20 Side Hustles for Engineers to Earn Extra Money

You didn’t spend all those years (and all that money) getting an engineering degree just to let it go to waste. Sure, you may have your 9-to-5, but who says that’s all you can do?

You’ve got skills. Here are a few side hustles that will use them:

1. Freelance engineering work

Earning potential: $14–$130+ per hour

This is arguably the most obvious side hustle on our list. Sometimes, companies need engineering solutions and aren’t willing or able to hire anyone on a permanent, full-time basis. That’s where you come in.

As an engineer, you can offer basically any service you’re qualified to do. For example, you could evaluate engineering drawings for compliance, or develop product prototypes or software to fulfill a company’s needs.

To get started, you can make use of your own personal network or register at a freelancing site and start offering your services straight away.

2. AutoCAD services

Earning potential: $25–$150+ per hour

Remember all those hours you spent learning how to use AutoCAD? You can make use of them now by providing your expertise on a freelance or part-time basis.

Many businesses need 2D and 3D models, drawings, and plans. Often, these companies aren’t interested in hiring a full-time AutoCAD designer—they just want someone who can create a model or plan as a one-off service. You’ve been preparing for this moment for years without even knowing it.

This side hustle can be done remotely as a freelancer, allowing you to keep control over your schedule and location. Before applying for a job like this, put together a portfolio of your past work in AutoCAD and set your rates according to your experience.

3. Consulting services

Earning potential: $14–$130 per hour

Along the lines of the suggestions above, you could offer consulting services on different engineering matters, such as quality assurance. You could do this independently or by working part-time for a consulting firm.

If you choose to work for a firm, you won’t have to worry about finding clients, but you will have less flexibility than if you work independently.

4. Freelance technical writing

Earning potential: $34–$40 per hour, or $0.10–$0.75 per word

You might be more used to numbers and models than words, but there’s decent money to be made by writing—particularly if you’re willing to write about your chosen engineering specialty (mechanical engineering, biochemical engineering, etc.).

Many companies are in desperate need of someone who can confidently write from a technical standpoint. The pieces you could find yourself working on include:

• Articles for scientific journals
• Manuals
• Policies and SOPs
• Business plans
• White papers
• Case studies
• Corporate reports
• Blog posts on technical subjects

5. AI development

Earning potential: Varies

AI is everywhere now and it’s not going away any time soon. Maybe it’s time to join the trend and figure out how you can apply your skills and contribute.

You may need to pursue extra qualifications and learn new skills (depending on the kind of projects you’re interested in), but this could have great returns if you’re happy to play the long game.

6. Ethical hacking / penetration testing

Earning potential: $50–$65 per hour

This one is for the software engineers out there. As more and more businesses move online and cybercrime rises, companies need to make sure their sites are secure.

Ethical hackers perform what’s known as “penetration testing” to determine whether a given website or network has any known vulnerabilities. If it does, they’ll offer advice on how to fix them.

As an ethical hacker, you can work as a freelancer or join an established company.

This side hustle will require some time learning the ropes before you can start, but as an engineer, you probably already have enough technical skills to give you a leg up over other aspiring hackers. (For instance, if you’ve done any programming work, you already have a solid base to work from.)

If you end up enjoying this side hustle, that’s great news, as it can be done from virtually anywhere (often remotely) and you can take it as far as you want—even turning it into your new career if you like.

7. Website and app testing

Earning potential: $12–$20 per hour

There are companies dedicated to providing website and app testing services. They’re always in need of new testers, both with and without technical experience.

You could apply to one of those companies or offer your expertise via a general freelancing platform like Upwork or Freelancer.

You can do this remotely, on an as-needed basis, and from the comfort of your home, which makes this a great option if you want to maintain flexibility and control over your time.

Engineering can be a lot of fun—but it isn’t always fun. Maybe you’ve been spending most of your time working on a project you’re not that passionate about and you’d like a chance to use your skills in a more fulfilling way.

