“I was waiting for that same job to appear. And then I realized that there was nothing to cover credit cards with.” Anastasia, Irkutsk, 45 years old

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How people build a career and then go to work as couriers or packers at a factory

It will take Russians several months to find a job in 2026: one vacancy will receive hundreds of responses. Experts warn that next year the search time will increase by another four months. To stay afloat, people find part-time jobs outside their specialty - usually in places where qualifications are not required. Some people want to make good use of their free time during downtime at their main job, others want to unload their heads, others just need to live on something, and there are those who pay off accumulated debts in this way. Cherta spoke with Russians who work at a dairy factory, deliver food and unload goods for marketplaces. Do people feel that such work is below their level? Does this experience damage your self-esteem? How do they manage to find the positive in the current situation?

“I was waiting for that same job to appear. And then I realized that there was nothing to cover credit cards with.” Anastasia, Irkutsk, 45 years old

I am an economist by profession, with honors. I went through all the stages from cashier accountant to chief accountant, and then even taught 1C and accounting.

During my first maternity leave, I took on small tasks on the online freelance exchange. Then I delved into SMM and did copywriting. During my second maternity leave, I learned to be a photographer. Then it started to wear me out: I managed to work on logistics, was the deputy head of the logistics department, then returned to SMM - making content for the plant.

Last year, after a divorce, I received a second education and became a crisis psychologist. There is a small private practice, but it does not bring in stable money. Looking for clients takes a long time, but I need to pay off the loans that I took out, including for education, now.

For two or three months I jumped from one credit card to another. Everyone was waiting for that same job to appear. And then I realized that there was nothing to cover my credit cards with: I owed about 250 thousand rubles. Therefore, two months ago I became an auto courier at Yandex.

All my life I dreamed of driving a car, but in my marriage my husband drove. I started driving when I was over forty years old, when we got divorced. I found a courier vacancy on Avito and filled out the application form. You needed a passport, self-employment and a driver's license. And I also had to buy a thermal bag. Orders come into the app: where to come, what to pick up and where to take it. And the money immediately drops in the application, it can be withdrawn to the card on the same day. Very convenient.

Of course, going into something new is always scary. I had a thought: is it really that simple? Taking the first order was alarming, since it was not clear how it all happened. And then the second, third, you look - the money is dripping, more and more.

One of the advantages is the feeling that you are in control of the situation. You have now done something, and you have received money for it. For six hours of work it costs about 2,500 rubles. If you work hard, 12 hours, you can earn six thousand.

I didn’t get any pleasure from the work itself, because I’m a creative person and it’s more pleasant for me to earn money with my mind. But I reconfigured myself: I decided that I was just driving and bringing joy to people, doing some good. Therefore, the feeling of self is very pleasant.

One of the difficulties is that there are multiple orders. At Pyaterochka, three orders were dropped at once. According to the rules, the weight should not exceed 10 kilograms, but it turned out twice as much and I had to drag it to the car. Another time I drove into the darkness of Tarakan, almost left the tire there, but received only 500 rubles. It's a pity for the car: the roads in Irkutsk are bad.

I have a second part-time job: four times a week I work as a packer at a cheese factory. Before weaving braids from smoked cheese, you first need to weigh the raw material: bend over, take it out of the container, and lift it. It's heavy. You're on your feet all the time. My shift lasts five hours, I somehow manage, although my back is falling off. I earn an average of 15 thousand a month.

There are a variety of people at the plant: there are schoolgirls and sisters, there is a girl photographer, a wedding makeup artist, a trolleybus driver. Men mainly carry heavy pallets of cheese into the oven, while women do the packaging.

I go through a kind of meditation there - I free my brain and just work with my hands. This helps me remove anxiety and not constantly worry about where to get the money. You come there, turn off your brain, your hands do, do, do - then you leave with money. At home, the brain turns back on and thoughts about how to live further return. When I close the loans, I will be able to breathe more freely.

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My 90-year-old grandmother supports me; she lives with me and my two children. Thanks to her, I can count on the children being fed and someone looking after them. Support from her ex-husband - six thousand rubles in alimony for two, a ridiculous amount.

Last year I was invited to become a yoga trainer, they quickly taught me everything, and now I also teach hammock yoga. This is the most enjoyable part-time job, more like a hobby. In a month it comes out to about 13 thousand.

