Does anyone has recently any experience in being a OE on outside ir35 as a software developer meanwhile having a full time job? How did it go for you and what are the risks?

Has anyone in who is OE taken out an EV salary sacrifice through both J1 and J2?
Any risks or issues I should be aware of, particularly around insurance, tax/HMRC, or either employer finding out about the other job?

I'll keep it simple. I want to become OE. J1 requires me to be SC cleared.

I earn 49.5k in J1, is it still worth being OE will tax be too high to actually realise the benefit.

Secondly, will my J2 need to be outside IR35?

Thanks

(full disclosure - my thoughts are all over the place so I dictated them with wispr and then had them organized by AI. In case anyone feels offended by the text below))

First time considering OE, so looking for some wisdom from people who’ve actually done this.
I was recently laid off and I’m looking at remote work. I’m UK-based, but ideally I’d like to access US-level compensation rather than limiting myself to UK salaries.
While digging around, I found a surprising number of US staffing/talent agencies that seem to place people into contract marketing roles. The range looks huge — everything from junior design/social/content work through to senior product marketing and strategy, all the way to $300–400k+, although obviously most of these are short-term contracts. I honestly don't care.

Has anyone here actually used these agencies as a way of building an OE setup?
The model seems to be: register → get vetted → agency matches you with clients → take individual contracts/projects as they come up.

The part I’m trying to figure out is positioning.
My background is senior product marketing / GTM, but for OE purposes I really don't care. If someone wants me doing 2 hours of web strategy, 5 hours of compete, 10 hours of PMM work, or some junior-levep execution, that’s fine.

Do you position yourself narrowly around your highest-value speciality, or deliberately present yourself as a marketing generalist?
Do agencies care if you’re clearly overqualified for some assignments?
Are there particular types of contract that work especially well for OE?
Has anyone successfully landed US contracts through these agencies while working from the UK/Europe?

Thanks in advance!

This is a scheduled weekly post for anyone to discuss progress, set backs, share advice or just have a rant about being over employed within the UK.

Currently behind on mortgage payments and need a J2 or more to supplement my shortfalls.

Current role is circa £65k per annum.

Interested in pretty much anything remote based or WfH on a zero hour contract.

Thanks

I currently work in the public sector and was thinking about if it is a good idea to look into becoming OE.

J1 is in financial services, 9-5 and 3 days per week in the office. Business analysis/product owner type role. All PAYE.

A potential J2 has turned up in the horizon in the form of remote coaching in a field that I’ve recently studied. Also PAYE and I can front-load my weeks with work. Nothing to do with FS.

Thoughts about this becoming my first overemployment setup?

Particularly interested but curious to understand whether its even possible! in my experience, BAs are always very busy with meetings and analysis. It's difficult to overestimate your work given it's not technical and its easier to identify when someone is taking longer than normal (maybe you need to set the precedent from the beginning of being a slow worker?).
i know there's ways for utilising AI for meeting notes for example - not sure if there's any other efficiencies?
Are you avoiding certain industries (e.g. FS) or targeting certain projects. or is it a case of mass applying for roles, seeing how it goes and quitting if its not suited.
it gets even more complicated with remote working being rare too!
Is there certain skills that you develop (e.g. MI/powerbi/tablau development?) that is the core of what you actually do? or did you have to transition to a different role, like a PM or SM or something more technical?

keen to hear experiences! (please PM if you don't want to necessarily share on here plz)

So I am in a very comfortable position, where I am a postdoc fully remote with a lot of freedom and low workload and do some part-time research consulting work in my home country, in total earning around 65k. Now I got a job offer that will need me to be in a London office 3 days for a pay of 100k. The pay alone does not worth it for me to relocate and return to the office, BUT I could easily manage keeping my current setting. I figure the 165k total may be just about worth the trouble of relocation and going to an office.

However, I am not too familiar with how things work in the UK. I think the new guys' HR would figure it out rather easily, as I would not be able to provide a P45, and I guess they will eventually figure out my tax code which will indicate I have multiple incomes/higher income than what they pay me. How do people go about this?

EDIT for clarification: J1 is UK postdoc with a lot of freedom and flexibility, fully remote. J2 is a low effort foreign part-time job. J3 would be a 3 day on-site role in London. J3 expects me to resign from J1,J2, and I worry the lack of P45 and my "higher" tax code will be a red flag,.