Here are a few side hustles that involve working on your own projects:

8. App design and development

Earning potential: $60–$80 per hour

Nowadays, there’s an app for everything … or is there?

If you’ve ever looked for an app and found it hadn’t been made yet, maybe it’s time for you to take matters into your own hands.

This side hustle will cost money to start up, but not that much money. You can get access to the Apple Developer Program (to make iOS apps) for $99 per year, and the Google Play Console (for Android development) costs just $25 as a one-time fee.

Of course, you’ll need programming and software development skills to do this side hustle. If you don’t have them already, you’ll need to invest in yourself before you can get started.

Alternatively, you could partner up with someone else who’s already developing an app or join an existing app development project. You can even offer this as a freelance service—there are always people on sites like Upwork looking for skilled app developers.

9. Freelance web design and development

Earning potential: $15–$62 per hour

Almost every business needs a website, and not everyone has the skills to create one.

Even with all the tools available to facilitate the process, many business owners still don’t feel comfortable trying to build the digital face of their business all on their own. If you have design expertise in addition to your engineering skills, you could help them out.

Start by creating a portfolio showcasing the type of websites you can build and listing some of the capabilities they could feature, then advertise your services through a freelancing site or your own personal network.

You can also consider offering website management services to the same clients you designed websites for. This will bring in a regular income, but it’ll also be more of a long-term commitment.

10. Blogging or vlogging about engineering

Earning potential: Varies

It’s not too late to start a profitable blog or make money on YouTube. When done right, educational sites and channels can be quite lucrative, and as an engineer, you have plenty of knowledge you can pass on by making tutorial videos, recording experiments, or writing how-to articles.

Think about the questions you googled when you were still a student, or what you find the most fascinating about engineering. There are other people out there looking for content about the same things.

Have a look at your favorite channels and websites for inspiration. Consider what they do well and how you’d do things differently.

You don’t have to limit yourself to just articles or videos, either—you could also create a podcast. Whatever you pick, once your content gets popular, look into monetizing it with ads, affiliate marketing, or sponsorships.

11. Teaching or creating online courses

Earning potential: $15–$30 per hour

If sharing your engineering knowledge appeals to you, you could also try an educational side hustle. Consider:

• Becoming a tutor: There are plenty of people (particularly college students) who need one-on-one instruction in engineering. Look into the many platforms that you can use to set up a tutoring side hustle, such as Tutor.com.
• Create online courses: You can create and deliver your own course (or courses!) through sites like Udemy. This is a great option if you’re looking to generate passive income; once you create the materials and put them online, you can sit back and let the money roll in.

12. 3D printing

Earning potential: Varies

If you’re looking for a creative side hustle that will allow you to create something out of nothing, how about using those engineering skills for 3D printing?

You can make and sell all sorts of things. Think about your own interests and what you’d be excited to make. Are you into D&D? 3D puzzles? Custom chess sets? You can print and sell anything you’re into.

You can also consider combining this side hustle with some of the other ones we listed above, especially vlogging. When you work on a particularly exciting project, you can record the process and turn it into a YouTube tutorial (or just make an ASMR-style 3D printing video—the choice is yours).

If the last thing you want is to spend even more hours looking at a screen, this section is for you. There are plenty of jobs that will use your engineering skills but keep you somewhat active:

13. Cell phone repair

Earning potential: $13–$23 per hour

If tinkering with gadgets appeals to you, look for a local repair shop that needs an extra hand. This is more likely than you might think, since many shops get more requests than they can manage.

When you find one, you can make an agreement with them to call you when they need help or there’s a more complicated or specialized repair service you could provide for them.

Alternatively, you could offer your services via Facebook Marketplace. Be ready to meet up with your clients at a designated time and place to pick up the phone.

If this appeals to you, you could also offer to repair other kinds of electronics, such as computers or game consoles.

14. Hands-on electrical work

Earning potential: $12–$40 per hour

This will be particularly relevant to you if you specialize in electrical engineering. You could offer your services part-time through a company or independently as a freelancer.

