Nowadays it’s common for people to have a secondary source of income to supplement their primary job/career. Common examples include participating in the gig economy (Uber, SkipTheDishes, etc.), monetizing a hobby (Etsy), and freelancing (Upwork, Fiverr). I’ve taken a slightly different approach in where I’ve almost always had a side gig but internally. Over 15 years into my career I think this strategy has and continues to pay off. In this blog I’ll share what some of those internal side gigs were and more importantly how they’ve benefited my career.

Internal Side Gig #1: Acquisition Integration Focal

In 2007/08 I was fortunate to work on what was then IBM’s largest ever acquisition of Ottawa-based Cognos. I led the Canadian IT integration. Coming out of that project I took on the role of being the Canadian Acquisition Integration Focal, meaning I helped work on any acquisition that had a Canadian presence. This was in addition to my day job as a project manager in our Canadian Development IT organization where I worked on numerous IT projects. IBM was extremely acquisitive at that time so on top of my day job I worked on acquisitions such as Algorithmics, Varicent, Q1 Labs, and many others.

There were two primary benefits I gained from this role: learning to work with executives and networking with functions outside of IT. Because acquisitions are critical to IBM’s strategy I’d need to work with executives including our Lab Director on overall progress, solving issues, education, and more. Because acquisitions are complex I’d need to work with colleagues in HR, Finance, Real Estate, Operations, and others – this built my network significantly. One of the HR leaders I worked with on the Cognos acquisition is the same HR leader I work with in my current role; I believe that my good work 12+ years helped give me instant credibility when I took on this role in late 2020.

Internal Side Gig #2: IT Cost Focal

After the economic crisis in 2008 naturally managing costs became a major focus across IBM. In 2009 we kicked off numerous initiatives to manage our IT spend including working with sister development Labs across IBM. We’d crawl through the IT budget line by line to identify areas to optimize or eliminate spend. This was my primary focus for a couple of years but I kept this responsibility even when I first became a manager in 2013, which is when one could argue it became a side gig, and even after I took on my second team after a re-org in 2016. I kept this responsibility for a decade until I left the IT organization in 2019.

There were three tangible benefits that came from this. First, I learned how the financial side of running a large organization worked including how to do more with less. I delivered millions in cost savings over those years. Second, similar to my previous example, it gave me immense visibility with working with numerous IBM executives from whom I learned a lot. Third, one of the people I worked with on two big projects – one that involved combining six global IT teams into one organization and another focused on consolidating 30+ data centres down to a handful – is also a peer in my current role. The reputation I built back in 2016-2017 as part of those projects is paying dividends today as I had and still have the credibility to always do the right thing for the business.

Internal Side Gig #3: Toronto IBM Club Board Member

For 70+ years there was a volunteer-run local organization called the Toronto IBM Club (TIC) which provided a set of events, clubs, and perks to IBMers. In 2013 they were looking for a board member to become their Technology Executive and I was recommended to take on the role by my then-manager, which I did. I held the role for 3 years.

This was a great experience and there were two tangible benefits that came from this role. First, I gained experience being part of a board that ran a historically important organization. Second, I gained some close friends including one whom I’m still very close with today; we are both entrepreneurial minded and have had great conversations over the years on new business ideas. In fact we almost launched a start-up together!

Internal Side Gig #4: Robotics Club

I didn’t realize it at the time but I spontaneously volunteered for something in 2017 that probably led to me getting my previous and current role. We had a new Canadian Lab Director who was focused on transforming our Lab from a dreary, cost-focused environment to a vibrant place that employees love to work at. I was still managing the IT budget although the importance of this was waning. At one of the updates we were giving he mentioned an experience he had at a hotel where robots were involved, and wanted to explore whether we could do anything with robots at our software lab to improve both the employee and customer experience. I volunteered to take this on.

I had no budget and no team but I was able to source a couple of robots from around IBM and built a small group of volunteers who started exploring what things we could do with these robots. Through this I got to present one of our little robots at one of our Lab-wide townhalls which was the first time I was able to be part of such an event. This ended up being extremely funny because the robot hilariously malfunctioned in front of the live audience of thousands, and I ended up being known as the robot guy.

While robotics had nothing to do with my then-role in IT, this gave me significant visibility with the new Lab Director. In 2019 he was looking for a manager to take on a new team, and offered this role to me which led to me becoming one of the Senior Development Managers who brought IBM Watson AIOps to market. Had I not volunteered for the robotics “program” two years prior, I probably wouldn’t have been known and I wouldn’t have been considered for that role. The work I did in that role subsequently led me to my current role, so I credit this side-gig with opening two amazing doors for my career.

Conclusion

I’m fortunate to work at a large global organization that has an immense amount of opportunities. Early on in my career I made a choice to double down on opportunities internally with the hope that they would benefit me longer term. Could I have kept only doing my main job and spent my free time externally on other things? Of course, and that may have led to immediate tangible benefits. But I truly believe this strategy has paid off both figuratively and literally due the experiences my internal side gigs have led me to.

By the way, I still do this today. I volunteer for almost every mentoring/coaching event that I’m invited to, own the IBM relationship with a university where I help judge their senior thesis projects every year, co-lead our electric vehicle community at work, help our campus recruitment team with events at various colleges and universities, and much more. Who knows what doors these things will open in the future…