The 8 best PhD side hustles | Earn money during your PhD
Summary
TLDRThe video script discusses the financial challenges of pursuing a PhD and offers various strategies to supplement income without distracting from academic work. It suggests university-based side hustles, leveraging skills, and creating passive income streams. Examples include one-on-one tutoring, exam cramming sessions, selling digital products, marking exams, and participating in user testing. The speaker emphasizes the importance of not compromising PhD focus and finding ethical ways to earn extra money.
Takeaways
- 💰 The financial aspect of pursuing a PhD can significantly impact a student's experience, potentially making it more challenging due to the constant worry about money.
- 📚 PhD students often engage in side hustles to supplement their income, which can include various jobs both within and outside the university.
- 🔍 The speaker shares personal experiences and observations of other PhD students to provide inspiration for potential side hustles that align with academic life.
- 🚫 Side hustles should not distract from the main focus of the PhD; hence, the speaker emphasizes finding jobs that allow for continued concentration on studies.
- 🏫 Many of the suggested side hustles are university-based, which helps in maximizing time efficiency and minimizing distractions.
- 💡 The speaker advocates for not selling time for money but instead creating content and被动收入 sources, although acknowledging that this might not be feasible during the early stages of a PhD.
- 👨🏫 One-on-one tutoring was highlighted as a lucrative side hustle, especially for those who are good communicators and enjoy teaching.
- 📈 The speaker also mentions 'exam cramming sessions' as a valuable service that can be offered to students during exam periods, capitalizing on last-minute revision needs.
- 🎨 For those with creative hobbies, selling handmade products on platforms like Etsy can be a way to monetize personal interests.
- 🔬 Opportunities for PhD students also include assisting with marking exams, demonstrating in labs, and providing academic support services within the university.
- 💬 The speaker advises reaching out to supervisors and university services to express interest in teaching or tutoring roles that can provide additional income.
- 🌐 While not a fan of the gig economy, the speaker found user testing to be a relatively rewarding way to earn some extra money with minimal commitment.
Q & A
How does financial stress affect a PhD student's experience?
-Financial stress can make a PhD much harder than it needs to be because it's always on the student's mind, potentially distracting them from their studies.
What are some criteria the speaker suggests for side hustles suitable for PhD students?
-The side hustles should not distract from the PhD work, should be near the university to maximize time efficiency, and ideally involve exchanging time for money with higher pay and more freedom.
Why does the speaker prefer not to sell time for money during a PhD?
-The speaker believes that creating content and having passive income sources are better in the long run, but during a PhD, it's more practical to stick with higher-paying, time-exchanging jobs due to the time constraints.
What is one-on-one tutoring and why is it lucrative for PhD students?
-One-on-one tutoring involves providing personalized academic support, which is valuable to those seeking help and can command high rates due to the personalized attention and expertise provided.
What are 'exam cramming sessions' and how can they be a source of income for PhD students?
-Exam cramming sessions are intensive study sessions close to exam times, where students pay for focused help with past exam papers. They can be a source of income because many students leave their revision to the last moment and are willing to pay for such help.
Why might selling digital products on Etsy be a good side hustle for PhD students?
-Selling digital products on Etsy can be a good side hustle because it allows students to monetize a hobby that produces marketable items, like planners or jewelry, without requiring a significant time commitment.
How can PhD students get involved in exam marking as a side income?
-PhD students can approach their supervisors or lecturers and offer to mark exams for them, using their subject knowledge to grade papers and provide feedback.
What opportunities does the speaker mention for PhD students interested in teaching?
-The speaker mentions opportunities such as becoming a lecturer, giving workshops, teaching tutorials, and conducting lab demonstrations, all of which can provide additional income while utilizing the student's existing knowledge and skills.
How can PhD students help in student services and what benefits might they gain?
-PhD students can help in student services by offering assistance with exams, essays, and foundational academic skills. This not only provides them with a side income but also allows them to utilize and share their academic expertise.
