By now you may be settling into your fall semester of school and are starting to realize you need to make some money. But before you start looking, it’s important to know that the job market may be a little different now.
As you well know, the economy is in rough shape and so there are fewer and fewer jobs available. On top of that, there are a lot of baby boomers who were going to retire (your parents and grandparents) but decided to work a little longer and may be taking jobs you could have had. Just something to keep in mind while you browse.
That being said, here are a few decent paying jobs for college students…
- Restaurant Server – While in college, I worked as a server at a chain restaurant and always made above minimum wage. In the restaurant world, you make your money with your tips so the better you are as a server, the more money you can make. Another perk to being a server is the shifts are usually fairly short (4-6 hours), and they are generally pretty flexible with school schedules. If you’ve got some serving experience, you may even look into a fine-dining or upscale restaurant where you can make some really decent money.
- Pizza Delivery – Just like being a server in a restaurant, you make your money with pizza delivery from tips. I knew a guy who did this in college and always made good money. Plus, you spend a good chunk of the time in your car where you can listen to music or just wave at strangers in other cars.
- Freelance – Do you have a particular skill that you’re really good at? Photography, writing, graphic design, internet marketing, web site design, or video editing? What if you could offer your services as a freelancer to others? As a business owner, I have personally worked with freelancers from each of those categories I listed.
- Start Your Own Business – This would be my favorite choice. Obviously, you wouldn’t have a steady paycheck, but you would have the ability to earn a lot more than minimum wage. Find something that you’re passionate about whether it be selling a product or offering a service and see if there’s a way to start a business on campus with that hobby.
YOUR 2 CENTS – What other good paying jobs would you recommend students look into?
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On-campus jobs! I had a great work study (meaning my first $x was exempt from federal taxes!) job on campus from sophomore year until graduation. What did I do? I walked around campus with a clipboard, counting the number of people in classrooms and labs during specified times. Then, at the end of the week, I put the data into a computer. That might sound boring to some people, but I loved it! No supervision, just get the job done, and you’re golden. There are tons of work study and on-campus jobs of all types. You can work behind an info desk, work in a dining hall, work for your college’s activities department or tech crew… the list goes on and on, depending on your school. And there’s usually no transportation cost, if you’re living on campus, so you get to keep much more of your paycheck.
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