Long enough pretended to be a software dev. This is what I really do in daily life: https://devrant.molodetz.nl/2025061...

I destroy electronics for recycling.

Also, oftem have to destroy brand new stuff. https://devrant.molodetz.nl/2025061...

"True wireless" :p. I destroy around 60 electronics per hour. Also iPhones often. Today THE classic iPod almost. But someone stole it. It's such environment.

So, the guy in front of me was telling how well paid job he had and shit. Then steals classic iPod :p Haha, ik not crazy, that guy will never have a good job. He wannabe gangster type.

Such a waste, but looks so much fun! Is it viable as a side hustle, aside from the cool pastime?

I looked around to get my Samsung S9 Edge (released 2018) broken screen fixed but the cost is higher (250€) than buying a refurbished one (125€) and the same as the new lower-end A models that already have double the RAM ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Are you wearing gloves when dealing w/ that stuff, I wonder?

Unless I'm mistaken, that stuff is from returns etc, so 2nd hand... some of that may be _very_ dirty.

Definitely wouldn't be surprised, thus gloves would be very nice.

@webketje hmm, actually it is fun for a few days but it's kinda the same electronics that you're continually smashing and it's not very skilled work. I mean, I'm only thinking about what I'll he programming at the evening and these days I've quite done some reasoning before I start programming. So it helps me. No, it's not a side hustle, I am a developer but I got convicted by a judge to do this for 160 hours :p Well, for a punishment, it couldn't be better. It is very inspiring to work at a factory for once as "bottom employee". When the bell goes, one minute later you're working. You do not put your overall during company time, you do it in your own time. You have to be ten minutes early in the morning. You do not spend a minute longer on your break than is allowed. You do what the boss say with no counter proposal and they don't give a fuck your opinion. And you know what? Fine by me, let's introduce this shit in office. It gives a lot of guidance. Everything so clear.

@webketje we do recycling for fabrics (grondstoffen?) and not recycling of the products. Because of that, I often have to smash brand new stuff, we want dem chemicals. In exception of game controllers btw! Game controllers are big business. They're very often broken in a way that it's very profitable to repair them (I am told). And game controllers have amazing build quality, the game controllers that we get look often brand new. I do not know whats broken about them tho.

@D-4got10-01 oh yes, gloves for sure. This work is kinda aggressive and more than once I stabbed my hand with a screwdriver. Without gloves it would have gone right in. And yes, many electronics are very dirty. Also, you often do have to cough when you're doing this work. Not sure what it is exactly, maybe it's just the dust. It's a miracle that we're all doing this without eye protection. It depends really on material, but some thinks like hard plastic almost explode when you smash with a hamer on it. Same for glass.

But this work, if we want to have batteries from a remote control, we not just remove it the normal way since that's annoying and takes time. We smash literally the battery lid of with hammer, smash the control on the iron table do the batteries fly out. At a certain point you have many batteries on your table and we sort them by type. We throw them in a very weird gold stuff. If your battery touched that, it's empty. It's against fire. Often throw burning one.

@retoor Good about the gloves.

But it sounds like you should have the eye protection, as well as a protective mask for that dust or whatever crap it is that causes the coughing.

We should compare notes.

/jk

I spent some 6 months in similar work a few years back.

No testing jobs at the time, so I had to grab anything available, or risk becoming homeless.