Depending on your location, you may need to get a license or work under the supervision of a licensed electrician.

If you want to scale your operation and turn this into a fully developed business, you can build a website and hire someone else to work for you.

15. Flipping products

Earning potential: Varies

Do you have an eye for quality products? Are you good at fixing things? How about using those skills to refurbish and resell used items?

Flipping has become quite popular in recent years. Whether you feel like getting your hands dirty and completely transforming a piece of furniture or you’d rather use your skills to fix electronic equipment that everyone else thought was a lost cause, this could be a rewarding side hustle.

You can flip anything from electronics and appliances to larger pieces of furniture—anything that you find for sale that you think you could touch up and sell for a profit.

16. Doing odd jobs

Earning potential: Varies

If you’re handy and you’d like something casual and open-ended, without the commitment to doing one single thing all the time, you could also try doing a bit of everything.

You can offer your services through an app like TaskRabbit and perform different tasks around your area.

These tasks will vary greatly. Some may draw from your engineering skills (especially home maintenance tasks), whereas others will let you take a mental break.

There’s no pressure for you to accept every chore that comes your way, so this is a great option if you’d like to earn some money on the side while protecting your precious free time.

If you spend every week doing serious work and by the weekend you’re in desperate need of a mental break, don’t worry. There are several more side hustles that you can use to earn money without taxing your mental resources even further.

17. Drone photography/videography

Earning potential: Varies

It’s a bit of a stereotype that engineers love gadgets. If you happen to fit that stereotype and you’re also into photography, this side hustle could offer a great way to disconnect from your day job while having a little fun.

This will require an upfront investment if you don’t have your own drone yet. However, once you have access to one, you can get started right away.

As with a more typical photography side hustle, your potential customers include:

• Couples (for weddings)
• Musicians (for music videos)
• Real estate companies
• Hotels and resorts
• Stock photography sites
• YouTubers

Note that photography isn’t the only way you can make money with a drone, although the others are considerably more specialized and may be harder to get into. You can also look into structural and building inspections, parcel delivery, search and rescue training, precision agriculture, and aerial mapping.

18. Rent out your property

Earning potential: Varies

Continuing the theme of playing with expensive toys, if you have a lot of equipment lying around that you don’t use on a daily basis, you might be able to make some extra cash by renting it out.

There are several popular apps that you can use to rent out your things. You’ll almost certainly find a market for:

• Sports equipment
• Vehicles
• Cameras, tripods, and other photography equipment
• Power tools

If you’ve already gone and purchased a drone for the last side hustle we mentioned, you can also rent that out to hobbyists when you aren’t using it.

Similarly, you can also rent out spare space in your home (not necessarily for people to live in, unless you’re comfortable with that). For instance, if you have a room you rarely use, you can use the platform StoreAtMyHouse to let people stash their things there for a regular fee.

19. Data entry

Earning potential: $10 to $20 an hour

Hear us out—yes, this can be a tedious job, and yes, you’ll be looking at a screen, which you might already get enough of at your regular job. But unlike your job, you can do this while sitting at home listening to your favorite podcast.

The average pay for a home-based data entry job is about $20 per hour and you won’t need to tire yourself out making hard decisions or doing complicated calculations. All you need is an eye for detail and the ability to type quickly.

20. Food or parcel delivery

Earning potential: $10 to $30 an hour

If what you want is a relatively stress-free job where you can just listen to music (or your favorite podcast) while you drive around town, you can sign up to become a delivery driver.

Your options may be limited based on your location, but if you live in the US, most cities will have at least Uber Eats and DoorDash available.

Becoming an Uber Eats driver and becoming a DoorDash driver involve very similar processes (for instance, the background check you’ll undergo for each will be conducted by the same company). If you like, you can sign up for both services and accept orders from whichever one happens to be paying more on any given day.

In fact, this approach applies to all of the side hustles we’ve mentioned. If you’re having trouble picking, remember that you don’t have to pick just one. You can check out different options—as many as you like—and stick with whichever ones you end up enjoying and finding worthwhile.