You are officially a college/university student. Yeah!
You just settled into your dorm room (or revamped room at home). You’re looking at your schedule and all the textbooks you need, and it dawns on you, you are neither a trust fund baby or an heiress to a big fortune, and you’ll need some extra money.
Not even to mention you have to cover the student loans that are about to annoy your bank account for the next couple of years.
Luckily there are loads of job opportunities online.
Yes, we know the old routine of college jobs: working at the local coffee shop or bar and babysitting is just not going to cut it this time around.
“What work can I do from home as a student?” You ask.
A lot! You, your computer, and studying all the while doing a side gig making money.
Sounds idyllic, right?
Yes, but it’s also a reality.
The best online jobs for college students are littered over the internet.
But how, what, when, and where? How do you start? Let’s take a look at some of the basic
info you need for this new venture.
How Can College Students Work Online?
It sounds obvious but here goes anyway. You need:
- A good internet connection,
- A laptop, mac or smartphone.
In short, you need to be able to surf the web and write/communicate on an electronic device.
Which Are the Best Online Jobs for Students?
Going to a search engine and asking for online jobs for college students is as easy as pie, right?
Yes and no.
Yes, because the internet will dish out an array of jobs that you can choose from.
No, because there are a million jobs to sift through and you might also be scammed, but we’ll get into that a bit later.
What’s important is you have to find the RIGHT job.
Finding the Right Job
Now, after a brief search, you have a buffet of potential online jobs for college students waiting to boost your bank account.
Let’s find the right one.
It’s no use if you find a great-paying job and you hate doing it. Nobody has time to be unhappy, especially when most of your energy and focus needs to be on your studies.
You know the saying: “Time is money.”
So, before wasting your time, ask yourself some of these questions when searching for online jobs.
- What are you good at?
- Do you need a specific skill for this job?
- Will this fit into my class schedule?
- Will it interfere with my studying time?
- Is the salary worth my time?
- Does this job suit me?
If there is absolutely nothing in particular that suits you, then what would you want to try and learn?
What do you think might be interesting to do?
Research the requirements for the online job. The last thing you want to do is find a job, update your resume and then be stressed out because it’s taking away from your studying time. You’ll be shooting yourself in the foot
To make it easier to choose, let’s divide the job search into 2 categories:
No experience required and experience required.
How Can College Students Make Money Online?
Here are some of those online jobs for students where you don’t need a specific skill set.
Many of the jobs are remote, that’s why you need a good internet connection and laptop/mac/smartphone to do the work.
Social Media Managers
Taking a company’s social media accounts and managing their information, client requests, updating what needs to be updated.
Freelance writing.
The world of writing has exploded and is a good steady way of making some needed cash. This is a great way to jump start your freelance writing career.
Blogger
You can either write your own stories, or for a company. Your income comes from how many people visit your site.
Data Entry Jobs
This is one of the most common online jobs. Companies are always in need of that extra hand that can do the nitty gritty work of entering data into their system that no one else has time for. Data entry clerks are lifesavers.
Translator/Transcription
If you are bilingual and have a good demand of another language, this is a great option to earn some extra money
Survey Taker.
One of the easiest ways to earn some money is by taking part in online surveys that pay.
Tutoring
You made it to college, right?
There are school subjects that you excel at and you can help kids with. Tutors send videos over the internet, live or pre-recorded, and there are options of making notes and checking the work that the kids have done.
Social Media Marketing
If marketing is your thing, many companies look for people who can sell their products online.
Online Jobs That Require Some Skills
Virtual Assistant
You’re punctual and organized, how about assisting someone online? Checking emails, making appointments. Basically anything that your employer might need you to do, that they are too busy to do.
It can also be helping clients online via the Zoom or Teamviewer and/or webcamming with something that the client is struggling with.
There are websites that can train you to become a virtual assistant.
Proof Reader or Editor
This job needs excellent demand for the language you are working with. That means vocabulary, grammar etc.
Graphic Design or Video Editor
We put these two jobs together because you need to know how to work with certain programs, like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop.
You can always buy the programs and teach yourself how to use them if time allows and you want to get into this field, or just enjoy doing designing and editing work.
These are only a few online gigs.
You can also look into
- Video Captioning.
- Audio transcription.
- Search engine evaluator jobs.
- Project management
- Customer service job
- Website tester
- Voice-over actor
- Crowdsourcing.
All these jobs are an excellent way to build your resume or portfolio.
Getting Paid
Payment for online jobs vary. It may be per hour or a fixed rate for a specific job done,
e.g. $X amount for an article written.
Most online jobs vary between $5 dollars per hour to $200 a day or more. It really depends on the company, your skill set and of course the amount of time and effort you put into making your money.
Depending on the company you work for, when you get paid will also vary, e.g every week, bi-weekly or end of the month. Also, because it’s online, some companies may use specific means of payment, e.g PayPal or Wise.
Avoid Getting Scammed
Under no circumstance should you walk into a job blindly. Do thorough research on the company. Ask or look for reviews.
Do NOT pay a company any money if they ask you. Many scammers tell you to pay a certain amount of money to the company and then you get your money back with interest when the work is done.
They steal your money and will ghost you. Be very vigilant. Always do your research.
Let’s Get to Work
There are a lot of legitimate online jobs on job boards and websites such as Small Revolution or Indeed that can help you out financially, but the onus is on you to find the right one that suits you and that fits your schedule.
There should be no reason for you, as a college student, to not be able to make money while studying.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and nothing sounds so good as the wonderful ping on your cell phone from money being deposited into your bank account.
