Sure, I'd be happy to give you some insight and background.
A little background: I've been doing software dev for 20+ years ranging from C++, Ruby (not Rails), front-end/full-stack dev. I make enough in my day job to be plenty happy.
I won't comment on pay (it's good enough for me!) as I'm not sure if it's standardized across the board, but let me just say that I was going to start moonlighting since my current role isn't as much development as I am used to....but I decided that PR was going to be a better fit and here's why:
1) I enjoy mentoring! I love interviewing candidates, doing reviews for my teammates, being a good role-model for junior devs to follow. I've taught and helped folks transition from non-tech to a tech jobs. And as a reviewer for PR, it's a lot of the same sort of thing that I already enjoy doing!
2) It helps me become a better programmer! Seeing novel or interesting solutions is always fascinating to me. I love to learn something new, and reviewing code I'm able to see the mistakes (or learn what didn't work) and then able to then take that knowledge and pass it on!
3) Much more flexibility. I can work as little, or as much as I want. I don't have a client asking where the MVP is. I don't have to worry about project planning, hitting milestones, endless meetings. I do enough of that in my day job. I can pick and choose what I want to review, when I am able. As a reviewer, there is a list of pending reviews to choose from based upon our experience and expertise in certain languages and frameworks. For instance, I often review C++, NodeJS, and React/Angular/VueJS pull requests. I tend to enjoy working on reviews for the same organization so I can pick up on the architectural design, coding style, and on-going design decisions being made...especially when I review code from a new developer joins the organization.
4) The work has been enjoyable and stress-free. I routinely do about 10-20 hours/week (in addition to my 40 hours/week day job). And it's not a fire and forget model. When I perform the review, I'm working with the developer until the review is merged. Sometimes I'll review the same piece of code multiple times as they/we work through feedback given by not only myself, but other members of the team. I am able to see comments from other PR reviewers as well as reviews from the organization.
Another aspect that I haven't seen mentioned much in the comments is that we also get to review code challenges as well! Sometimes organizations don't have the expertise or time to evaluate developers. As a reviewer, I'm able to come in and provide that feedback to the organization on how the perspective candidate did.
5) The folks at PR are also really helpful. They review the reviewers and can provide good feedback, encouragement, and suggestions in order for me to provide better reviews!
Yes! I am a reviewer for PullRequest and since I've been doing reviews with them I've been involved in at least one major review where I was given the opportunity to review the entire codebase. From there I was asked to give comments, suggestions, design ideas, and general feedback on a number of different criteria.
I'm just a reviewer and can only comment on what I've experienced. But I can say that what you're asking has definitely been done.
A little background: I've been doing software dev for 20+ years ranging from C++, Ruby (not Rails), front-end/full-stack dev. I make enough in my day job to be plenty happy.
I won't comment on pay (it's good enough for me!) as I'm not sure if it's standardized across the board, but let me just say that I was going to start moonlighting since my current role isn't as much development as I am used to....but I decided that PR was going to be a better fit and here's why:
1) I enjoy mentoring! I love interviewing candidates, doing reviews for my teammates, being a good role-model for junior devs to follow. I've taught and helped folks transition from non-tech to a tech jobs. And as a reviewer for PR, it's a lot of the same sort of thing that I already enjoy doing!
2) It helps me become a better programmer! Seeing novel or interesting solutions is always fascinating to me. I love to learn something new, and reviewing code I'm able to see the mistakes (or learn what didn't work) and then able to then take that knowledge and pass it on!
3) Much more flexibility. I can work as little, or as much as I want. I don't have a client asking where the MVP is. I don't have to worry about project planning, hitting milestones, endless meetings. I do enough of that in my day job. I can pick and choose what I want to review, when I am able. As a reviewer, there is a list of pending reviews to choose from based upon our experience and expertise in certain languages and frameworks. For instance, I often review C++, NodeJS, and React/Angular/VueJS pull requests. I tend to enjoy working on reviews for the same organization so I can pick up on the architectural design, coding style, and on-going design decisions being made...especially when I review code from a new developer joins the organization.
4) The work has been enjoyable and stress-free. I routinely do about 10-20 hours/week (in addition to my 40 hours/week day job). And it's not a fire and forget model. When I perform the review, I'm working with the developer until the review is merged. Sometimes I'll review the same piece of code multiple times as they/we work through feedback given by not only myself, but other members of the team. I am able to see comments from other PR reviewers as well as reviews from the organization.
Another aspect that I haven't seen mentioned much in the comments is that we also get to review code challenges as well! Sometimes organizations don't have the expertise or time to evaluate developers. As a reviewer, I'm able to come in and provide that feedback to the organization on how the perspective candidate did.
5) The folks at PR are also really helpful. They review the reviewers and can provide good feedback, encouragement, and suggestions in order for me to provide better reviews!