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Perhaps the biggest reason why many students were forced to leave their part-time jobs and stay at home is because of COVID-19. Thousands of college students used to have part-time jobs, but everybody is scrambling to search for alternatives to balance online lectures and work because of the pandemic.
Thankfully, this present situation is a perfect chance, especially for college students, to take advantage of the circumstances and earn some extra cash right in the comfort of their homes.
To earn extra income these days, college students need to understand how critical it is to work online from home and get paid. Working online not only helps you earn more money but also saves you time spent commuting to and from the workplace.
When choosing the best online jobs for students, the most decisive factors are money and flexibility.
College Student Employment
It’s normal for most college students to work as they study. However, the type and amount of work each student has widely varied.
The Georgetown University – Center on Education and the Workforce revealed in its 2018 report that low-income working students are working for longer hours compared to their decently-incomed counterparts. The report found that 70% of full-time students have jobs during their vacant time.
As the number increases, the number of students working full-time decreases (40% in the late 1980s to just 26% in 2012). Nevertheless, low-income working college students are more likely to have full-time jobs than those with higher incomes (26% vs. 22%).
On average, the number of students across income brackets works about 15 to 35 hours each week.
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The Advantages of Working and Studying Simultaneously
College is in itself very challenging. But it even becomes more challenging when you couple it with part-time work. However, working your way through college also offers a lot of advantages. Here are some of them.
Part-time Jobs Can Help You Avoid or Reduce College Debt.
One of the most daunting things most college students struggle with is how to make their student loan payments. But if you work during college, this can significantly help minimize or even avoid these debts. Most students who choose to work their way through college often end up with less student loan debt than those who don’t.
Part-Time Jobs Help You Gain Important Job Experience.
When you have the right work experience, especially if the work is related to your field, this can help you get more competitive when you enter a full-time job relevant to your course.
You Will Learn Proper Time Management Skills through Part-Time Jobs.
After you step out of college and enter the work field, you will have plenty of other projects to deal with and meetings left and right to attend. At some point, this can become so overwhelming. However, your having a part-time job back in your college days will teach you proper time management. This will help you easily adapt to your field of work quickly.
Furthermore, having a part-time job also develops your skills in dealing with other people. Keep in mind the difference between working with clients at your job and interacting with people in school. This skill will come in handy to the outside world, making it easier for you to adapt.
Also, some students claim that they do better in college after they learn how to manage their time effectively. They assert that they become better in school while holding a part-time job because they have to plan out their week correctly to make their studies and jobs rough enough.
Part-time Jobs Can Help You Improve Your Grades.
A lot of students say that their grades improve the moment they start working. How is this even possible? This is a result of them learning how to plan and organize their study time effectively! But there’s a catch. The number of hours you work can make an impact on your academic success.
Those who work around 15-20 hours each week claim they have higher GPAs than those students who never work at all. But if you try to work more than that, chances are, it can affect your grades negatively.
It’s important, therefore, to do your part-time jobs at the number of hours suitable for you. Never let the stress of it all get in the way of school! You need to know when to say enough to remain on top of your studies.
Today, the worldwide pandemic has caused a major setback for face-to-face classes. This has prompted more colleges to move to online learning but still have the same tuition rates. And because more businesses are now closing, it’s even harder to find decent and well-paying jobs.
Thankfully, there are so many online jobs for students to earn money available today.
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Best Online Jobs for College Students: What to Look For
- Can you work from your dorm? If you are still living in a dorm, you must have a stable internet connection and a decent computer. Check which time of the day you can work without any distractions (like roommates). If this won’t work well, find another place conducive to working, like a library or a coffee shop, so that you can work productively.
When you become a student worker/entrepreneur, this means you have more flexibility in your hours. But this doesn’t equate to lesser work. You still have to be consistent, productive, and dedicated.
- How much do you need? Whether you are paying for your college tuition yourself or you’re just looking for extra cash, it’s wise to set a weekly earning goal. Some online jobs pay more than others, so you should identify your income goal for a week before you sign up for online jobs for students who work from home.
