I know there is much debate in the building passive income and extreme early retirement circles about whether to focus effort on the “side-hustle,” whether that be investing, or starting online businesses or turning a hobby into a money-maker or whether to focus on the day-job and get on the promotion/pay raise ladder. For the past 7 years or so, I’ve been focusing on the latter and using that money to invest in dividend paying stocks.
I worked at one university in Korea for 5 years and during that time, I did my best to build up a solid reputation among my coworkers and with my bosses by being a stellar teacher, friendly, helpful, planning social activities and getting high student evaluations. And, it actually paid off. I usually got more lucrative overtime ($40-50/hour) than I knew what to do with, while some of the other people would end up fighting for the scraps. And when I needed a very specific schedule (2 mornings/week off basically) in order to take the Celta course, my uni made that happen for me.
And 1.5 years ago, I decided to move to another uni because I wanted to live in a bigger city and also in a place with beaches (Busan is ideal!). I started off in the general English program, which meant teaching practical English to freshman students in all kinds of majors, but I again tried to do a fabulous job and build up a solid reputation. I knew there was an opening in another department, which meant more pay and less hours, so I dropped my name to the right people and ended up getting the job. And, I still get more lucrative OT than I know what do with it.
What am I saying? Here are my top 5 tips for day-job success, which I think can be applied to any industry.
1. Find out who are the people that matter. Build good relationships with them. Essentially,Networking 
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2. Never talk trash/gossip about coworkers or bosses.
3. Try to see the positive at all times and appreciate the good things about your job.
4. Be good at what you do. And actually be better than those around you. Take a class. Join a professional organization. Get an additional qualification. Read stuff online.
5. Be extra helpful. Especially if you can do it when it doesn’t cost you that much in way of time/effort. But also be willing to say no. People don’t respect the pushover and you’ll get the junk jobs dumped on you.