What is the speaker's view on the gig economy and user testing during a PhD?
-While the speaker is not a fan of the gig economy due to its exploitative nature, they found user testing to be a useful and relatively well-paid side hustle during their PhD, providing an opportunity to earn some extra income with minimal commitment.
Outlines
💼 Financial Considerations for PhD Students
The paragraph discusses the impact of financial constraints on the PhD journey, suggesting that insufficient funds can add stress and distract from academic focus. To counter this, the speaker shares various strategies and side hustles they and others have employed to supplement income without detracting from their PhD work. These include university-based jobs and leveraging skills for higher-paying, time-flexible opportunities. The speaker emphasizes the importance of not letting part-time jobs distract from the primary goal of the PhD and highlights the value of using one's skills to generate income.
📚 Tutoring and Exam Cramming for Income
This section focuses on the lucrative opportunity of one-on-one tutoring as a means to earn money during PhD studies. The speaker shares their personal experience of advertising their services on platforms like Gumtree and charging competitive rates. They also discuss the concept of 'exam cramming sessions,' where they capitalized on the last-minute study needs of students around exam periods. These sessions involved analyzing past exam papers and were offered both individually and in groups, providing a valuable service to students while generating a substantial side income for the tutor.
🎨 Leveraging Hobbies and Academic Skills for Earnings
The speaker explores the idea of turning hobbies into income-generating activities, such as selling handmade jewelry on Etsy. They also mention creating and selling digital products like academic writing toolkits. Additionally, the paragraph covers opportunities within the university, such as exam marking and lecturing, which can provide a good income without being too distracting from PhD work. The speaker shares their positive experiences with lecturing and emphasizes the satisfaction of teaching and sharing knowledge while also earning money.
🧪 Lab Demonstrating and User Testing as Side Income
In this paragraph, the speaker talks about the role of a lab demonstrator in science-based PhDs, guiding undergraduates through practical lab work. They also touch upon the concept of user testing as a way to earn a small side income, describing their personal experience with platforms like UserTesting.com. The speaker expresses a general aversion to the gig economy due to its exploitative nature but acknowledges that user testing provided a relatively ethical and interesting way to earn some extra money during their PhD.
📧 Final Thoughts and Resource Recommendations
The final paragraph serves as a conclusion, encouraging viewers to explore the suggested avenues for side income and to share their own experiences in the comments. The speaker also promotes their newsletter, ebook 'The Ultimate Academic Writing Toolkit,' and the Insider Forum as valuable resources for the academic community. The paragraph ends with a reminder for viewers to subscribe to the newsletter and an anticipation for the next video.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡PhD
💡Side hustles
💡Tutoring
💡Exam cramming sessions
💡Digital products
💡Passive income
💡Lecturing
💡User testing
💡Gig economy
💡Monetize
Highlights
Financial concerns can make a PhD more challenging, as they are a constant distraction if not managed properly.
PhD students often engage in side hustles to supplement their income, such as part-time jobs or freelance work.
The ideal side hustle should not distract from the main focus of the PhD and should be conveniently located, often within the university.
Creating passive income streams is not feasible during the early stages of a PhD due to the time investment required.
One-on-one tutoring is highlighted as a lucrative option for PhD students, especially for those with strong communication skills.
Exam cramming sessions are suggested as a way to capitalize on the last-minute study needs of students.
Selling digital products or handmade items on platforms like Etsy can be a good way to monetize hobbies.
Marking exams for university lecturers can provide a steady side income with minimal distraction from research.
Lecturing and running tutorials are viable options for PhD students interested in teaching and can be financially rewarding.
Helping in student services, such as essay or exam help, can be a valuable way to use PhD skills to assist others.
Becoming a lab demonstrator allows PhD students to utilize their practical skills and teach undergraduates.
User testing for websites can be a low-commitment way to earn some extra money during a PhD.
The speaker expresses concerns about the gig economy and its potential exploitation of workers.