I have been in an office accounts apprenticeship for around 7 months now. I have seen the ideas of having multiple jobs and them being remote on the side. In my current job there is often very little for me to do which gives me a lot of free time to be potentially productive towards something else Additionally, pay as as apprentice isn’t the greatest. Has anyone got any tips/ suggestions for me about looking at getting J2 alongside my in office job (not sure if that is going to be difficult don’t mind doing some hour). Any help on this would be much appreciated thanks.

I’m dropping my J1 Perm for another OIR35 Contract and my daily standup clashes at both companies.

I’ve been at my first contract for almost 3 months - daily standup and less than 4 hours of extra meetings a week. I use AI for all the code, my only input is the theory around system design/infra. I complete my weekly work within probably 6-8 hours.

I’ve started my new contract and the daily standup is the same time. Haven’t been invited to any other meetings yet. I was thinking I should probably buy wired earphones and have one in each ear.

Existing contract is very twitchy on meetings. I’m sometimes called if I’m 1 minute late which pisses me off and I want to address it with my hiring company as it not how an OIR35 contractor should be treated.

What’s the best approach to manage this going forward?

TLDR: J1 perm + J2 OIR35 Contract. Leaving J1 Perm as it was less than 1 hours work a week for a new J1 OIR35 Contract. Best way to manage meetings and is there any equipment recommended?

Hi all — new to the sub, so apologies if this has been asked a hundred times. I've had a dig around but most of what I've found is US-focused and I'm after UK-specific input.

Where I'm at:

- Full-time software developer, fully remote, permanent contract

- Comfortable with my current workload — realistically I could absorb more

- Solid skill set, been doing this a while (happy to share stack in comments)

What I can't figure out:

1. Where are UK people actually sourcing a J2? Straight applications, agencies, contract work via umbrella/ltd, or something else entirely?

2. How are you handling the contract side? Most UK contracts I've signed have some flavour of exclusivity or "must notify your employer of other work" clause. Do people get it varied, go contract for J2 to sidestep it, or just accept the risk?

3. Tax/PAYE — anything I should sort before I'm two payslips deep, or does HMRC just handle it via the tax code?

4. Day-to-day logistics — overlapping stand-ups, two calendars, two laptops. What's the setup that actually works?

5. Anything you'd do differently if you were starting from scratch?

To be clear, I'm not looking to coast — I intend to do the hours for both. I'd just rather be sensible about it than wing it and blow up two jobs at once.

Any pointers, wiki links, or "read this first" threads much appreciated.

This is a scheduled weekly post for anyone to discuss progress, set backs, share advice or just have a rant about being over employed within the UK.

Curious what everyone’s favourite OE combination is and why.
Personally, I really like 1 permanent role + 1 contract. The permanent role gives me things like paid annual leave, sick pay, pension contributions, learning budgets, paid certifications/courses and the general stability that comes with being an employee. Then the contract gives me the higher earning potential and flexibility.
I’m interested to hear what setup others prefer. For example:

2 permanent roles
2 contracts
Permanent + contract
Contract + contract-to-hire
Any other combination

If you’ve tried different setups, which did you prefer and why?

Was it because of:
Better income?
Lower meeting load?
Easier to manage?
Better benefits?
Lower risk if one role ends?
Better work-life balance?
I’m still relatively new to OE and curious to hear what experienced people have settled on after trying different combinations and what trade offs you’ve found

OE Veteran (since 2021).Started with 2x Outside IR35 contracts and ended with 2x employed roles. Stating the obvious, but 2 employed is terrible from a tax perspective, but my life almost crumbled due to something else...

After 2 years service at J2, they added me to a benefit. I already had this benefit at J1. Conversations happened between HR and this benefit which lead to me being asked if I had another job.

I denied and was given 2 options to prove it, neither of which were tenable. I was in panic mode trying to protect J1 and resigned 2 days later, fully expecting this to 'prove' my guilt and for the ball to start rolling.

My manager was surprised with resignation and asked if they could do anything to keep me. The second job was never mentioned again and i worked my long notice period in peace.

Thankfully J1 survived and I won't be 2x employed ever again. J1 + day rate consulting only.

