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The economic landscape has changed dramatically in recent years. With high inflation and fears of a recession, personal finances are tighter for many professionals. If you work in data science or a related field, you may be looking for ways to supplement your income during these difficult times. The good news is that demand for data skills remains high and there are plenty of opportunities to earn extra money.
In this article, we’ll explore seven lucrative side hustles that are well-suited for data scientists and other technical professionals. Whether you want to offer your data expertise as a consultant, create online courses, do freelance analytics work, or explore other business ideas, you can take advantage of the flexibility of side jobs and passive income.
Teaching is still a well-paying job in the field of data science. You can create an online course and get paid through platforms like YouTube, DataCamp, Udemy, Skillshare, LinkedIn Learning, and 365 Data Science. Or you can become a visiting professor at a university to teach a data science course. For those interested in continuing education, you can start your own academy or bootcamp to train aspiring data professionals.
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By sharing your knowledge through structured lessons and programs, whether online or in person, you can make a great income teaching as a side hustle. With data skills still in high demand, students will be eager to learn from experienced professionals. Teaching allows you to set your own schedule and reach a global audience of students hungry for real-world data science experience.
Freelancing is a great way for data science professionals to gain varied experience and get paid for their expertise. As a freelancer, you are your own boss and set the schedule and terms of projects. This control and flexibility can be very rewarding. There are many platforms to find freelance jobs, including Upwork, Fiverr, Toptal, and LinkedIn.
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You can showcase your projects and capabilities on these sites and your professional network to attract clients. As you develop your personal brand and portfolio, people will start looking for freelancing opportunities. Freelancing allows you to expand your skills and work with different companies and industries.
Technical writing on platforms like Medium and Substack can be great for generating extra income. You can choose a specific niche within data science to write about regularly. As you build an audience and following, you can monetize through payments per article view as well as recurring revenue from subscribers. Many technical writers make six-figure incomes simply from creating content on these sites. You can also search for contract technical writing jobs from companies that need documentation, tutorials, blogs, and other materials.
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Demand for quality tech writing is strong, and your insider knowledge of data science can give you an advantage. Write consistently in your chosen subfield and promote your articles to gain paying subscribers over time. With the right niche and regular publications, technical writing can become a steady source of income.
You can consult with local companies to help improve your analytics, tools, data infrastructure, and modeling capabilities. Or provide remote consulting sessions to companies across the country and world.
As a consultant, you will leverage your experience to review current business challenges and provide strategic recommendations to improve data practices. You can offer short-term consulting work to diagnose problems and provide a roadmap for improvement. Or act as an ongoing advisor on longer projects to oversee implementation.
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The demand for expert data science guidance makes consulting extremely profitable, with hourly rates often exceeding standard salaries. You can consult across many industry verticals promoting your specialized skills in certain domains. Over time, consulting gives you exposure to various business problems while allowing you to expand your experience.
While it’s not a steady stream of income, participating in data science competitions can be a lucrative side hustle. Platforms like Kaggle have competitions with prize pools of $60,000 to $500,000 USD and more. Even winning or ranking high a couple of times a year can equal or exceed your regular annual salary.
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Although success is not guaranteed, with the right skills you can earn thousands of dollars solving real-world machine learning challenges. The key is to understand the platforms and continually participate in competitions aligned with your experience. While competition earnings should not replace a stable income, for those confident in their data science skills, competitions provide opportunities to capitalize on their talent.
With at least 5 years of industry experience, data professionals can offer professional advisory services as a well-paying side job. You may be paid hourly to provide guidance to recent graduates or those looking to transition into data roles. Platforms like Skilled allow you to charge for mock interviews, resume reviews, and general career advice.
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You can also find private clients interested in personalized coaching to enter this field. During paid sessions, you’ll provide expert advice on the data science recruiting and interview process. You will recommend courses, projects, and other steps to become a strong candidate. Their real-world understanding of hiring practices and qualifications is extremely valuable. Mentoring is also rewarding as it directly allows people to advance their careers.
Collaborating on projects can lead to high-paying opportunities for data professionals. You may receive invitations to partner on commercial projects, startups, or open source initiatives. While some collaborations are unpaid, many come with compensation, especially if you treat them as contract work. When you are brought onto a team for your expertise, negotiate fair payment for your time and contributions, even if you believe in the project. There are also platforms like Omdena that offer paid collaborative data science projects that you can participate in.
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Contributing to open source projects on GitHub can also open up lucrative opportunities for data professionals. Many popular open source data tools have corporate sponsors who hire members of the contributor community. By consistently contributing quality code and documentation, you can get noticed and onboarded. Their open source work serves as proof of their skills.
Outside of potential employment, active GitHub contributors can be sponsored directly through GitHub Sponsors. Popular repositories can attract financial support from users who trust the project. Even without direct sponsorship, your open source reputation can lead to hiring and consulting offers.
With demand for data skills remaining strong even during economic uncertainty, data professionals have an advantage when it comes to high-paying side jobs. Whether you want to consult, teach online courses, complete freelance analytics projects, write technical content, or participate in data science competitions, there are many ways to leverage your expertise.
With the flexibility and rewarding potential of side jobs, data scientists and technical professionals can thrive financially even when corporate salaries stagnate. Instead of limiting yourself to traditional employment, embrace business ideas that allow you to monetize your skills.
Abid Ali Awan (@1abidaliawan) is a certified professional data scientist who loves building machine learning models. Currently, he focuses on content creation and writing technical blogs on data science and machine learning technologies. Abid has a Master’s degree in technology Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Telecommunications Engineering. His vision is to build an artificial intelligence product using a graph neural network for students struggling with mental illness.
