The 18-Hour Double Shift: Why I Didn’t Quit My IT Job When I Went Viral

At 5:00 PM, I am Bhumir Raval, the IT Specialist in Hauppauge, New York. I close tickets, manage servers, and troubleshoot infrastructure for a corporate firm.

At 5:01 PM, I become Bhumir Raval, the content creator with a digital reach of millions.

This is the reality of the “Double Life.”

In the age of the “Creator Economy,” the standard advice is seductive but dangerous: Quit your job. Follow your passion. Go all in. We see influencers living in hype houses, traveling the world, and selling a lifestyle of effortless freedom.

That is not my story. And for thousands of immigrants in the diaspora, that is not our reality.

I represent the “5-to-10” generation. We are the creators who treat our passion not as a lottery ticket, but as a second shift. We are the ones who finish a full day of corporate work, only to immediately open a new laptop and start scripting, filming, and editing until midnight.

The Unglamorous Reality

My social media feeds might look polished, showcasing the humor and nuances of Desi culture to over 246,000+ followers across Instagram and YouTube. But the scene behind the camera is far less cinematic.

I don’t have a production team. I don’t have a lighting crew. I don’t have a personal chef.

My “studio” is my bedroom. My “catering service” is me, standing in the kitchen at 10 PM, cooking my own dinner after five hours of editing. My “team” is a suite of AI tools and a relentless calendar.

There is a specific kind of exhaustion that comes from this double life. It is the mental pivot from solving technical IT problems to solving creative storytelling problems without a break. But there is also a specific kind of power in it.

The Immigrant Hustle 2.0

Why keep the 9-to-5? Why not chase the viral fame full-time?

Because for me, and for many in the South Asian community, stability is not a dirty word. It is the foundation that allows creativity to flourish. My career in IT isn’t a “backup plan”—it is a core part of my identity. It keeps me grounded. It funds my equipment. It gives me the structure I need to be disciplined.

When you rely on “likes” to pay your rent, you become a slave to the algorithm. You start creating desperate content just to survive. But because I have my career, I have the freedom to create what I want, when I want. I can be authentic because I am not desperate.

The Tech Advantage

People ask how I manage to produce viral volume while working a full-time job. The answer is simple: I don’t work like an artist; I work like an IT Specialist.

I treat my content creation like a system administration task. I use AI to optimize my workflows. I batch-process my scripts. I analyze my metrics with the same rigor I would apply to server logs.

The Message

I am writing this for the person currently sitting in a cubicle, wondering if they are “wasting” their life because they haven’t quit their job to chase a dream.

You don’t have to choose. You can be both. You can be the professional who shows up on time, and the creator who blows up online.

It will cost you sleep. It will cost you weekends. It will mean cooking dinner at midnight and editing on the train. But the “Double Life” isn’t a burden. It’s the ultimate competitive advantage.

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Bhumir Raval is an IT Specialist in Hauppauge, NY.