You’ve worked hard to graduate! Now you’re urgently looking for a well-paid job to make money after college. But the prospects often don’t seem as blissful as you’ve expected as the job market is tough and over-flooded with recent graduates. It may take up to half a year before you land your secure position. If you savings are scarce, it is extremely hard to get by. Here are some tips on how to make money while job hunting after college!
Many fresh graduates don’t even know which career path to take, especially if they have gotten disappointed in their major. Also, switching back from a college bubble to a “normal” life might strike you as something actually challenging.
In any case, these few months after college is a life-defining period: you’re figuring out your career path and your life values. And it’s OK to take this process slow and be strategic about your job search because, well, you don’t want to land just any job. Just don’t expect that the first job you land will be a dream one. But it’s in your capacity to turn it into something you can later build your dream upon.
However, back to the banalities of life: you also need to stay looking for that one job (or whatever job). Here are some tips on how to make money while job hunting after college. These are not “jobs proper” but relatively effortless side-hustles that will contribute to your sustainable college-to-job transitioning.
Continue with your college part-time
You might be sick and tired of doing the same thing for the last couple of months or even years, but it can be sensible to stick to it for a bit more. Don’t be arrogant: it’s fine to have a college degree and do work that doesn’t demand any. But only in case it serves the purpose of keeping you afloat and gives you enough free time you can invest in job hunting and networking. Of course, if it’s tremendously underpaid (terribly, but so many positions are) — check the ideas below. They’ll definitely be more rewarding.
Freelance your professional skills
While you haven’t landed a full-time job, practice your skills, enrich your portfolio, and network— while freelancing. Even if you studied a subject that can’t be straightforwardly “freelanced” (like Criminal Justice), you can tune it a bit and market it as law research and consulting. And remember that most college graduates are pretty good at writing and critical thinking.
In most cases, however, your skills are already needed out there. So jump right in! There are a bunch of platforms — Upwork, Fiverr, and Flexjobs are the most popular — that offer you space for advertising your skills and finding side-gigs. The beauty is that you can decide for yourself how much time you want to spend on making money and how much you can devote to job hunting.
Sell textbooks you don’t need
Sleepless nights of cramming over your textbooks are over. Most probably, you don’t need any of the college books that you’ve inherited from your days as a student. Why don’t you sell textbooks you have and earn quite a bit on that? Some used textbooks can be $100 worth! Check on BookScouter how much your college books are worth. Even if each is just 20 dollars, it’s still good extra money if you sell in bulk.
BookScouter helps you find the best vendor for selling your books. Check all the conditions and delivery terms for each seller to find the offer that suits you the best. Moreover, with BookScouter Pro Tools you can make money by flipping books online — check it out!
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♬ sonido original – hs.letras
Consider tutoring and teaching
While you’re out of college, many are still studying. Have a look if you can tutor current high school or college students in the subject you’ve just mastered! All the toils and hardships are fresh in your memory, and this insider knowledge is highly relevant for students who are just at the beginning of the journey.
Preply is quite common for finding students to tutor, but you can try so many other platforms. For example, Skillshare and Udemy offer a bit more time-consuming option to kickstart your teaching side-project. But it might be a better investment — you’re creating your own course! You’d need to have good enough equipment to film your classes, but then it goes with the flow. And it doesn’t have to be the academic subject you’ve studied but something that has always been “just a hobby” — hand lettering or photography.
Start Blogging
It’s probably easier to find a person who is not blogging these days than the other way round. However, there is some point in setting up a youtube channel or your page on medium (or a podcast?). You can share your college experience with others or sincerely document your job hunting story. Or maybe you’ve always wanted to dive deeper into your hobby (be it crocheting or growing plants from fruit seeds) — that’s when you can take a chance.
Don’t have high expectations, though — this venture might not become profitable that very moment you publish your first video or blog post. Though don’t forget about sponsored content and affiliate marketing opportunities! Even if you don’t get a stable cash flow from your blogging right now, it might be a good investment in the future. Moreover, you’ll grow a community of like-minded people around you — and that’s even better than all that money. And don’t forget that networking is often key to landing a first well-paid job.
Become a Teaching Assistant
Well, college is over, but don’t shut the door so fast. There are some excellent opportunities for making money after college as well. Yes, it’s about becoming a TA (teaching assistant). However, the competition might be pretty savage, but you never know! If you have excelled in some subjects and still maintain a solid relationship with your lecturers, give it a shot and ask.
Best of luck in your job hunting after college! Don’t forget you should also be careful with your finances along the way and save some cash when shopping, for example (these apps will help you). We hope these tips will help you find a way to make money after college while you’re chasing after that job offer!