Despite reservations about the gig economy, user testing proved to be a useful side income source for the speaker.
The speaker encourages PhD students to utilize their unique skills to find side income opportunities that align with their interests and expertise.
The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to explore additional resources and engage with the speaker's academic community.
Transcripts
the financial side of doing a phd can
actually make your phd much harder than
it needs to be and that is because
finances run the world if you don't have
enough money to eat sleep have a
comfortable life it is always in the
back of your mind and so phd students to
supplement their income if they are on a
scholarship often uh do a number of side
hustles like they do a number of
different jobs either with the
university or independently or outside
of the university to earn some extra
money and so in this video what i want
to share with you are all of the things
that i did and i saw other people doing
during their phd which may give you a
little bit of inspiration now i selected
these things because first of all they
either worked for me or they satisfied a
few criteria
the first criteria is that it shouldn't
distract you from your phd now a job an
actual like part-time job can be quite
distracting you have a boss that's there
and says hey come on in i've got more
hours
earn more money all of that sort of
stuff can be relatively distracting so
you know i've chosen it so that you can
still focus on your phd or your studies
it also has to be near where you're
doing your phd which is why a lot of
them are university-based i think i
found that that is the most useful way
to maximize the amount of time minimize
distraction and have people come to you
um and
ideally like the way i view my money and
time now is i do not sell my time for
money like i don't have a job i create
content i've got blogs i've got a
passive income through a number of
different sources and
that isn't feasible during a phd
especially the early stages just because
it takes so much time to get to that
stage it takes at least two years to get
to a point where you've got multiple
streams of income where you could relax
and like not have to think about it but
up to that point it is like a full-time
job so i've purposely decided to stick
with the things that are exchanging time
for money but are higher
amounts of money and a lot more freedom
that's kind of what i've chosen so it's
not my ideal way of making money overall
it's just suitable for when you're doing
a phd and also it's all about utilizing
your skills remember as a phd student
you've done an undergraduate you've done
a master's potentially all of these
things mean that you are actually quite
valuable all right with that said now
let's take a look at all of the
different things you can do to
supplement your phd scholarship or earn
a side income during your phd or studies
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the first one and the most lucrative for
me was one-on-one tutoring now i used to
put an ad either in like gumtree just
like free marketplaces where i just had
like my rates and my qualifications
listed out to say this is what i've done
this is what i can do these are the
results i've got in my previous kind of
exams and i can help you do the same and
my rates were actually very high i tried
not to sort of like race to the bottom
my rates were always somewhere between
about 40 australian dollars and 55
australian dollars when once i kind of
got to the end of my phd and one-on-one
tutoring is really
valuable for the person who's buying
that one-on-one tutoring so if you are a
great communicator if you like teaching
if you've worked out little skills and
hacks that have helped you get to where
you are
one-on-one tutoring is actually a really
valuable
exchange of
of content and ideas that people are
willing to pay good money for so yes
one-on-one tutoring that is where i earn
most of my money and i can do a more
in-depth uh video on that if you wish
but ultimately that is where i would
start if you are a comfortable teacher
and confident in
speaking and
communicating ideas
so this is something that i always used
to do at the end of the year around exam
time and i called them exam cramming
sessions essentially i put up little
print offs with with tear off contact
details or i'd put an email out to
people just saying hey i am offering
cramming sessions now a lot of people
used to leave their revision to the last
moment and this is your opportunity to
capitalize on their um their panic
essentially you know in the business
world the bigger problem you're solving
the more demand they'll be and the
higher value people place on it so i
used to host these like only about two
weeks out from an exam
and i used to get all of the exam papers
from the past sort of like five years
and i used to advertise these as
one-on-one or group sessions where we
would go through the exam questions and
break them down i would get all of the
similar exam questions from the past
like five or six years and we'd go
through them one after the other and i
would charge you know anywhere between
about 30 australian dollars to 50