- Know your schedule. The amount of time you have outside of college dictates the amount of time you can have for your part-time job. What’s good about today’s online jobs is that they allow for flexible schedules. Keep in mind that one of the biggest issues of online jobs is a loose schedule.
Like having a weekly income goal, you always set a goal of the amount of time you are willing to spend on doing an online job each week. This will guide you in knowing how much you wish to make per hour.
- In which field are you good at? If you have a digital or artistic talent, online jobs are amazing part-time options. This is also a great way for you to get your foot in the future career you wish to pursue after college.
If you’re presently doing something passionate, think of ways you can generate money from it. Say you have a knack for graphic design. Fiverr has several freelancing jobs that may suit your talent. Or join freelance sites with writing jobs such as Upwork if you are a skilled writer.
Online Work From Home Jobs for College Students
Are you wondering what some of the best online, flexible, and part-time jobs for college students are? Here are some of them:
Translation Jobs and Freelance Writing For College Students
This is probably the most popular way to earn money online while you’re still in college. When it comes to freelance jobs, your options are endless. You need to find out in what field you’re good at.
Today, most websites and companies need a portfolio when you apply for a freelance job. And since you’re still in college, you may have a boring one, considering you don’t have a steady job at this point!
But be creative. Make use of any work you have done for your friends and colleagues. Or better yet, make your platform so you can have a free hand in showcasing your skills. Do you have volunteering jobs in a college project? That can count as an experience. When you have a decent amount of work on your platform, you can now start your online job application.
If you’re a talented writer and already have a blog or have written previously in blogs as a guest writer, show these works to scouting sites for writers. There are so many websites that hire talented freelance writers, like Hubpages, Problogger, or Content.
If you’re someone who has a keen eye on grammatical mistakes in articles and you feel like you should correct them, this can make you a good freelance editor. This job is very broad, where you will edit practically anything: blogs, e-books, articles, and the like. Some freelance editing sites are Freelancer, Upwork, and PureContent.
For translation jobs, there are freelance transcription and translation websites like MTurk, Rev, Gengo, TranscribeMe, or Unbabel.
Online Teaching
If you can deliver information and excel in a specific project, an online teaching job is right. You can have it for several students together, although one-on-one private tutoring pays more. This is a good way to make money, learn new things, and help others. Sites like Tutor.com, Chegg, and Yup are great websites to start.
Today, online English teaching is very high in demand—and you don’t need professional experience to apply for it. As long as you are fluent, then you’re good to go. VIPKID is a website where your clients are Chinese who want to learn the English language.
Another website is Qkids, which is for US citizens and native speakers who love to teach English online. Here, you can earn up to $20 per hour.
Online Surveys, Paid Reviews
This is probably one of the most popular ways for college students to earn money online. This job is very simple, it pays very well and does not take too much of your time. You have to take a survey related to a product, a business, or something similar, and for each survey, there’s a corresponding fee.
Most companies want some important information for their research and reports, and you can provide them with these details in exchange for money.
For paid surveys, you can try Swagbucks, Survey Junkie, and MyPoints. Besides doing a paid survey, you can also get paid for other things like watching videos or playing games. When looking for online jobs with no experience, there are so many other websites that will pay you for doing different tasks.
For example, you get paid as research in Wonder. Or you can review and categorize calls via Humanatic. Or if you’re a music lover? Slice the Pie is an amazing website that pays you to listen to and write reviews about the music of new artists.
Social Media Marketing
This is one of today’s fastest-growing fields. It’s no wonder how easy it will be to find jobs in this area. Today, most, if not all, businesses should maintain their social media presence on different platforms so they can give their brand the attention and engagement it needs.
As a social media marketer, you must know the basics of online marketing strategies and a clear understanding of the many business features across all social media platforms. With these skills, this job will be easy for you!
Another job related to this is the social media manager. Here, you are responsible for writing posts regularly about a business’s products or services while entertaining messages and inquiries on your client’s social media platforms.
