Brief intro: Never did OE, was on this sub for couple of years always inspired by it, Couldn't find time for OE due to busy personal life and wanted some time to travel. Now i am in a place where i have time and want to try OE. My current job of 4 years is very chill, remote, startup with not too much pressure, i have my area of ownership (that what allowed me to take time for travel). Now i started to look for J2 and I'm curious how to evaluate them.

I got 2 options for J2
option 1: Pays same as J1, hybrid work, start up -> so i believe it has less management but more hands on work which i can do. only hybrid is the concern.
option 2: Pays a bit less than J1, remote, bigger company -> not sure what to expect here, glassdoor reviews are not too good.

I had couple of rounds interviews done for these and i believe only the HR or the final interview is left. Curious about what kind of questions i can ask to see what the life would look like after joining.
I understand it depends on manager and project, but given my current situation is there something i can ask/try to figure out stuff that would help me decide which one to go for?

Just like the title says- I have some sitting in bank and some thinking to invest safely in index.

Usually when I start a new J, the busiest and most intense part of it is the first few months during the onboarding and ramp up period. Learning the tools, acronyms, getting permissions, etc, etc. How do you guys juggle your roles when one is demanding a ton of time?

I been fully remote at a large company for almost 4 years and we have a lot of slow months, even my day to day is slow. It’s in marketing. Probably 2 meetings a week. I felt like we might have layoffs soon, so I applied to new places.

I just got a job offer for another remote role but it’s a marketing agency. Are agencies even OE compatible? Any experience?

My new job is going fully remote. This is a career job and they track everything and need me throughout the day/week but it has slow periods and if not on a deadline is pretty smooth most days.

I will have the choice to move soon when remote kicks in this year but not sure what to do next for more money outside of moving somewhere cheaper or a J2.

I work in CS and used to do entertainment coordination.

I was thinking J2 could be more CS for like a different time zone and also remote or contractual and I just need to meet a quota.

I do fully online work and assisting customers while also drafting contracts, managing expense reports, and accounts.

Is a J2 in my experience level available or worth hunting for or should I just focus on moving somewhere cheaper and enjoy the main role?

Leaving a remote J after 1 month. When you leave so soon, do you exchange contact info with colleagues, manager, etc.?

I work both off the same laptop and switch between tabs. I'm always online on slack and generally respond pretty quickly.

Now j2 wants everyone to download ro.am and use it. From the sounds of it, it tells them when I'm online and what I'm doing, but I can't find any info on their website or Gemini specifically what that means?

They also didn't announce it to us or explain it to us, I just got an email notification to download it

Can it tell if I have a mouse jiggler?

Has anyone used this before?

I have a good run, collected almost 100K net income.

In the lay off call, what would you suggest I do to give them the best “Fuck you” in a professional passive aggressive way? What to say? How to act? Etc.

Contractor type so not sure if there is severance. However agreement does say that if they let me go, it is 4 weeks notice. Does that make me automatically eligible for payment in lieu of notice?

Edit: this sub is full of weirdos. Look at people who commented “grow beyond xyz” “dont burn bridges” “…” all I say to you is do your good and get burned by corporate lol

Had a gig in tech for over a year now. It's my stable shelter, joined another late last year (very surprised but if you're in demand they bring you on). J2 pays 60% more than J1. I run 1099 so no info and TWN/LI frozen from couple of years thanks to this forum. Helped onboard a staff level resource in Q1 who I def. know is OE. VP said you need another resource to add to the good work and that I'm beating expectations.

Anyhoo, the stable J1 mgr wants a 15 mins extra after our scheduled regular meet. Thought something was off and sure enough they cutting down a few roles by end of Q3 including mine. At least there's ample of time, already ramped up reaching out to a few senior folks for new J1. Was planning a 5 day trip in Oct to beat the crowds in EU but now it's going to have to wait. Putting all of J2 in SGOV/SCHD etfs. Will need to knock it out the park for a few more at J2 and new J1.

I told off hand I might need 2/3 days off in Oct while planning while ago. Don't know if he knows this is coming already or management just dumped it. Firms gonna do firm shit and they don't give one flying f about you. You better be prepared. There's no cavalry coming to save you.

Hi,

Just getting my feet wet with all this overemployed lore.

I am currently holding down J1 as an Learning Management System analyst, which is in-office.