australian dollars per person depending
on the group size and i had heaps and
heaps of interest from this and this was
really valuable the great thing about
this is people can come to you i used to
do it at the end of my phd working day
and also it is in uni so i used to use a
lecturing hall or a workshop
kind of room to do these one-on-one or
group things and yes exam cramming
sessions where we only looked at past
exams we were super focused about the
answers and a lot of people really
valued them so consider doing that
a few people that i know used to sell
little jewelry things or digital
products on etsy now this is really
great i think i didn't do this during my
phd but i do it now see with my ebook
the ultimate academic writing toolkit
like i have these things that i have
made that i can sell multiple times it's
an info product and it is really quite
valuable if you have got something like
that you can put on etsy even if it's
like a daily planner a
revision kind of scheduler all of these
things can be put up online and people
will purchase them someone else also
used to create jewelry they used to take
circuit boards strip them down put them
in epoxy turn them into earrings
necklaces broaches all sorts and put
them on etsy now this was their hobby
this was a hobby that they were able to
monetize but if you have a hobby that
produces something that people like um
you know it could be a good thing to do
in the evenings if you're doing it
anyway you could monetize it now i'm not
a huge fan of being like you should
monetize your life but during a phd if
you can look for those little things
that you enjoy doing that produces
something that you could sell then why
not win win win for everyone um but yeah
you know i'm not a big fan of um the the
gig economy or saying that your entire
life needs to be commoditized in some
way or earn you something you know but
if you do have a hobby and during your
phd you can earn a little bit of money
from it why not
during the later stages of my phd i
would actually mark exams now i used to
approach supervisors i used to approach
lecturers in the department and i used
to say hey do you want me to mark your
exams for you and what they used to do
is give me the ideal answers for example
i did it for inorganic chemistry i did
it for organic chemistry i did it for
physical chemistry i did it for the lot
and what i did is like they they did the
exam they gave me the ideal answers and
where the mark should be
um sort of put and then i would just go
through each exam and i would use
obviously my chemistry knowledge of
being oh that's close that's not or
that's the wrong answer that's kind of
partly there so i'll give it a half mark
like all of those things require your
skills um from your undergraduate to
understand what's going on so i used to
take the ideal answers and the 100 or
200 or 300 exams and i used to just mark
them and by the end after the first by
20 you start to know where the marks go
and you can just do it automatically so
i did exam marking reach out to
different lectures to see if they do
want to have you help with that because
they don't like it they're busy doing
grant applications and other things and
just by going in dropping a line saying
something like hey
exam time is coming up have you got
anyone to mark your exams or are you
going to do them yourself all of that
stuff can actually lead to a good little
income that happens at the end of the
year doesn't distract you but it can
actually result in a fair amount of side
income
i approached my supervisors and i said i
want to become a lecturer or a teacher
and they were like that is great here
are some things and that's all it took
so i actually ended up doing some
lecturing into chemistry 101 which i
absolutely love like i love lecturing i
actually applied for a couple of
lectureship positions i didn't get
because of politics and internal
applicants and all of that sort of stuff
but um i did really enjoy my time
lecturing i did really enjoy my time
giving workshops and you can earn good
money for them for every lecture i gave
i'd get preparation time money then i'd
have the lecture time money then i have
marking if there was anything to mark
afterwards so doing workshops doing
lectures is feasible you've just got to
let people know that you're actually
interested in doing that sort of stuff
and my supervisors were very keen on
getting rid of some of their things i
actually taught a masters
level lecture series in my postdoc where
i got to talk about my research my
skills my solar cell experience and talk
about
the process of my research and that was
like also cool because i was sharing my
part of my phd with people who were
doing masters they were super engaged it
was really fun it was a small small
cohort but overall getting paid to
lecture on things you already know about
is fantastic and one of the best
lectures i ever gave was in front of
like 300 people and it was scary
initially but it was just like it was
fun i really enjoyed getting up and and
talking about which is why i think i've
ended up doing the sort of things i've
done for my career
and yes uh if you want to give lecturers
uh if you want to
teach tutorials i used to love giving
tutorials where you know a certain
