2015 when I first moved to NY. I was an extra for a Syrian customer service training video from 8pm - 4am in a Brooklyn cafe. Got paid $100 for the night. At 3am, it was finally time for my scene, where I had to face the wall the entire time. The snacks were good though.
That same year, I worked with a mini donut food vendor. Pretty much worked festivals / street markets and made $80 per day working weekends.
Finally got intro'd to a company called Potbotics and did blog writing ($30 per article).
My writing was good enough to get me to land a job at a company called BrainBit where I built out the entire go-to-market strategy and subsequent industrial design/product development. Launched at CES 2016 and the rest is history (e.g., been working in tech since).
But those beginning odd jobs got me acquainted with the city and showed people / my network that I was a hard working looking to make things happen.