Short-term, part-time jobs without experience?

November 20, 2019 1:42 AM

I'm a graduate student who has been fortunate to have had mostly paid internships during my undergraduate, and a relatively comfortably-earning job after my undergraduate. Now, I've switched fields and need to earn money during short semester breaks to try and offset my costs. What are some places that hire for 2 month periods?

Some background: I am a rather privileged person from the US, who studied science/engineering and pursued a path after college that was very high earning, but left me feeling bad about the type of work I was doing (generally, making corporations more money) and feeling unfulfilled. After 3 years of work, I decided to quit my job and switch to an entirely different field, which I feel passionately about but which has much lower earning potential. I’m doing a 2 year graduate program to gain knowledge in this field since a direct switch into a career in this field wasn’t an option.

For the first time, I’m without an income and without the assurance that after graduation I will have high-earning opportunities. Thus, I have had to adapt my lifestyle accordingly (cut costs, eat into my savings, etc.). During the semester, at least for the first year of my program, there’s a quite heavy courseload and working is difficult. However, I have a two-month break between April and May, and I would like to do two things with this time:

1. Gain some experience in my field – this will likely have to be by volunteering, since my one semester of studies doesn’t seem to satisfy the requirements for internships that I’ve found.
2. Earn as much as possible with the rest of my time, to offset some of my costs during the semester.

My question is on this second point. Like I said, I’ve had a relatively privileged life, so in my undergraduate I always earned money via internships. I haven’t really worked a typical college job (bartending, café, etc.), so I have no experience in these areas. What types of job would hire someone to work for only a 2 month period? I recognize it will likely be earning minimum wage or just barely more, which is okay, but I’m literally not sure what types of jobs to look for and how to best apply. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

posted by unid41 to Work & Money (9 answers total)

Some school districts only require an undergraduate degree to be eligible for substitute teaching. You will also need to pass a background check and probably attend an orientation and purchase a substitute teaching license. Generally (again, depending on the school district) work is on a daily basis, as in if you want to work that day and a job is available then you can and you will get paid for that day, and when you can't work you don't have to accept a job that day.
posted by Polychrome at 2:06 AM on November 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

Before I had any real working experience, I worked as a labourer on building sites. After that, I worked in a kitchen, washing dishes. After that, I got short-term office-admin work via a temp agency - covering holiday or sickness absence.

That was a while ago, but all those workplaces still exist & still need people. You might also look at warehousing / distribution / delivery driving, or social care provision. There are temp agencies that specialise in all those areas - drop into a couple & see what they have.
posted by rd45 at 4:09 AM on November 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

I would look for a legal temp agency. There’s a lot of paralegal work that doesn’t need experience, just a bright person who will do tedious document-related work reliably and sensibly, and there are often intense short-term projects. Might not work out, but if it does, it pays well.
posted by LizardBreath at 4:30 AM on November 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

Would you be opposed in taking short contracts in your prior field?
posted by advicepig at 6:44 AM on November 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

Note that 2020 is a decennial census year, and enumerators/clerks are paid pretty well and not expected to stick around forever. April-May is probably early enough to get a gig (in 2010 I was part of the last group hired, and that was late May - most folks had been there a couple months at that point.)
posted by restless_nomad at 6:49 AM on November 20, 2019 [5 favorites]

You should do a quick google and check if your university recruits graduate students as exam invigilators/proctors. Can be a pretty plum job, and it meets your exact seasonal requirements.
posted by rollick at 7:07 AM on November 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

I am not sure whether you are in the U.S. At my U.S. university, we don't hire exam proctors, but there is a list of job postings exclusively for students. I would start by asking your professors and looking within the university. It wouldn't have to be related to your field--it might just be office work or another type of work you could learn. Often professors fund graduate students or could at least hire you on an hourly basis. At the very least tell the people in your department/classes that you are looking for a job so that if something comes up they will keep you in mind.

Not sure how you feel about this, but retail is another option. It's up to you if you want to tell them you're looking for something short term. Personally I wouldn't feel obligated to tell a large/chain retailer.
posted by kochenta at 12:26 PM on November 20, 2019

Depending on your graduate program, you may be eligible to edit journal articles by non-native English speakers for AJE. It pays quite well if you're a good editor.
posted by hydropsyche at 5:33 PM on November 20, 2019

Response by poster: Thanks everyone for the thoughtful responses! Sorry for the delay - below I've written some individual responses:

Polychrome - Thanks a ton, I had no idea that substitute teaching is an option without a teaching qualification. I'm going to apply for a substitute teaching license, as it appears my state has a lot of openings for these roles.

rd45 & LizardBreath - Thanks! I'm reaching out to temp agencies in these areas now.

advicepig - No, I wouldn't be opposed, but unfortunately there are quite limited opportunities, since I didn't stick around long enough in the field I worked in to become fully credentialed. So there's lots of other people who have all the credentials and much more experience who seem to get much of the contract work.

restless_nomad - Thanks! I see there's lots of openings when I searched this, but I will wait a while to apply as they want people to start rather soon for the current openings.

rollick, kochenta & hydropsyche - Thanks for the great ideas, but I neglected to mention that my university isn't in the US (I will be returning home for those 2 months), so I can't leverage my university for job opportunities for this time period.
posted by unid41 at 4:41 AM on November 22, 2019 [1 favorite]