I advise people who are thinking about whether to take a low-skilled job: take a piece of paper and write down all the pros and cons. If there are more advantages, go ahead. Now it is your choice that will help you out and give you a useful experience. Maybe you will get new opportunities there. If there are more cons, it might be worth looking for more.

I was once again convinced that nothing is impossible. If you had told me five years ago that I would be an auto courier, I would have twisted my head. And now - nothing.

As I tell my clients, “Give yourself permission to make mistakes.” It won't work, but that's okay. No one will throw tomatoes at you for this. You can make mistakes, you can do something wrong. If it doesn’t work out, take on something else. When I pay off my loans, I plan to work in my specialty, as a psychologist. But for now I try to see the opportunities around me and take them.

"The money is over." Vadim, Moscow, 38 years old

By basic education I am a political scientist, I worked in the Yabloko party. I also had a second job: as an administrator of a psychological support hotline for men.

In the fall of 2024, I came across the story of an Ozon warehouse employee. It said that you just need to download the application, register as self-employed, sign up for shifts through the application and leave. Earnings depend on the number of shifts. I have always been attracted to work where there is a connection between how much you worked and how much you earned.

In December 2024, the hotline told me that there was nothing to pay my salary with. The party also delayed salaries. Within a couple of months I ran out of money, and I remembered the story from the warehouse. I downloaded the application, registered and signed up for a training session. Formally, it was necessary to work three shifts, which were considered training shifts. But in fact, on the second and third shifts, everything was already going as planned. I started work immediately.

I used to think that higher education was an automatic ticket to a better life. And in general, I never did physical work; even as a student, part-time jobs were associated with intellectual work. So I didn’t understand whether I could even cope with this job?

When I told my girlfriend about my plans to work in a warehouse, she didn’t believe me at first and thought I was joking. Then I reacted negatively to this idea: I believed that it was harmful to my health and below my level. Friends reacted normally: you’re going to make money, well done.

I ended up in a warehouse near the Salaryevo metro station, it is medium in size. There are also mini-warehouses that are located directly within the city - from there goods are transported to order pick-up points.

The warehouse operates seven days a week and without breaks. There are 12-hour and four-hour shifts. I took 12-hour night shifts: it was more convenient for me. During the day I worked in the party, at night in the warehouse, then I went home to sleep and then worked in the party again. A day later, at night, I finally went to bed. Typically, one shift was on a Friday or Saturday evening, the second on a weekday.

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At the warehouse, I was involved in placing goods. There are large boxes there where goods are unloaded from cars. The worker’s task is to take goods from this box and place it on the desired pallet. Money is paid for each placement: heavier goods are paid more. The heaviest thing I came across were large bags of dog food. But no physical extra effort was required from me. Everything there is done so that anyone can work: both women and elderly people.

Small items are placed in boxes; when they are full, they are transported to pallets. This is considered a more privileged job because you don’t have to carry heavy things, and you can earn more if you do everything quickly. But in order to occupy it, you need to come in advance, catch the shift manager and negotiate with him.

Payment depends on the quantity of goods: the more you manage to place, the more you receive. In one shift I managed to earn about four thousand rubles. The people who work there are mainly migrants and random people who came, like me, through the Ozon Job application. There were a lot of young people, but there were also middle-aged women. They worked as stickers and packers.

Heavy, expensive goods like televisions are handled by individual people who are on salary. Because if the product breaks, there is nothing to take from such a person: he simply will not come on shift. I have not heard any stories about any colossal fines. The maximum they can do is simply block your account and you won’t be able to go on shift.

The warehouse had no limit on the number of people who could sign up for a shift. Sometimes it happened that 50 people came to shift, but there was not enough goods. Everyone started jostling with their elbows to grab something for themselves.

This was the most difficult thing for me - to constantly watch both sides so that your goods are not snatched from under your nose. Or steal something yourself from a person who has been gaping. There seems to be nothing wrong with this kind of work: we all order something from Ozon, and someone has to ship it. But I am upset by dishonest methods for earning more money.

I worked at the warehouse for three months. At the same time, I returned to the hotline: money appeared there. At one time I combined it with work in a warehouse, but then I decided to find some more meaningful work. After the May holidays, I found a job in an outsourcing call center as a project manager and left the warehouse.

