Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Why Overemployment Is a Profession-Limiting Transfer

This text is crossposted from IEEE Spectrum’s careers publication. Join now to get insider suggestions, professional recommendation, and sensible methods, written in partnership with tech profession improvement firm Taro and delivered to your inbox at no cost!

Throughout the COVID pandemic, as distant work grew to become the norm, the thought of secretly juggling two full-time jobs gained traction. This was the “overemployed” craze, and the /r/overemployed subreddit ballooned to just about half one million members. The dream was to earn double the revenue, speed up the trail to monetary freedom, and subtly defy company America.

As we’ve come again to bodily places of work, overemployment has develop into much less widespread, however I used to be shocked when an engineer just lately instructed me he was working two full-time jobs. He was having fun with the additional pay, however he was additionally wired about protecting secrets and techniques from each his managers. Past the anxiousness of juggling two jobs, overemployment is clearly a career-limiting transfer for engineers.

Past the plain contractual breaches—most full-time employment agreements explicitly forbid this type of moonlighting with out consent—overemployment is solely a foul concept.

With overemployment, you’re primarily attempting to “get by” in two roles. As an alternative of constructing robust relationships and genuinely contributing, you could carry out a fragile balancing act, hoping neither employer catches on. That is extremely short-sighted. Your profession development isn’t about accumulating firm logos; it’s concerning the expertise you purchase, the impression you make, and the individuals who can advocate for you. You’ll develop exponentially quicker—and admittedly, have much more enjoyable— for those who commit absolutely to 1 function.

The non permanent monetary bump of overemployment comes at a steep worth; your coworkers will probably cease trusting you. This concern will increase as you develop into extra senior. On the Workers or Principal Engineer stage, your job will rely upon the relationships you’ve constructed and your capability to work with (and thru) different individuals. Overemployment, particularly when it’s a covert operation, is a elementary violation of belief. How will you present significant mentorship or actually collaborate if you’re hiding a large a part of your skilled life? I don’t consider it’s doable.

The final word profession hack is kind of easy: commit absolutely to a job the place you’re surrounded by good coworkers in an organization that’s rising quickly. That is far simpler (and extra moral) than overemployment. This recommendation applies equally to engineers who consider they’ll do a number of private initiatives alongside their full-time job.

The compounding impact of actual talent improvement, robust skilled relationships, and single-threaded focus will present considerably higher returns than any short-term double-dipping scheme. And it’ll be extra enjoyable!

—Rahul

What the Chips Act Seems to be Like Now

The U.S. CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 aimed to reestablish superior manufacturing for logic and reminiscence within the United States. The CHIPS Workplace agreed to greater than US$30 billion within the roughly two months earlier than Trump took workplace: Try our map of the place initiatives with greater than US$1 million in funding are situated. Issues have gotten deathly quiet since then, however new administrations typically press pause to look at what they need to maintain and alter.

Learn extra right here.

Profile: The Telecommunications Pioneer Who Helped Join the World

With out Seizo Onoe, cellphone networks wouldn’t be the supply of world connectivity we all know at the moment. Within the early Nineties, particular person areas and carriers had constructed their very own telecommunications infrastructures utilizing totally different applied sciences and protocols. An industry-wide, standardized mobile telecommunications infrastructure was wanted. Onoe was instrumental in aligning corporations’ and international locations’ infrastructures as 3G networks took form, and went to play a key function within the creating 4G requirements as effectively.

Learn extra right here.

European Fee Releases Code of Follow for Generative AI

Have you ever created an LLM that was skilled utilizing greater than 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 floating-point operations and is utilized in Europe? Then it falls underneath the aegis of the Union’s new AI laws—the primary a part of which went into impact final week. The legislation is advanced, so the European Fee has created easier-to-parse tips for builders and operators to comply with that ought to maintain them on the appropriate aspect of regulators.

Learn extra right here.

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