Web Development
This is one of the highest-paying services across various freelance marketplaces, such as Flexjobs, Upwork, or Fiverr. If you think this is all about coding and that you have to be a computer whiz to secure a job in web development, you’re mistaken!
Coding today is made easier thanks to tools and themes readily available on WordPress that allow you to build websites without knowing about coding. Provided that you can navigate across the WordPress interface, you can become an online web developer.
Graphic Designer
This is another online freelancing job that pays very well; whether it’s designing a website logo or making an entire catalog, an online graphic designing job can pay for your college tuition amidst the pandemic.
According to Payscale, online graphic designers make roughly $30 per hour. But of course, you can make this higher than this by charging your clients per project.
Video Editor
YouTube is growing bigger by the day. And as video consumption is still on the rise, your opportunities are endless if you have impeccable video editing skills. While some employers prefer to hire someone with a degree in film or broadcast, you can still try your luck in this field, especially if you can showcase your talents correctly.
Podcast Editor
Podcast consumption has grown over the years, and editors are always tapped to help practically every aspect of an audio production process. As a podcast editor, your task starts from recording raw audio until its final publication.
Before starting, you should understand all the rules that surround podcast editing. It also helps to know a bit about the digital audio workstation. Along with the right editing app and tools, you can start branding yourself and solidifying your presence online to pitch new clients.
Part-time Summer (or Seasonal) Jobs for College Students
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, so many companies had to send their employees home and have them work remotely, as safety is of paramount concern. When summer came last year, so many college students were left hanging. What used to be a season to secure part-time jobs like waiting tables or babysitting suddenly went blank.
However, many experts believe that most companies will already be so accustomed to virtual work by this time. Some firms may even offer remote summer jobs for college students for the summer break, although securing a job will still be challenging because of a struggling economy.
Thankfully, you can still find remote jobs (and internships) to help you pay all your college expenses.
Project-Based Freelance Work
Project-based and virtual freelance jobs offer you money and flexibility to help you cover small college expenses like gas, entertainment activities, on-campus take-out food, and even some college fees. Some common freelance jobs include user experience design, data entry, and remote translation work.
Payments for these part-time jobs vary from project to project. And since most of these jobs are project-based, you can take on one or two freelance jobs on top of your part-time work during the summer.
Communication and Marketing Jobs
According to industry experts, marketing and communications are two of the most comfortable fields in a virtual environment setup. If you plan on a career in any of these fields, you can start getting involved through online summer internships and employment.
Jobs surrounding this field usually involve newsletter and email distribution, virtual meetings, writing news releases, or content creation—all of which you can do right in the comfort of your home.
Research Jobs
The research involved working with information and data that you can find online. Entry-level workers can do research jobs, making it perfect for students looking for an online summer job.
Whether you are researching for a big company or performing scientific research for a college professor, getting into these jobs would mean learning and earning for college at the same time.
Generally, each salary for a remote job will greatly depend on your location. For instance, CNN was looking for a remote research intern whose job involves collecting, summarizing, and distributing data. The intern should also help CNN Español’s research team.
Based on the job posting it was stated that the pay would be based on the office location.
Social Media Opportunities
In recent times, many college students heavily relied on social media platforms like YouTube or Twitter to cover a portion of tuition and limit their student loans. You can find social media companies that hire college students to help them run and maintain their social media accounts.
Making a personal brand online takes some time and sheer determination. But when done correctly, this summer job opportunity can be lucrative and may potentially lead to better career opportunities along the way.
Support Roles for Delivery Services
As stay-at-home arrangements are now preferred, the popularity of online delivery services such as Amazon has multiplied! E-commerce companies these days offer students many opportunities that do not necessarily involve physically delivering goods.
There are remote internships in marketing, software development, accounting, finance, and quality assurance available this summer at Amazon. Who knows, working for Amazon during your summer break might also give you the chance to work with them long-term. And if this happens, imagine the educational assistance options that Amazon can offer you.
