MOST people struggle to find one job that they love – but Alexandros Ayeni is the exception to the rule as he has two.
The 42-year-old from Chingford, London has two part-time jobs and works around 50 hours a week earning £54,000.
He said: “I still can’t quite believe it at times. I’ve turned my skill into a lucrative money-earner. I’m now working two jobs that I absolutely love.”
Alexandros, who lives in a two-bed flat with his wife, has a part-time job as a media teacher in a secondary school in Enfield, north London.
He first started teaching in 2009 and was paid around £26,000 per year.
At the time, he worked full time and did DJing on the side – but after about 10 years of teaching he was able to drop down to three days a week as he was making up to £1,000 per DJing gig, whether it was a wedding or event under his DJ Copernicus (@copernicusbeats) name.
He now works part time, three days a week, earning £33,600 a year from teaching – and tops that up with £15,000 to £20,000 a year from DJing.
From A-levels to starting his career as a teacher
Once he’d finished his A-levels, the hard-working school-leaver did a 10-month stint as a TEFL (‘teaching English as a foreign language’) teacher in China from 2007 to 2008.
In September 2008, he started a one-year teaching degree, known as a PGCE, at the UCL Institute of Education in London, specialising in teaching English to secondary school pupils.
“I then had to do one more year as an NQT to complete my training,” said Alexandros. “That’s when I first started teaching English at Skinners’ Academy. Happily, I was offered a full-time job there in 2009, straight after my degree, and ended up staying there for 10 years. I finally left in the summer of 2019 to move to a new job.”
While he was climbing the teaching career he had been using his spare time to DJ.
“I’ve always been really into music,” he said. “When I was young, I played the bass and the keyboard. I never really had formal lessons. I mostly learned to play by ear.
“In the early days, friends would ask me to DJ for birthdays. But then things really blew up for me around 2019 when I was getting a lot more attention.”
The entrepreneur got his first actual ‘paid’ gig in 2020.
“This was a school event where I DJed for a few hours – and got the price of my ticket waived – so I earned around £50,” he said.
From there, things snowballed pretty quickly.
“By the time I’d hit my mid-30s, I realised I had a talent that people were willing to pay for,” he said.
“When I started out, I used to get around £200 per gig. But as time went on, I found myself more in demand, and able to command higher rates.
“Suddenly I was getting paid upwards of £500 per gig,” he said. “As things took off, I decided to sign up to an agency.”
Right now, Alexandros gets most of his weddings work through Wedissimo. This is an agency which matches wedding suppliers – such as artists and entertainers – with couples getting married.
He said: “I’ve had such brilliant support from the staff at Wedissimo. The agency is a huge part of my life.”
I get paid £1,000 a gig doing something I love
While most of Alexandros’ gigs tend to be in and around London, he has also DJed at events in Bristol and the Midlands.
“These days, I can get as much as £1,000 per gig,” he said.
While this may sound very attractive, there is often a lot of prep work involved.
“If it’s a wedding, I can end up spending several hours creating a playlist which fits with what the bride and groom have told me they want,” said Alexandros. “They might, for example, request specific songs or tracks for the first dance or for the cutting of the cake.”
For Alexandros the workload as a DJ can vary quite a bit from month to month.
“The summer can be very busy as that is peak wedding season,” he said. “But some months are quieter. For example, I did six events in September, followed by zero gigs in October and three in November.
“Weddings may seem like an unconventional way to earn money, but you can definitely make it work.”
The five best slashie careers
A ‘SLASHIE’ is someone who juggles multiple rolls – or who picks up flexible jobs – as opposed to following a traditional single-career path.
This approach to working life offers variety and independence – and can be a great way to earn some big £££. What’s more, in many cases, you don’t need a degree and can often get training for free.
Top ‘slashie’ career options to consider right now, according to job site, Adzuna, include:
Full-stack developer – could be an option if you’re a whizz at computers and adept at all things tech. The role involves you designing websites and writing code for apps – earn up to £59,462 per year
Personal trainer – if you’re already a bit of a gym bunny or fitness fanatic, this job offers the chance to earn some serious cash doing what you love, with flexible hours to boot – earn up to £47,464 per year
Carpenter – if you’re good with your hands and not fazed by the idea of manual labour, you could train up as a carpenter, perhaps via an apprenticeship – earn up to £45,436 per year
Website content manager – might be a route worth considering if you’ve got decent writing skills and a willingness to mug up on SEO (search engine optimisation) and HTML. This role will see you editing content, proofreading and more – earn up to £44,543 per year
Community manager – if you’re a ‘people person’ and passionate about social media this could be a good fit for you, especially if you’re a pro at problem-solving. The role involves you being the online voice of a company’s social media channels and giving feedback on customer complaints – earn up to £42,952 a year
I juggle two jobs – but I love it and won’t quit
Even though Alexandros lives for his work as a DJ, he has no plans to quit teaching any time soon.
“I adore the job so much, I can never give it up,” he said. “I just love being in the classroom. I love being with kids, and I love the variety that teaching brings. But I also realise I’m very lucky to have been able to make the shift from full-time teaching to balancing this with part-time DJing.”
At present, Alexandro teaches on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and this suits him really well.
“People are always jealous of the fact teachers get such long holidays – typically, around 13 weeks,” he said. “It’s a big perk of the job.”
Though, in reality, he ends up working a lot of weekends.
He said: “For example, earlier this month, I was running a film club workshop for my charity all day on the Saturday. And then on the Sunday, I was DJing at a wedding in Watford which ended up being a 13-hour shift by the time you factor in travel, set up and pack down.”
Based on his experience, Alexandros is a big believer in rethinking traditional career paths.
“I talk to my students a lot about the benefits of multi-skilled, passion-driven careers,” he said. “I urge them to prioritise practical experience, apprenticeships, and portfolio-building over university, unless they are pursuing professions such as medicine or law.”
Looking to the future, Alexandros says he might consider going down to two days of teaching to free up more time for his DJing and charity work.
He said: “But right now, I’m pretty happy, so let’s just want and wait and see what 2026 holds.”
