Whether you are in school or working full time, the goal is to eventually make enough money to become financially free.
While many consulting blogs help you land a lucrative main job and career, this specific article will suggest some side hustles to bring in extra cash.
Since there are different opportunities at the various levels of school and career, this will be separated into a few categories. Feel free to scroll to the most relevant category for your current situation.
Undergraduate
As an undergrad, your time is mostly spent in class, but also a little bit in clubs, research, and the gym. To make some extra cash, you could take advantage of what remaining free time you have by becoming a resident assistant in your dormitory. This position usually requires hours in the evenings and weekends hosting community events, patrolling communal spaces, and decorating bulletin boards. However, the benefits often include free housing, meal plans, scholarships, and leadership skills. Not only can this type of position provide some monetary benefits in exchange for some time, but it often looks good on your resume, and does not conflict with classes or casual jobs.
If you have performed well academically, consider serving as a grader or teaching assistant. This might require only a few hours per week to mark assignments, quizzes, or exams. Alternatively, it might require a good amount of time to prepare lectures and recitations. Check with your department to see if these positions will pay you directly or merely offer course credit. Not only will this type of position look good on your applications to graduate school but depending on the course might be an easy way to make a quick buck or two.
Finally, you might want to check out on-campus positions, whether offered by the university or a school-based organization. Staff assistant jobs at the library or within offices will pay you to carry out clerical duties or desk jobs (these jobs often let you work on homework during slow times!). You may also want to look towards campus organizations such as student government, which often offer stipend-providing positions for committee chairs and other important positions with weekly responsibilities. These are easy ways to not only make money but also gain skills and experience perfect for jumpstarting your career.
Graduate
Whether you are pursuing your MBA, Ph.D., or another advanced degree, you might find yourself in need of a little side hustle. The time commitments of a graduate student differ from that of an undergraduate, which changes the potential to take a side job. However, having additional schooling and life experience can open new doors. For example, graduate students often have enough knowledge to serve as a lecturer or teaching assistant. Often this comes with hourly pay or a monthly stipend.
Tutoring is another option which can be both lower commitment and more flexible with a wide range of potential students to help including high school, undergrad, and even graduate students. The key here is to do well in your classes and network with your professor. Good grades could lead to extra pay!
Looking beyond the classroom there are other on-campus positions where graduate students’ skills and experiences could turn a quick buck. Strong research skills can net students part-time or full-time positions supporting faculty projects. Engineering students can easily find makerspace or repair shop jobs. Residence life can open up opportunities for graduate students to play the role of resident assistant, resident director, or administrator. All the above roles utilize skills and experiences gained from undergrad classes, internships, and work experiences, but also build upon current resumes to prepare for full-time careers later.
Finally, consider taking advantage of internships during summer breaks. Not only do they provide a nice financial boost during your full-time studies, but sometimes they can turn into a part-time position upon returning to campus or a full-time position upon graduation. This internship could be at a consulting firm, a company in an industry that interests you, or even at a start-up. While completing an internship, it is important to work hard, move the needle, and make strong connections with the people you meet in order to open doors for continued collaboration.
Full-Time
Once you are out of school, the goal is to secure a full-time job and begin your career. This article is not aiming to help you find that position, but rather find ways to make some extra spending money. Working in a full-time consulting position does not leave a lot of time for a side hustle, but there are a few that are worth thinking about.
First, if you served as a teaching assistant, grader, or tutor at university, consider continuing to teach. Tutor with a local company, or if you have a Ph.D., consider applying for an adjunct faculty position to continue to teach on the side.
If you enjoy teaching, but not in a formal sense, consider starting a YouTube Channel. Find a passion of yours that you would like to share with the world and teach others about it. Enjoy baking? Make tutorials on various bread recipes. Love video games? Live stream yourself or rank video games and upload the videos. There is a lot of work involved in cultivating a profitable channel, but in the end, it could be very worth the effort.
Do you enjoy writing? A perfect side hustle for you might be to publish your work, whether in the form of a book, short story, newspaper article, or blog post. Online blogs are a good place to start in our increasingly interconnected world. If you are interested in consulting, you might even want to consider writing for Tom Spencer’s Consulting Blog!
The Bottom Line
This article was not written to help you find your full-time career, and your side hustle does not have to become your full-time job either. Rather, this article highlighted a few places you can look to make a little extra cash as an undergraduate, graduate student, or alongside your full-time job.
There are more options out there. Do you have any other profitable side hustle ideas? Please post your thoughts in the comments.
Ricky Hollenbach is a Thermal Sciences Associate at Exponent Scientific and Engineering Consulting. He solves problems in the thermal-fluids, heat transfer, and turbomachinery disciplines. He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Duke University.
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