Online Tutoring and Teaching
If you want to have a career in education, online tutoring, and teaching in this time of pandemic is a wise idea. Virtual tutoring will allow you to earn money and gain valuable experience that will be advantageous in your future job.
Non-profit organizations, tutoring companies, and even local schools sometimes offer job opportunities to college students qualified to instruct a high school student in different subjects like English, math, and ACT or SAT Preparations.
Because of COVID-19, some schools even offer virtual summer programs for younger students. Meaning they will need virtual teachers who can lead instruction and create a curriculum.
Telemedicine Support Work
In medicine and public health, the need for college students with a background in such fields is more in demand than ever. Just last year, the use of virtual medical appointments and telemedicine has soared so high, according to Temple University’s executive director of the career center, Kristen Gallo.
This resulted in medical centers and doctor’s officers seeking online help to help them with their logistics or coordinate patient scheduling and appointments.
Virtual Event Planning
Because in-person gatherings are no longer allowed in most public places, virtual conferences, webinars, and even online weddings have become very popular. Since these events need logistical management and significant preparation, a virtual event planner will come in very handy.
During summer, you can apply for internships and jobs with your nearby event coordinator. And if luck is on your side, you can even get scholarships to help pay for your college because many regional companies and smaller local firms provide awards to their staff that are not publicly advertised.
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How to Get Online Part-Time Jobs For College Students
For the past year, COVID-19 has pushed everybody to stay at home for months. We are experiencing a pandemic that has never happened before, and for just a short amount of time, so many things have changed.
But merely staying at home is not relaxation at all for college students, especially when working, meeting deadlines, and taking classes to continue. However, things have to be done differently this time.
Almost everyone struggles with how hard it is to juggle school responsibilities, home life, and work. With that, here are some helpful tips and tricks to make your part-time online jobs easier and more manageable.
Know What You’re Good At
Before you start scouting for online jobs, know yourself first. What are your best skills? What can you offer to potential clients? Doing so can help narrow down your searches and save you time from visiting unnecessary online job portals. But if you have no specific expertise, start going for easy jobs first, like website testers, chat jobs, or data entry clerks.
Avoid Scams
Before you begin your freelance work, double-check if the job is legit or not! The online world is still full of bad people, after all. If you have not been interviewed by video or phone call, that’s a red flag. Or if a ‘client’ asks you to pay for something or ask for your financial information, avoid that.
There are still so many people online who will pretend to hire you. After you’ve done the task, they will ghost you. Double-check ratings and reviews. If you see none, it’s time to hop on to the next client.
Don’t Just Give Up Immediately.
After applying for a week or two and nobody has contacted you yet, don’t give up. Ask and evaluate yourself and work on the things that you think you need to improve on. Maybe you need to broaden your skillset. Or update your resume.
Regardless, don’t just give up easily. Remember, looking for an online job is tough. And it’s even tougher now, knowing almost all your college peers are also doing the same.
How do I balance my college studies and work life?
- Make a Schedule and Stick to It: Creating a weekly schedule that outlines when you’ll work, study, and have time for yourself will help you stay on track and prioritize your tasks.
- Set Goals: Break down big tasks into smaller, more manageable goals. That way, you’ll be able to stay on track and won’t get overwhelmed.
- Put Your Phone Away: Schedule specific times for checking emails, social media, and other distractions. This will help you stay focused when you need to.
- Get Enough Sleep: You need at least 7-8 hours of sleep every night. It’s essential to get enough rest so that you’ll be able to stay focused and productive during the day.
- Ask for Help: Don’t be afraid to reach out to family, friends, or professors if you need help or just need someone to talk to.
- Take Breaks: Take breaks in between study sessions or working hours. This will help you stay productive and refreshed.
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Nobody has predicted what life would be like post-pandemic. Still, we are lucky to live in a time when we can still work and earn remotely without having to interact closely with others. Take these ideas to jump-start your online job search.
