Let’s talk traditional students jobs first. Making money while in school can be challenging, and overwhelming at times. In high school, some students work part-time, or work during the summer to earn some extra money. In University, however, a lot more students join the labor market, totaling around 70-80% of all students working at least part-time (“Working while in College”, 2018). While having a part-time job can be very challenging to manage along with school, working on campus or working summers is an obvious and effective way to earn money. Having a steady source of income can be extremely useful in University to save, or to help offset the costs of tuition and living expenses, which can significantly reduce the amount of student debt that you graduate with. Working while in University can also help you develop strong time management skills by balancing courses and work, which will prove incredibly useful later on in life. Also, working will give you hands-on professional experience that will greatly aid you in getting jobs later on. No matter the job, any position will give you some transferable skills that can be highlighted on resumes. Working will also help you meet new people, and make new connections that will help you down the line.
While working a traditional part-time student job is great, there are so many non-traditional things you can do to increase your streams of revenue, with a little extra time on your hands. If you can fulfill a passion while earning some extra money on the side, even better. Here are some key ideas to get you to expand your sources of income!
1. Tutoring
This side job is a great opportunity for students who excel in any specific subject or course. If you’re good at teaching and explaining tricky concepts, studying and revising for exams, and being patient, then this can be a really profitable and beneficial venture that you should look into. You can choose whether you want to tutor younger students or other University students, and you can choose your hours. Getting started and finding people to tutor will be the hardest part of getting started, but by promoting yourself around your campus you will be able to find clients and get your feet off the ground. If you have an opportunity to get your foot in the door, take it and run with it, and I doubt that you’ll regret it.
2. Blogging
Blogging is not necessarily the most profitable job out there, but if you can merge it with a passion of yours that you spend time on anyway and find ways to monetize it, you’re hitting the jackpot. Blogging takes time to get started and to keep it up, but over time, you can build a steady traffic to your website and build an engaged audience, and make a steady side income every month by monetizing your website with a program like Google AdSense. To start a website, you need to pick your niche that you are knowledgeable in and/or passionate about. To actually make a website you will need to purchase a domain and a web hosting service, but always look out for student discounts! Once you have a website, post consistently and focus on gathering an engaged audience. With time, you can make this a solid side revenue stream.
3. Social Media
Being a social media “influencer” or “blogger” isn’t for everyone, if you’re up to it, you can also make this into a side hustle. Whether you are building a brand, or building yourself as a brand on social media, it will take time and energy to build an engaged following. Brands prefer an engaged following to a large following. If you already have a somewhat large following, you can use that to your own advantage. Accounts with less than 10,000 followers can earn money by creating sponsored posts, becoming a brand affiliate, or selling products. A good rule of thumb to follow is $10 per 1000 followers, but of course that will depend on the brand and the contract. So if you’re passionate, and you can find your niche, you could easily make some money on the side!
4. Freelancing
Finally, freelancing is a great and quite overlooked job opportunity by some. You can easily get some job experience and some extra income. If you have any kind of usable skill like graphic design, article writing, editing, translating, programming, video making/editing (the list goes on) you can make some money freelancing. With freelancing, you can pick your hours, and provide some work to people who are willing to pay good money for it. Freelancers often get their gigs on freelancing websites, such as Upwork or Fiverr, which are great websites to find work, but a drawback is that those websites take a cut of your earnings (usually about 20%, depending on your income and the website).
So if you have a little time on your hands and a passion, there’s no reason for you not to be creative and go out into the unknown and make a little bit of extra income. With time, you can make these ventures into sustainable and stable incomes, which of course will help you in your journey to becoming financially independent & successful.