Working in Finance and having a side hustle?

Hi, does anyone know if it's possible to work in the Finance industry and being an startup (e.g. fintech) advisor as a side hustle? Is it in general allowed to have a own side job? Would be great if the WSO community could help. Please focus on the legal side, not the time aspect.

9 Comments
 

It probably depends on your company.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Compliance department. That's who provides guidance on such things at my firm. Would really depend on your advisory capacity, i.e., does it involve a formal agreement to be involved as an advisor or more informal and they come to you with questions every now and then. Honestly, the fact that you are asking this on here is fairly telling that you really aren't qualified to be advising anyone on anything.

 

Don't tell your company.

I can literally think of 0 reasons why your current firm would relentlessly find out what side hustles you have. What good does it do for them? 

Keep it low-profile and do your thing. Suppose it becomes big, just quit. 

Persistency is Key
 

Many firms have rules about reporting work outside of your regular responsibilities within the firm. This is usually for compliance reasons. 

If you do not inform your employer and they find out (and you have this as part of your employment agreement) you are risking your job, I wouldn’t recommend that. 

Check your employer rules (handbook, compliance, etc) and your contract. Those are a good place to start about what you should disclose. 

 
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I don't know... Yeah. Almost definitely yes.

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