Working in the warehouse was an emergency measure to get through a difficult time. Although I was upset that I couldn’t earn more. — other people, according to their stories, succeeded. Probably, we need to do everything faster and negotiate with the shift leader in order to get into more advantageous positions.

The lesson I learned from this story is to plan your finances better. Probably, if I assumed that I would have no money at all, I could somehow avoid it. I had a stage of real lack of money for several weeks. After that, I worked by inertia: why not work if it works. If a similar situation happens to me again, I would rather try to look for something else.

“I understood where I could make quick money.” Andrey Larin*, Moscow, 40 years old

I have a legal education, but I have never worked in it. I've been a drummer in a music group for ten years now. Previously, this work took 150 days a year: tours, performances, rehearsals. The last three years - 30 days. We did this on purpose. There is no point in being away from home 100 days a year in order to earn a little money everywhere, when you can just play big solo concerts and festivals. The income has only increased.

I decided to earn extra money because I had some free time and everything was getting a little boring. Of course, it’s great to sit at the dacha, clean the rooms, drink until midnight alone, watch Soviet film classics. But I’m a little late in this, and I need some kind of interruption.

I started working part-time for a friend who sells various automotive accessories from China. My task is to wind taxi films onto small reels, which are then glued to the sides of the car. A friend invented a special machine with a screwdriver at the base, which spins the bobbins. I come to the workshop two or three times a week. Yesterday I spent four hours there, but I plan on eight. The money there is small, 400 rubles per hour, purely for food. It will cost about 25 thousand a month—enough to shop at Perekrestok five times.

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Before that, I worked part-time as a courier for ten years, and I suffered a lot: I carried documents, bank cards, and equipment for hunting and fishing. Then I also played in a group, and I had a lot of free time, and I needed money. I’ve always dreamed: people sit in one place, they don’t have to run around or sweat. Now I’m sitting, using my hands once or twice, moving them faster and that’s it. It relieves your head.

I never had the idea that such work was beneath me. I don't believe in all these statuses. I understood what I was good for and where there was an opportunity to make quick money.

Of course, as you get older, you realize that in general you are doing crap, but if you need a distraction, it helps. Someone is distracted by sobbing into the pillow that he did not succeed, he is 40 years old and everything is lost. And in my life I’ve gone through so many crap jobs and working conditions that now I just want to do something stupid.

I'm tired of thinking, tired of making decisions, I just want to work with my hands. I actually dream of being kicked out of the group and finally starting to live like an ordinary person.

After 10 years, I got tired of inventing activities for myself during downtime in the group. It keeps you on a leash all the time. I would like to find a regular five-day job with a normal salary so that I can come in the morning, leave in the evening, and go to the country on weekends.

“I would include courier work in the school curriculum.” Alexander, Moscow, 38 years old

I have two higher educations - pedagogical and transport management. I work as an engineer in an IT company, designing and installing various communication channels. This is a highly skilled job where education is required.

The story with the part-time job began when I had a vacation in December. And in order not to waste time, I decided to try my hand at delivery. There was a dilemma: should I take a taxi or go for delivery? I took the path of least resistance, because after all, in a taxi, certain conditions are imposed on the car: it must be branded, of a certain year of manufacture.

In delivery , you went out at any time, pressed a button and started working. Tired of it - finished. I liked it and continued after the vacation. At my main job I have a free schedule, it all depends on the number of projects, I don’t need to come there every day.

When you have free time, you can press a button and earn money. Rational use of time. Income is influenced by many factors: traffic jams, weather. The worse the situation on the road, the more you earn. My record for the month was 300 thousand rubles. There are various bonuses: for example, if you complete 115 orders in a week, you will receive an additional 60 thousand. This motivates you to take more orders.

There are nuances that jam the connection. Thanks to my work, I learned that taxi drivers and couriers do not work with iPhones: the geolocation determined there is hundreds of times worse than on Android.

On the plus side, I learned a lot of interesting locations. In the center there is some awesome, beautiful house with large front doors, and I have an intercom. Then you walk around and you can come in.

Working in delivery is a good experience that motivates you to move on. I would include such work in the high school curriculum so that people understand what they are getting an education for.

I don't advertise my part-time job among my friends. But if it comes up, I can tell you a working case: I don’t think it’s shameful. I regard this as a good life experience. If I change my main job and have a busy job with a big salary, I will leave delivery.

*the names of the characters have been changed at their request

editors of "Traits"