Chasing Paper: A Millennial's Take on the Gig Economy

I haven't driven for rideshare (or a delivery service) in a couple months and have taken a recent break from working to reflect on life and get back into a career track again. Having lived on my own for awhile without a job, in order to maintain independence, I had to do something. But what did I do? How did I survive without having a scheduled job for 2.5 years?

When I first lost my job, I had some money left in my savings account, as well as some remaining checks to receive from the job. While that was all dwindling away, my friends told me I could make a living driving for Uber and Lyft as my new fulltime job. I thought I was doing fine, but I was burning a hole through my wallet and then some. My car needed a lot of repairs and gas cost a pretty penny. Having to full up several times a week and taking away the value from my car, I wasn't aware how much I was spending. After awhile of driving, I also wasn't taking care of myself because I felt the urge to chase paper. By that I mean I was driving myself to exhaustion and driving for unsafe amounts of time to make as much money as possible. I also gained the 60 pounds back I worked so hard to lose. I felt like I was fishing for scraps and not getting anywhere. Rideshare was winning and I was losing...

Eventually, I decided I needed to cut back on driving. The amount of money I lost exceeded the amount I made and I needed to find other ways to make money while excessively job hunting. Job hunting sadly had no use. I would find some jobs I'd take in any respect such as data entry, dog walking, and verifying background checks. Sadly, I took all of those jobs for the money and not for the passion and lost them all pretty quickly. In the interim of many failed jobs, I would take a bunch of day jobs from people I knew (luckily I know a lot of people), doing crazy things such as working a street fair at a friend's Mexican food and ice cream stand, cleaning houses, working merch tables for music shows, hanging posters, delivery driving, helping people move, and much more. I also sold a bunch of my belongings for some spare rent money. Sometimes, a few people, including my parents, would throw me some financial bones, but not really; I did not depend on help from others. It soon hit a point where I needed to drive to a minimum...

Down the road towards the end of my pure gig shindig, I "did not want to drive no more" and needed to find something else to do. While continuing to job hunt and do odd/day jobs, I eventually discovered the world of gig apps. A gig app is a website that runs on a mobile platform (application) where you can look up and pick up day (or multi day) gigs by clicking a button. Some of these apps are Shiftgig, Jobble, and Wonolo. There are also companies (staffing firms) that host day gigs such as Arete. For awhile I was able to survive solely on odd jobs and gigs, but it is quite the unstable and not necessarily sustainable life. I was in a lot of debt, I needed help (I eventually sought help from a social services place) because I was barely getting by, and I was "making too much to receive government assistance". I also couldn't afford insurance or to pay my student loans back (they're in deferment). It was super lame. I'd get thrown a few financial bones here and there, but not really. I'm sure people were sick and tired of hearing about me struggling for so long.

By the end of this stint, I was worn out, unhappy I had no stability, I gained a bunch of weight, I wasn't taking care of myself, and I eventually hit a dead end when the apartment I had got bedbugs. I completed a few endeavors in my field of choice, but most tasks I did were in the $11-15 an hour range, which isn't a ton of money. I eventually had to move back home, but could have continued to make it on my own had it not been for that. My rent was also extremely inexpensive.

Would I recommend this life to other people? Not really unless you were an entrepreneur or did higher paying gigs that didn't send you into debt... But I survived and that's all that matters!

Nontraditional Ways to Make Money

Ways to Make Money Doing Gigs Via a Mobile App

Ways to Make Money Via a Hospitality or Catering Website

Random Gig-Based Mobile Apps for Making Extra Money

Temp Staffing Firms for Long Term Gigs

Short Term Temp Staffing Firms for Day Gigs

Mobile Apps to Make Money Via a Promotion Code or Through the App

Ways to Make Money with Online Surveys

Online or Mobile Apps to Apply for Jobs

Places to Obtain Freelance Gigs Online

Ways to Make Money Online

Alternative Ways to Make Side Cash

Places to Obtain Freelance Gigs Online

Freelancer
Fiverr
Upwork

Top 3 Most Interesting Gigs I've Had Through 8-24-17

Since Joni Mitchell was a lady of many gigs, as am I, here are the top 3 most interesting gigs I’ve had over the course of this last year and a half:


