Moonlighting
Moonlighting
(OP)
Just got my PE. Now I want to build my design portfolio. I've offered my services to just about every manager in my company. No one's come to me with work yet. I've been thinking about doing side stuff on my own. I have a few questions for those who moonlight.
How has the experience been?
How'd you get started?
Did your boss ever know?
How has the experience been?
How'd you get started?
Did your boss ever know?





RE: Moonlighting
Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08; CATIA V5
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
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SolidWorks Legion
RE: Moonlighting
TTFN
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RE: Moonlighting
Check your contract of employment to see if this situation is covered in the small print!
Regards, HM
No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary - William of Occam
RE: Moonlighting
...and for God's sake, charge enough to make it worthwhile! Don't devalue the services of your employer and every other engineer out there by giving it away for free...
RE: Moonlighting
I have done it when working for others, but with their knowledge and in an area that presented no conflict of interest.
RE: Moonlighting
I do agree with Ron et al... inform your employer (you're asking for trouble if you don't). Also, as others have mentioned, make sure to keep it completely separate from your day job. I don't even take calls for my personal business unless I'm out of the office.
Most of all, don't kill yourself. If your firm agrees with your intent, then only do what you think you can handle. I'm currently working about 65-70 hours a week, but I have no kids, my fiancee is very understanding, and I love what I do.
Good luck. Let us know how it turns out.
V
RE: Moonlighting
Any moolighting I do is completely unrelated to what I do at work, and I mean really unrelated, not just a different sector of industry (mostly bartending at catered events where someone they know or a client might see me).
I still informed my boss. Here in California my employer has very little control over what I choose to do on my own time, however I gave them the opportunity to tell me their preference, despite the law. Better to keep them informed.
"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"
RE: Moonlighting
RE: Moonlighting
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"Pumping accounts for 20% of the world's energy used by electric motors and 25-50% of the total electrical energy usage in certain industrial facilities."-DOE statistic (Note: Make that 99% for pipeline companies) http://virtualpipeline.spaces.live.com/
RE: Moonlighting
KaBone...your plan, at least the last part of it sounds like a recipe for strawberry-stained toes, twisted ankles and indigestion, but sounds like you are young enough to handle it.
"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"
RE: Moonlighting
Ron
RE: Moonlighting
RE: Moonlighting
I went out and got a business registration the next day- they would not pay my invoices without it (nor will most businesses worth their salt).
From then on, it was merely saying yes when asked by people to do work which was clearly outside my employer's line of business. Whenever it was a client of my employer, I disclosed to my employer and gave them first right of refusal before accepting. I never had to actively solicit work.
And it usually comes at absolutely the wrong time.
RE: Moonlighting
1. The No. 1 reason that people do moolighting is because they are underpaid.
2. All employers started by moolighting, it is fair game to them. They will know about your moolighting before you bring your first dentist appointement as a reason for leaving the office.
3. You live by the sword, you shall die by the sword. Be ready to lose your job if your work suffers, most employers will leave you alone if you continue performing as usual. It is better than giving you a raise to keep you from moolighting. It's nothing personnal, it's strictly business.
I moolighted for quiete a while, quite Frankly, if I did not, I would not have survived.
It is easy to moolight doing design work, but when meetings and construction RFI's and punch lists, surveys, etc come in and need your immediate attention while your boss wants the job out by noon, it can get really tough, your vacation time will disapear very quickly. That's what makes most moolighters quit, like I did.
Like moltenmetal said here: Please price it right, and make it worthwhile. Remember, beware of those clients that tell you, do this for a low fee this time and I will have a lot of work for you. What they mean "they will have a lot more cheap work for you".
RE: Moonlighting
NEVER skip work to do moonlighting work. Abuse those sick days and Murphy's Law tells you you're going to get sick and NEED them.
Don't let moonlighting prolong a bad employment situation. You spend too many hours doing your main gig to let that drag you down.
DO use moonlighting as a REASON to NOT donate uncompensated overtime to your main employer any more. People should be paid for the hours they work, whether they're engineers or workers on an assembly line.
With me, moonlighting has never been about being underpaid for my main job: it's about satisfying my full range of engineering interests (and aptitudes and experience) which exceeds my employers' range of business interests. Oh yeah, and about a desire to not let the business use of home income tax exemption go completely to waste!
RE: Moonlighting
RE: Moonlighting
Remember, those who are luring you for moonlighting are cheapscates who would not standby you when you are in trouble.
RE: Moonlighting
RE: Moonlighting
RE: Moonlighting
RE: Moonlighting
I'm very sure, though "uninsured" may not be accurate in every case. It is certainly possible that other professional liability insurance policies don't prohibit professional moonlighting, at least in some disciplines.
Here in California, civil engineering (my and OP's profession) is a "Title Act" discipline, while chemical (your profession) is a "Practice Act" discipline. The legal standings of the two are quite different, as are the liability implications.
Years ago I was a principal in a small civil/surveying firm. Our professional liability insurance policy stipulated that moonlighting by professional civil engineers and surveyors in their licensed profession was prohibited, but I don't remember the exact language or all the implications. As I recall, if we knew about the moonlighting, our coverage was void; if we didn't know, it was still in force. Our policy was professional moonlighting results in termination. We didn't care about nonprofessional moonlighting. My current firm has the same policy.
The lawyers have made sure, at least in some cases, that a professional liability issue that occurs on a moonlight job can ping the employer's policy, whether or not the moonlighter has a separate policy. That why the insurers I am familiar with prohibit professional moonnlighting.