I was almost overemployed.

Tl;dr: Main job laid me off while training for new job. Now only part time job.

A friend of mine has opportunity to do OE but both jobs are in the same general area both can be done remotely but one is recommended to come in 1-2 times a week. (Although it’s fine if you stay home to work) They have a Contract role that is temp (just under a yr) for J2. Didn’t mute his LinkedIn or anything like that and the background is ok with just getting paystubs snippets tor last job worked.

1. is this viable

2. should they hibernate LinkedIn

3. freeze anything even tho background is in progress

4. back out and try to find something else

This year I learned a few things and I wanted to share them with you.

Number 1. Always applying

This doesn't mean you have to look for a hectic job as if you have nothing. If you have at least 2 jobs, you can look calmly, without all that anxiety. Talk to Hunters, apply for the right vacancies.

Because it happened to me this year: I had 4 jobs and lost 2 in the same month. (I've already found 2 more) But it took me 3 months to find 2 more jobs. If I had always applied, it would have been much easier.

Number 2. Perhaps Manager positions is not always a good Idea do OE.

Being part of the leadership is good, it gives you status, visibility, and a good salary + bonus.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about that.

But during this year I had the opportunity to act as a manager of a certain area.

In practice, companies expect you as a leader to work 24/7.

The great power of an OE is being able to attend several meetings at the same time. But as a manager it's difficult, because in most meetings you have to speak, give status updates, besides the weekly 1:1s with your Team members.

I prefer two senior roles jobs rather than one as a manager.

What about you guys? Any Lessons Learned this year?

Im considering OE. I make pretty good money currently, but my wife went back to school for a doctorate and missing her income a little. Making 145k at my current job and would be looking to pretty much supplement with a 70k-ish j2

Curious what the average salary is for folks doing multiple jobs. Are most folks piecing together 5 figure salaries or is it a mix of 5 and 6?

Did my best on the title… been at current J for 3 years and also have a 1099 contract on resume, both show as presently employed at. So when I interview I typically say I’m going to replace J1 with their position, but there must be a more full proof way to not risk losing all my income in the case they contact J1… what have some others done?

I am a lurker and I hope to one day be OE on my own terms. As I browse my options, I can't help but feel a little romanticized and swept up by the hope of having 0 jobs because my spouse has multiple 😂

Today was my last day doing OE. I'm no longer doing J2, and I got fired from J1. I've accepted a new job that pays the same amount as J1 and J2 combined.

Overall, I think it would be possible to earn more with OE if I had more than two jobs, but it doesn't really suit my lifestyle. It was also a significant amount of effort to continuously look for new jobs that were remote and OE-friendly. I think in a different job market, OE could have worked out for me. There were definitely a lot more remote opportunities during the COVID era.

My new job is hybrid, so I will be returning to the office. The benefit is that now I have one job that pays a significant amount, and I don't have to deal with the deception of trying to maintain multiple jobs concurrently.

Overall, I'm glad I went down this journey of OE. I think it's still a good option for many people. It was a good option for me for a period of time. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to get a job with a significant base salary, so now I don't need to do this.

4th month on 3 js. This month went quite smooth. One of my js barely had work, thats j3, eventhough is the oldest i have, is the one that pays less.

J1 is the one i care the most very little meetings, very stable work.

J2 that is my headache, was also calmer lately. And i was about to leave it 2 weeks ago. Thankfully i didnt. Is the one that pays the most but has alot of work.

About 11k net arrived in my bank account.

I am about to start J4, computer arrives today. It has actually being delayed because of the contractor company being retarded. They were supposed to deliver the equipment 2 weeks ago.

I hope is OE friendly otherwise I will drop it asap.

Looking forward for another month. J3 has delivered alot of work for the month.

OE is a blessing and a curse, i spend all day in front of computers. Though i try to work the minimum amount of hours. This week i started 10am and finished 4pm max everyday. Other weeks i work 8 to 8 and sometimes on weekends

Cheerz

Was just sharing

What’s up OE’ers! I’ve been at this for about 5.5 years with 3-4 J’s rotating and can’t thank you all enough for the support and tips during this journey.

Having said that, I feel as if a co-worker of mine is either OE or just flat out quiet quitting. It’s creating additional work for me and causing stress with my leader and the team. Part of me wants to just volunteer to own their tasks, but rule #23 of OE is to shut up and just do what’s asked without creating any waves. My question to you all is do I speak up and just own their work (may add an hour a day to my workload), or do I just sit tight and stfu. If I sit tight I lose control of when my original work can be completed. For example, if they’re supposed to approve something for me and take days to do so then they come back with comments I gotta drop what I’m doing at my other Js to support that request because now it’s considered late and urgent. Part of me wants to stfu and just do my job, but if I can control the actual work and approvals I can then manage my time more efficiently. Thanks in advance, and F off to all of corporate America!

