Summer work for an academic between assistantships
February 25, 2016 8:01 AM   Subscribe

My funding for my current project ran out. I should be fine for the upcoming fall semester, when I will be finishing and defending my dissertation. However, the summer semester is unaccounted for. I have a part-time catering gig that I can get a little bit of money with, but I'm looking for ideas for other work. Details in the extended explanation.

I have experience doing research, specifically social network analysis and qualitative research, with a bit of knowledge about statistics. I've talked to my advisor already and there aren't any projects in our college that are currently hiring. The idea of working a general college GA isn't super appealing. They tend to pay around 10 dollars an hour and are usually part time - 200 dollar a week before taxes isn't great, and I'm not sure if the time commitment would be worth it.

I'm asking here to get ideas that might be a little outside of the box.

I could really only work from May to August. I also already have conferences planned where I'll have to be gone for 2 separate weeks. I have to think that's going to hurt my chances of being hired at a full time or part time retail / restaurant gig if I'm up front about it (and I would be).

I do have some savings: about $3,000 I could live super frugally off of, if I really needed to. However, I'd like to hold onto this and not eat into it for obvious reasons.

I've checked all of the in college and graduate school scholarships, and none of them fit my timeline or my current position. However, I haven't checked other sources of grant or fellowship funding and I'm not sure where to start.

I've begun calling around to other catering companies. The one I'm currently with, I could likely bank on about $100 per week in hours, but they slow down a bit in the summer (they mostly work with the University). I have experience doing pretty much everything in the catering world, but I mostly bartend at the moment.

I wouldn't be opposed to doing some freelance or gig work, but I would need it to be a steady source of income. Uber is off the table, however.

Luckily, the way that my department manages healthcare is that they take a chunk out of our last paycheck of our yearly appointment and use that to cover costs going forward - so even if I don't have an appointment for summer, I still have healthcare (thank God). Therefore benefits matter far less (maybe not even at all) compared to raw pay.
posted by codacorolla to Work & Money (12 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
So pay does matter?

Well it may not be great money but applying to work in Yellowstone National Park was going to be my recommendation for a 'work hard, play hard while letting your mind go for the summer' type job.

But you aren't going to make much above what it sounds like you would make at your catering gig, less some cheap room and board and whatever travel ends up costing you. But it has the potential to be an amazing time and going into it as a break from academia has served me and at least one other person that I know of rather well.
posted by RolandOfEld at 8:07 AM on February 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


One of my friends charged $50/hour to tutor kids in the summer; I don't know if having the PhD in hand helped drive up that rate, but she found a bunch of wealthy parents who were happy to hand over the cash.
posted by TwoStride at 8:08 AM on February 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


Do summer courses at your university have teaching assistants? At my school, TA positions pay a flat stipend which usually works out to a pretty good wage per hour, depending on the course and professor.
posted by MadamM at 8:18 AM on February 25, 2016


Response by poster: But you aren't going to make much above what it sounds like you would make at your catering gig, less some cheap room and board and whatever travel ends up costing you. But it has the potential to be an amazing time and going into it as a break from academia has served me and at least one other person that I know of rather well.

That sounds amazing, and I would likely love to do it. However, that does bring up two important bits I forgot to mention:

> I need to maintain my rent at my current residence, and

> I need to continue to work on data collection and writing for my dissertation.
posted by codacorolla at 8:18 AM on February 25, 2016


If you end up going with the catering option, also sign up with temp agencies. You may not get a lot of work out of it, but it could add some hours to your collage of jobs.
posted by aimedwander at 8:27 AM on February 25, 2016


You haven't looked at your school's library system? They will probably need people to fill in for the student labor which is on vacation. Pay will not be spectacular but you might be able to cobble together hours in several different departments and there's likely to be some flexibility for the conferences.
posted by praemunire at 9:45 AM on February 25, 2016


Response by poster: You haven't looked at your school's library system? They will probably need people to fill in for the student labor which is on vacation. Pay will not be spectacular but you might be able to cobble together hours in several different departments and there's likely to be some flexibility for the conferences.

I worked in ILL previously, and I remain friendly with the guy who was the director there, so I was going to shoot him a quick email and see what may be available in the summer. My concerns about pay do carry over though... 10 dollars an hour with sparse hours available isn't great, but if I had a flexible schedule it might outweigh it.
posted by codacorolla at 9:47 AM on February 25, 2016


Can you tend bar/wait tables a few nights a week to supplement your income of you have experience in that?
posted by Kalmya at 10:04 AM on February 25, 2016


Sign up with temp agencies. Places need vacation coverage. You may or may not get something, but you never know, and the pay for some of that can be okay.

Admin work for a summer camp or camp counseling during the day through the Y and then doing catering/waitressing gigs at night may be exhausting, but could provide enough pay wise if you combine the two together. They both have the benefit of you telling them upfront that you have these commitments during these weeks and it likely won't be a problem at all.
posted by zizzle at 11:03 AM on February 25, 2016


Work at any retail or food place and lie about quitting after summer. Don't put that you are a PhD student on your resume.
posted by k8t at 12:43 PM on February 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


SAT tutor! If you met their cutoff score way back when it's a flexible job with decent pay per hour, many of my friends do it for this reason.
posted by sometamegazelle at 1:21 PM on February 25, 2016


Does your school offer online classes? You might be able to pick up work teaching a summer course online.
posted by mmmbacon at 7:06 AM on February 28, 2016


« Older Things to do in Times Square NYC area on SHORT...   |   Intelligent spiritual and religious podcasts Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.