I worked 2 full-time jobs and made $211K a year. The main downside of double-dipping was that I had no social life, but it wasn't that hard to do both jobs.

• Davrick Hayes started working two full-time jobs at the same time, in 2021.
• Hayes said double dipping, as a quality assurance analyst, is easier than it sounds.
• Though he earned more than he ever imagined, he now has a better work-life balance with one job.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Davrick Hayes, a 31-year-old quality assurance analyst based in Bismarck, North Dakota. His job and income has been verified by Insider. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I moved to the Midwest from Downey, California, just before the pandemic because the cost of living in Los Angeles was astronomical. I'm a quality assurance analyst (QA) and even though my job in LA was only 15 miles away, my commute was almost two hours one way.