If you don’t know about LMS work, it is pretty cozy. So cozy that I feel like I could do two of them without necessarily breaking a sweat

I currently have a lot of downtime in J1, meetings are minimal, and I am probably overachieving.

Could anyone in this helpful community guide me a little bit in the right direction in terms of how to approach J2 and what to look for?

Much appreciated,

My J1 with company 1 started sometime in 2020, started J2 in 2022 with comapny 2 that eneded in 2024, and then started another J2 with company 3 that started in 2024 and eneded recently. Now i found another J2 and in Background check with Sterling. In my resume, i have listed J1 eneded in 2022. My TWN ia frozen. Today they sent me an email asking to unfreeze TWN to verify J1, they did not gave me option to upload w2 or paystub. I submitted my paystib and W2 for all three roles as per resume wile sumbitting initial application for background check. Seem they are having issue with my J1 ans orher two are cleared. I talked called their cuatomer care, pretend I dont know about the freeze and may be my bank did it for idenity theft. The customer care guy said there are no other options and i should contact the hiring company directly and check if they are okay with W2 verification. Not sure how to approach this. Anyone had suggestion how to handle this, did not had issue in the previous background check. How to navigate this and not sabotage at this point; I am supposed to start in two weeks. I am on the side of not doing anything and let them reach back to me, but i am also worried if that would jeopardize. I think unfreezing twn is not an option. I would appreciate any suggeation.

Searched the sub and found other posts where interviewer asked for last 4 + ID Check. My interviewer didn’t ask for last 4. They were not Indian. I held up an ID but it was pretty quick. Applied through the main company website. In beginning of interview had me do a few camera checks too, very subtly lol. Those few details make me think it wasn’t a scam like the other posts and that it was a legit verification check. Curious if others have had to do similar in the job market nowadays.

I started J3 this week and I’m considering suspending my linkedin account for a while, would be that a good idea?

in tech. my niche I’m good at. every job for the last 5 years has been a cake walk due to my experience. I’m left with only 2hr of real work a day if that.

I don’t want to be “unethical”. I’m “loyal” to my company and do stellar job.

i just want to use my skillset, and do more, and make more money so my wife can stay at home with our baby. im not wanting to scam anyone. my work will be better than anyone on the team. im literally wanting to work. the opposite of “a lazy generation”

god forbid I want to provide for my family while doing the thing I love to do and providing great work

The actual work of OE is fine. It's the interview loops that eat you alive. Recruiter screens wedged into lunch. A systems design round at 2pm scheduled against [your real standup situation]. And the whole time you're context switching between codebases, so when someone asks "tell me about a conflict with a coworker" your brain serves up absolutely nothing.

Stuff that actually moved the needle for me:

Reading the JD like a question bank. Every bullet in requirements becomes a question. "Fast-paced environment" means they'll ask how you handle chaos. Every tool they name gets a depth probe. You can predict most of a loop from the posting alone.

Voice noting my stories once and replaying them before screens. Way better retention than rereading notes.

Full disclosure since this sub can smell a shill from orbit: I got annoyed enough at the 2pm panic problem that I built a tool for it (GhostPilotAI). Overlay that screen share doesn't see, catches the question while your brain is still buffering. Not linking it, it's googleable, and honestly the JD decode method above is free and gets you most of the way.

What's everyone else's loop stacking setup? The calendar tetris alone deserves its own thread.

I joined this sub about a month ago and have been lurking ever since. One thing I've been wondering is—are there any Indians here who are doing OE?

If yes, I'd love to hear how you manage it.

- Are you doing OE with two Indian remote companies, or is it an Indian company + an international remote company?

- How do you deal with things like PF, tax records, or background verification? Doesn't your other employer eventually find out?

- Do you keep LinkedIn updated, or just avoid it altogether?

I'm completely new to the idea of OE, so apologies if these are basic or naive questions. I'd really appreciate any advice, lessons learned, or things you wish you'd known before starting.

PS: Yes, I used AI to clean this post up. Kindly don't judge. 🙃

UK - Just got off the call with a recruiter. The job ticks off all my requirements but it’s most definitely breaking OE rules.

This would be a J4 (£60k, seems a mid role. Manager wants someone willing to learn aka not senior but also wearing a few hats), BUT it’s:

1. A competitor to J1 (£51k. Low effort)
2. They will go through SC. SC is my golden ticket for contracting. I’d happily drop J1 for this as SC = niche contract roles paying stupid rates.