subset would come in and we'd go through
questions and
lecture materials i'd always make sure i
did exam stuff as well so they were
always doing exam questions from the
very start of the year people really
liked it so yes getting paid by your
university to lecture and to run
tutorials is really feasible you just
have to let people know that that's what
you're interested in and they will find
opportunities and help you look for
those opportunities as well
some people that i know during my
postdoc and they were phd students were
actually helping student services as
part of the main part of the university
in student services there were things
like exam help there was essay help a
lot of people with english as a second
language would go there to help you know
formulate their essays formulate their
their math skills
you know bolster some of the really
foundational
academic skills that you need to get
through university and they were paid as
tutors as workshop facilitators for that
service so speak to the main sort of hub
of your university if there is student
services reach out and say hey i'm
interested in helping students come
through i'm a phd student here and you
may find that there's a perfect
opportunity for you to help with maths
with help with english to help with any
sort of like academic thing like you
know just problem solving writing essays
coming up with theses reading academic
papers all of those things can actually
be taught and may be useful to the
central hub the central student services
in your university so reach out to them
and it may be a perfect opportunity for
you in the sciences at least there were
labs
students had to do practical labs to
pass their degree and so i would become
a lab demonstrator that involved three
or four people in a lab making sure
people don't hurt themselves guiding
people through the the physical and the
technical expertise that a chemist
should build whether it's titrating
whether or not it's distilling whether
or not it's crystallizing whether or not
it's um separating all of that's really
fun and you get to teach people in
undergraduate labs so if you are doing a
science or a lab-based thing there are
normally a load of opportunities to go
and demonstrate the skills in the labs
while people are doing their
undergraduate uh lab-based skills stuff
so yes reach out let people know you're
interested in that stuff and it can be a
little bit scary and sometimes you don't
actually know all the answers because
you know a first-year
science experiment is very different
from what you're doing now but you know
the little bit of reading and you do it
for a couple of years everything just
kind of locks in and makes sense and
sometimes i didn't know the answers to
the questions and i don't know i'll go
ask i'll go find out and that was
absolutely fine but yes demonstrating in
a lab could be a good opportunity if you
are in that sort of subject
i've purposely stayed away from online
and like gig economy stuff i don't think
it is a ethical way of hiring people of
working it just seems so exploitative
but there is one thing that i did that i
actually found very useful the money was
very very sort of uh you know it was
very little at the end of the month i
think the most i ever earned per month
was about 200 or 300 us dollars per
month and it was user testing where you
go on you have your computer on you log
into their portal ding something goes
off you click on some some questions and
it says yes you can take this test and
you take the not a test but the user
testing you go onto a website you go
through some tasks you talk your
experience aloud what you're thinking
where you should go it takes about 20
minutes for each one and for each time
you do that you get 10 us dollars and
it's kind of good i liked it it was
interesting to see how the web
development stuff worked and i used user
i think it was usertesting.com
it was very professionally run i did
another one called user analytics i
think
and that one wasn't as good but overall
i think user testing can be good if you
are sat at home of an evening you have
your your laptop on ding goes off you
could earn yourself 10 u.s dollars which
when converted into a range of other
money
currencies can be relatively good pay
per hour
you don't get many opportunities at
least i didn't but they sort of snowball
as you get more and more five star
reviews from people who you've done user
testing for so not a big fan of the gig
economy not a huge fan of exploiting
workers not giving them insurance
not giving them any security not
guaranteeing contract hours all that
sort of stuff but during a phd user
testing actually did work out relatively
well for me
so there we have it there are the little
ways that you can make a side income
during your phd let me know in the
comments what you would add to that and
also go check out academiainsider.com
where i have my ebook the ultimate
academic writing toolkit which has been
receiving some excellent reviews thank
you so much and also it is host to my
academia forum my insider forum so go
check it out and also remember to sign
up to the newsletter and i shall see you
in the next video
you
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