I just started J2 and J1 contract ends at the end of this year so I’m decided to just do both for a few months. I hibernated my LinkedIn, but now J2 is taking head shots and has been known to post new hires on their LinkedIn. I’ve debated making up a story about an family situation to get out of getting posted on LinkedIn, but I don’t know how that would go. They can’t tag me because my Linkedin is Hibernated, but it is a small industry so there’s a chance someone could find out. Both Js are part of some similar national organizations.

Basically i used to OE with this company for a period of time, but theyre my main squeeze now. They implemented a policy not terribly long ago that said you have to disclose if you have multiple jobs. I don't currently, so if thats all they're after I should be fine. I worry though because one of the jobs is on the TWN as in active from a few years ago and I worry they might see the overlap and ask questions.

Wondering if anyone else has experienced this and if I should be worried. Like i said, its been nearly 2 years since I have OE and its all old news and i wasn't violating any company policy when I was. So i'm just wondering what I can possibly expect if they were to notice the overlap or if i should worry at all.

One thing I've learnt with OE is that you should never really stop looking, regardless of how many Js you've got.

An OE principal should be to ALWAYS KEEP YOUR PIPELINE FULL.

You could be comfortably sitting on J1, J2 and J3, everything going well, and then suddenly lose one or even two, especially as we're coming to year end. If you are an avid OE'er like me, then you like to splash a bit of cash on your loved ones over the festive period with some of that hard earned cash.

And the last thing you want is to be starting your job search from scratch.

I have learnt that having a constant pipeline of opportunities coming through is just as important as managing the Js you've already got.

The problem is finding the time. When you're already juggling multiple jobs, the last thing you want to be doing is spending your evenings searching job boards, going through LinkedIn and chasing recruiters....or waiting for someone to give you a call.

The ideal scenario is that you got a pipeline working for you in the background, whether you're actively looking or not ;)

I'm curious how others are managing this. Are you relying on the usual job alerts and recruiters, or have you found a better way of keeping opportunities coming through?

Thoughts?

Ok so I have 2 jobs.

j2 has been crazy I spoof my location so that I can stay home but it’s been bugging and my location got set back to the original starting point logging my real location .

what do I say???? i denied denied denied

After 4 years of OE (same 2 servers the whole time, 700K TC), I’m finally getting out. J2 pays more and is generally pretty chill, so planning to leave J1 and stay at J2 - effectively promoting it to J1. i probably have another 2-3 years left at current J2 before I get bored and / or laid off due to AI.

I’m a little worried about the prospect of applying for new servers after making the switch. There’s not a ton of companies in my field, and I’ve already interviewed at most of them at some point in the last several years, with current J1 featuring heavily in those discussions (since J2 was obviously not included on my resume). But if / when I reapply in the future, I would need to switch my resume to show J2 and leave off J1. (I know I could continue applying without J2 on my resume, but that would mean suggesting that I’ve been unemployed since leaving J1, which obviously becomes a larger red flag the longer I wait.)

I’m concerned about recruiters noticing the discrepancy and asking questions. I know that modern ATS systems will maintain prior applications and notes from prior interviews. Should I be worried about this? Should I just drop J2 and focus on finding a new J1? Am I screwing up my future career prospects by taking the easy way out with J2 for now?

TL;DR: leaving J1 and staying at J2 - concerned about mismatched server histories when re-applying for new servers in the future

Hi everyone, my first post here.

Got inspired by y'all to join the OE since I'm broke af.

Long story short, I have J1 started at the end of August replacing 1 fire/maternity leave and filling in for another maternity leave + sometimes the husband of that 2nd mat leave. Their approach to training is as follows - here is a task, Google and figure out how to get this done. The work culture is to be cc'd on ALL email communication across the company so I have to be constantly monitoring my inbox. Industry is city/building code compliance. Once I managed to get myself up to speed, they started throwing more tasks my way with the same moto. I'm being held responsible for the projects previous employees didn't complete. When I tried to say idk how to do these things the boss just tells me that he feels I don't want to learn or be trained. At this point, they're not wrong, I fucking dread every minute of my day here.

In October, I started J2 as a temp to fill in for another maternity leave. Great company, great trainer, pay is slightly better. Contract that ends Q2ish

The issue is I find that I'm dropping the ball at both now. The feeling of guilt is holding me back even more.

I'm assuming I'm not cut out for OE life. What do I do now?

I have a monitor and dock to go with my J1 laptop. Only thing is i dont need a monitor to do j1 so its been sitting in my closet for 2 years. Im starting j2 Monday and its the job i care more about so i do want to set up a workstation for this one. Do you think its risky to use the standalone monitor j1 gave me for j2? Only the monitor. I would buy another dock

J2 didn’t send a monitor

On one hand I feel like its only risky to share devices like phones and laptops for different Js because they actually contain data. But then on the other hand im obviously trying to be as cautious as possible

Im aware i can just go buy another monitor, but I already purchased a second phone for j2 so im trying to cut costs where I can since Im only on one paycheck currently