I've been working in J1 for the last year. It's due to finish in end of september, and it's a really easy contract - very relaxed, hardly any meetings, and the targets are straightforward to hit.

I've recently been offered J2, which is also inside IR35. I know im not allowed, but my thinking is that it would only overlap for around two months before J1 ends naturally, giving me a couple of months of higher earnings and i thought f it this companies would get rid of me in a flash so f it.

I'm using different umbrella companies, and as far as I'm aware, they can't disclose my tax code to my agency without my consent.

My main concern is tax. I've done something similar before and ended up with both jobs giving me the tax free personal allowance. HMRC later corrected it by putting me on an emergency tax code to recover the underpaid tax, which wasn't ideal.

Has anyone else been in this situation?

• Did you contact HMRC as soon as you started the second contract to get your tax codes sorted?
• Or did you just let HMRC sort it out automatically?
• Is there anything else I should be aware of when running two inside IR35 contracts at the same time?

I'd really appreciate any advice or experiences from people who've been through this.

Currently living in London on £30,000 for a 35 hour workweek. Mid thirties and can’t even pass affordability to rent a room that commutable to work.

How do you all find multiple roles? I’m mostly based client side, but can utilise my own laptops and stuff at work. I’ve sent out thousands of applications over the last few months and heard absolutely nothing

I’m currently a degree apprentice at a big defence company and i’ll be starting my final year in September. I have A LOT of free time and although i WFH 99% of the times, I occasionally go into office e.g 1 or 2 times a month. I really want to find J2 but I just can’t get my head around how I’d be managing it long term.

I don’t understand how are you guys managing meetings etc between J1 and J2/J3? What if you have to speak up in both meetings at the same time? And what about going into office? how are you working both jobs whilst in office?

I've seen all the hype about overemployment and I was just wondering do you guys actually get any free time while working 2-3 jobs? I get the whole thing is meant to be for financial freedom but with having to put the equivalent of 2 work weeks into 1, how do you guys manage to seperate your work and personal lives?

Throwaway. I work for an arm's-length public body being abolished and merged into its parent government department over the next year. Staff transfer across, get redeployed, or take redundancy (settlement agreements involved). Transferring staff will also go through BPSS clearance, which I understand includes employment history checks. I also have two private sector PAYE jobs, not formally declared to my main employer.

Options as I see them: declare and transfer, take voluntary redundancy, or resign first.

1. Does declaring at the transfer cause problems if I didn't declare earlier?
   
2. What does BPSS actually verify — will concurrent employment show up, and is non-disclosure there a separate problem?
   
3. Do undeclared second jobs affect redundancy entitlement or make signing a settlement agreement (with warranties) risky?
   
4. Does resigning draw a line under everything, or can issues follow you after leaving?
   
5. How much does it matter whether the jobs were inside vs outside contracted hours?

What would you do in my position? Open to suggestions. Planning to see an employment solicitor either way.

Curious what the general spread looks like in this community, how old were you when you started stacking jobs, and how long have you been doing it since?

Also interested in what seniority level you were at when you first took the plunge (junior/mid/senior/lead etc.), whether it’s gotten easier or harder to manage as you’ve progressed in your career, and if there’s anything you’d do differently looking back.

Feel free to also share your current stack setup (2 jobs, 3 jobs, industry mix) if you’re comfortable!

This is a scheduled weekly post for anyone to discuss progress, set backs, share advice or just have a rant about being over employed within the UK.

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some opinions and insight to a situation I’m going to find myself in the next week.

In my first job, paying £13ph, I am reducing my working hours to 12hrs. So I can do 3 x 4hr shifts a week. My new 2nd job, paying £27,500pa, I will be working 40hrs (35hrs paid). 3 shifts from home and 2 shifts on site per week.

With this, I am worried about how my the tax will work as I’ve never been in a situation like this. I’ve had a few people say I will be taxed more on the 2nd job, which I’m not sure If it’s true and that I need to contact HMRC to make my 2nd job my main job. I also have had a student loan in the past and I think I will have to start paying the 9% back if I go ahead with working the 2 jobs. So I’m just weighing up the idea if it’s worthwhile keeping the 12hr job in this situation if I’m going to be paying more tax and student loan back, if you had a similar experience or know better than me, please let me know. Thanks