The questions are:

1. Do I keep it as J4 and go through SC, declaring all my other jobs?
2. Do I drop J1 and take this new job?

Hi guys, first time poster here. I am not OE but a chance has come up where I might be. My current J1 is a contract until December with the possibility of extension to April 2027. Finance integration work , 20h tops a week but getting payed handsomely, full remote. I have an interview next week for a tech firm for a junior Investments role (my main line of work is M&A), this will also be full remote. Now, it's too early to say whether I'll be getting this job but just thinking beforehand about my situation. In case they offer me the position, I would be joining by September.

Should I tell them I am contracted as a retainer and will be doing like 5h/week for J1 until Dec or April next year, which will not be far from the truth? Or should I just not disclose anything?

I do not know how the hours will be at J2 but am expecting at least 40h-50h a week.

Both J1 and possible J2 are/will be on B2B contract basis with me, so legally I am not really liable for anything if they find out and J1 does not really care since they are very pleased with my work till now.

I have just secured j2 but found out they use the same insurance provider as J1, I also can’t get marketplace insurance due to ineligibility. Is there anything I can do?

Edited to add: I’m an immigrant so I can’t use the excuse of marketplace insurance. I’m not married nor am I under 26. The team is really small and aware I’m not a citizen. Hr is done by team members. Just making sure I’m not at risk for anything

My J1 is going through layoffs for a bit now but they have not laid me off, I presume because I was previously on disability not because I am providing substantial value since I have never had good performance reviews. I have a contract that says no J2 so I’m afraid since they’re bleeding cash and also are probably mad at me for still being around when higher performers were laid off, that they’d actually sue. No LinkedIn but on J2 website.

I have a specific question. First of all, I did freeze my work number account. My specific situation is my job 1 is from July 2018 to September 2023. Job 2 is from November 2022 to now.
My current job is a consulting company. I have sent my resume to the client, which is listed job 1 July 2018 to October 2022 and job 2 from November 2022 to now to avoid my current company discovering that I have dual employment.
What should I do to avoid my current company discovering my dual employment and also pass the client background check?

In my professional career, I have only moved up, sales to analyst to manager. I’m currently in manager’s role with a lot of autonomy and although my career (commercial risk management) isn’t the best for over employed I am giving it a shot by applying to analyst roles that I know I can do with minimal effort.

When I’ve interviewed for jobs in the past, I know all the right things to say for someone who was looking to progress in their professional career but now that, in J2 eyes, I’m going from manager down to analyst role I’m unsure how I should frame my reason for job hunting.

Does anyone have experience applying for a role that is lower/less responsibilities than your current role?

Hi all, I currently have J1, J2 and J3 and today I had a Teams incident that I'm yet to know if it will be a problem.

Just to give a context, all Js are reasonably separate from each other, J1 is in a VM, J2 is on Citrix and J3 on the company laptop that I don't use for anything else, so its unlikely to share something that shouldn't be shared between all Js and I'm very careful while on calls and specially while screen sharing.

Today I had a problem, I was on a Teams Call with a colleague (not a boss or manager) from J1 and suddenly I got a call from the PMO on J2. I kinda panicked and answered before muting the call on J1.

I was pissed because I hate when people just call without messaging first but also how dumb I was from answering the call instead of dismissing and the by fact that I panicked.

After thinking about what happened and how should I do to mitigate this I decided to change the ringtone on all teams to the non default so its not instantly obvious that I'm getting a teams call from somewhere else, I also changed the notification sound as well.

So, how do you handle multiple teams from different J?

I worked a few 6 month contract roles about 2 to 3 years ago that overlapped with my full time job, so I never included them on my LinkedIn. My master resume also does not include those projects. Now I am being contacted by a different staffing vendor for a new contract at the same company, and I am not sure what the best approach is. Should I continue submitting my master resume without those projects, or create a separate version that includes them? Has anyone been in a similar situation, and what would you recommend?

Is anyone worried that AI could make mouse jigglers much easier to spot? Companies already collect activity data, meeting history, commits, logins, and device telemetry. A basic model could probably correlate all of that and flag patterns that look unnatural. Does this seem like a real future risk, or just paranoia?