1. I have been in between jobs for the better part of time since February 2016 and have been living the gig life. This first brief gig entailed me selling Hello Fresh products aka meal kit delivery services similar to Blue Apron. How would you feel if you were randomly out on the street in the city and asked if you liked to cook by some stranger in an apron... when there was bad weather outside? Imagine being the stranger in the apron standing outside in the cold trying to play the hustle game? That's what I did for just under 3 weeks. When I walked in the door for this “job of a lifetime”, it felt like I was told, “welcome to your commission-only job, where the name of the game was, "have fun and make money". After arriving at 17 N. State Street in the morning, I walked into this standing-only room into a meeting called "atmosphere", where we would go over the pitch and do some training in the morning before going out into the field. I had a mentor who would work in atmosphere meetings with me to teach me the pitch. It took me awhile to learn the pitch, but after several days, I eventually got it down. Everyone was super helpful and kind to me the entire time, which was nice. After atmosphere meetings, someone would come to the front of the room for an "impact" meeting, which was a lesson on how to sell shit. Sometimes, there would also be conference calls with the top representatives in the US, which also explained to us how to sell shit. The field was a very rough and cutthroat place. It looked all smiley and dancey and like you have pep in your step, but it was getting cold since it was around November and the field was outside on the street you and your group were assigned to. Each day in the field on average I managed to make 1 sale a day. Some days I made 0 and one day I made 3, which is called “ringing the bell”; the next day at work, you’d get announced before going out to the field in “noise”, which is honoring the people who made 3 or more sales in a day. My dear roommate friends noticed how unhappy I was when I would walk in the door and would often pass out on the couch; I had also been eating out a lot and unable to work out as much as necessary. When it was time for my appointment with my therapist, he told me to get the hell out of there; that was a sign. After spending two and a half weeks at this place, I told the commission-only job I was done. I needed to make more than $150 dollars in a week period. No, this "experience" is not going on my resume. While I am now looking for a new full-time job that won't mysteriously end 2 weeks after my start date and driving for Uber/Lyft in the meantime, this gig of mine has told me I am a lot more worthy than asking random strangers on the street if they like to cook!

2. One of the places I’ve had some decent luck finding gigs is on Craigslist. I randomly found an ad saying they needed people to wear costumes by Wiener’s Circle in less than 24 hours for decent pay. I decided to contact the poster, not expecting a reply, and received a reply to my surprise. The person told me they wanted to call me via Skype at 5:30pm that day. I also had a performance at 6pm that night I had to get to and it was a 15 minute drive. I jump on the Skype call, find out I got the gig, and rushed over to my performance. I found out the gig was to wear a hot dog costume in front of Wiener’s Circle to advertise for a minor league baseball team… from 6:30am to 10:30am in the morning. RIP! I’m not used to being up that early in the morning, but decided to do it anyways for the money’s sake. When I arrive at the Wiener’s Circle at super early in the morning, I was given my hot dog costume and left to stand around for a little bit. Since it’s super early and there was a DJ at this event, he decided to play the Cupid Shuffle and the Cha Cha Slide. So here I was, dancing around in a hot dog suit at early o’clock in the morning with a bunch of other people in hot dog costumes. As the morning progressed, a bunch of news stations came to record us holding signs for the Chicago Dogs minor league baseball team and waving. They also recorded us playing wiffle ball in these costumes. A bunch of standing around happened in between all of the madness. When I eventually checked my phone, a bunch of people, including my roommate friends, said they saw me on TV. I had always wanted to be on TV and finally got the opportunity to!

3. I also got to be on TV a second time in the same week! This time, it was a bit more of a surprise! I had applied to another freelance gig on Craigslist and ended up getting a call back. I trek to Michigan Avenue for an interview and get a call a few days later saying I got a gig. The gig was at 1:45am to do what I thought was to “help set up for an event” at the Garfield Park Conservatory. When I arrive at the conservatory, I get there and see some snacks and coffee, balloons, and plastic silverware. After having some coffee and noms, I was instructed to help roll up silverware. After rolling up silverware for awhile and talking to the other people in the room because we were all artists, the man in charge of the gig told me to come outside into the hallway and put a vest on in order for the security guards to know I was allowed into the conservatory. I’m then greeted by a man named Mike who claims he’s worked with plants for a long time. He tells me to water these pods for awhile while we’re having a general conversation. While I’m watering the pods, Mike pulls out a “forbidden plant” from his bag that was one of his coworker’s babies, but he got fired for it because he wasn’t allowed to have this Cuban accelerator plant at the conservatory. Mike then touched his orange to the plant and the plant began multiplying in size and sprouting a fruit the size of an orange in it. He throws the plant back in his bag and steps outside to call his manager. His manager doesn’t answer because there’s no signal. Meanwhile I’m still remaining super chill and not having much of a reaction to anything because I don’t get scared easily. He then takes the plant back out of his bag to notice it’s multiplied even more in size and began taking human form. It was sprouting a face, eyes, nose, and even looking and blinking at me. I thought it was some kind of magic trick or illusion. He proceeded to tell me the plant was morphing due to the “Carbonaro Effect” and I’m like “whaaaaaa???” And then he tells me the Carbonaro Effect is a TV show and I’ve been pranked. I was like, “cool, I’ve always wanted to be on TV”. We both start laughing, he walked me out of the room into another room where I signed some waivers and showed my ID, was given $100 bucks for an hour and 45 minutes of my time, told I'd air in September or fall time, and escorted to my car. Someday I will be famous and now is my time to shine!

Freelance Website List

Here are some ways to make money on the interwebs! I also add "Postmates" to this list as well! You can also drive for Uber and Lyft if you want too ;)