Recently, I have had the joyful experience of coaching a group of college kids as they navigate the transitional phase of relying on their parents to growing into independence. These young adults are facing the need to begin supporting themselves financially while also attending to classes and finding balance with their social lives. In the course of this experience supporting this group of young men and women, we explored all the ways they can earn income while juggling their class and social schedules. Today I’m going to share what we covered in our group sessions including 9 ways college kids can earn income and also attend to academics and have a healthy social life all in balance.
It’s important for young adults to graduate from depending on their parents so they can develop a greater sense of independences, mastery and empowerment. Parents of college kids can benefit from the information I’m going to share here, understanding that your encouragement of your child’s age-appropriate independence will assist in their healthy launch from the next. When college kids can earn income on their own and learn to budget their money and time, they are developing key life skills that will aid them for the next transition into career and full adulthood after they graduate college.
Here is my list of 9 ways college kids can earn income:
- Delivery Services: This Uber Eats driver review will show you what it takes to become an Uber Eats delivery driver, what all the job will entail, and what it is actually like to work for this company. There is tremendous flexibility allowing you to take regular breaks, working around your class and social schedule. Doordash and GrubHub are other additional food delivery companies. With all of these companies you retain 100% of your tips and you can expect to make anywhere from $8 to $12 hours.
- Give People Rides: Companies like Lyft and Uber provide great opportunities to serve as a driver for people who need a ride from here to there. If you’ve got a clean, reliable vehicle and a friendly, helpful personality, know how to drive safely and responsibly, you can make very good money as a driver with an extremely flexible schedule.
- Be a Tutor. If you’re a natural when it comes to a particular school subject and you know how to help others understand the topic, you can make very good money helping high school students or fellow college students. You’ll want to make connections with local high school teachers and professors on your campus to let them know you’re available. Your campus might have a tutoring center where you can work as well.
- Work with animals. If you are a lover of animals, you can do a number of things to earn money. You can be dog-walker or a pet-sitter for the neighboring residents of your college town who may be too busy with full time work or who may travel for work and need someone to care for their pets while they are gone. You can work in an animal shelter or as an assistant technician at a vet clinic.
- Care for children. If you did babysitting in high school there is no reason not to continue in your college years! Babysitting can yield very good money because parents typically prefer a more mature college student to care for their children and are willing to pay a bit more. You also could apply for part time positions in child care centers or after school programs at elementary schools.
- Be a virtual assistant. Were you born to be organized? Super detail oriented? You can help people from a distance who need help with all kinds of organizational projects online. This article provides a run-down or resources for where to find VA jobs.
- Catering pays. There are catering companies everywhere and they always are in need of help. You could be hired to set up for parties, clean up and take down after or serve food and drinks. Do a search for catering companies in your college town and start making calls.
- Be a proofreader. If you are good at catching typos and you enjoy reading, you can be paid to be a proofreader.
- Shop and deliver for $.Shipt is a company kind of like Uber Eats that delivers grocery and personal items to people’s door step. As a Shipt shopper you would go shopping for the items and deliver them and you can make an average of $22/hour.
When I am coaching on the process of which direction they should go in next with their personal and work lives, I emphasize first identifying what it is you know, what it is you love and what it is that feels enlivening for you. There are myriad ways for college kids to earn income while also enjoying the work and having flexibility, energy and time to attend to academics AND still have a healthy, happy social life.