Decking make money easier and faster than any other jobs.
Needs alot money to get all necessary programs, but it worth it.
I think esp-s are not needed, I suggest not to waste karma or money on them.

Decking is one place with good money. You want a Sony deck with decking 5, or a Renraku deck and decking 3 or 4. There's also a Fuchi deck with more storage. With any deck, there' s also a bunch of programs you want to buy from Pyerite in the Hub. You want each of these at max level for your deck. The max level on the Sony deck is 2.
There's also a few regular programs you'll want. I like Degrade I, Killer I, and Medic I.

The real money in decking is the data files you can get on each decking run. For each type of run (Simsense, PI agency, law firm) you want to get the files stored behind the CPU. They're usually worth about 1000-12000Y Y each. If you max out the storage on your deck and can haul out six of these files (You might need the Fuchi deck for the full six), that's worth about 8k a run including the fixer fee. After four or five runs you can pay back you starting investment in the deck and programs and the rest is pure profit (for cyberwear, or whatever else you want).

Other than decking, there's pit fighting in the Rat's Nest. It doesn't pay much to start, but the fights go REALLY quick (they only last a few seconds). Each tier pays more, eventually you'll be earning over 1000Y a fight.

sappy sapling runs can routinely gross at 7.5k ¥ and 6 Karma. the pit fights in the Rat's nest can routinely net ~5k ¥ with multiple winnable fights per encounter with the accursed loading screen. Repeatedly scraping Telestrian can net ~10k ¥ per.

I would say go make a killing in the arena. Just remember to leave and come back periodically to offset the heisen slug.

with 4 or 5 skill in decking and intel. using the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ starting deck run to quick jack and upgrade storage . you can make 3500-5000 on Gunderson deck runs

@JDL2149. Is that 3500-5000 for Organ Grinder's runs? And if so, is that the run fee and the profit from selling data files? I can't do the Organ Grinder's runs, they're bugged for me.

keep in mind, south still has yet to implement the top tier fixers; so although the very expensive cyberware is available, you're not really expected to grind out that kind of cash... wait for the next fixers to be included, and i believe runs will be earning you in excess of 50k nuyen each- tho expect those missions to be multi-scene runs with some legwork involved as well.

Eight years later and I'm replying to this thread. Getting paydata from decking has been the most money so far. I was selling it at the Hub, but I decided to give the pawnshop a chance. At least for this run and paydata I made way more money there than the guy in the Hub.