How To Make Extra Money As A Phd Student

It's no surreptitious that PhD students and postdocs are paid a meager bacon, sometimes not even as much as the local living wage. While a fraction of graduate students have probably e'er pursued side income to supplement their stipends/salaries, eastward.g., through part-time jobs, moonlighting, or odd jobs, only in recent years has it become easy to brand coin online or make money from abode. Enter the 'side hustle.' The term exploded in popularity during the Bully Recession along with the 'gig economy.' The flexibility of modern side hustles has made information technology possible for students and postdocs to fit their income-generating activities around their decorated inquiry schedules.

This commodity details why a graduate educatee or postdoc would want to side hustle, whether information technology's immune by their university/institution, examples of existent side hustles held past PhDs, how to best manage the side income, and advice from PhDs with successful side hustles.

Motivations for Side Hustling

The motivations for having a side hustle during your PhD training are to brand up for the deficiencies in what the university provides: coin (primarily) and career-advancing experiences.

Increment Income

Pursuing your PhD during graduate school or gaining additional training every bit a postdoc is supposed to exist your full-time (or more) pursuit. Inquiry is life, right? Unfortunately, the positions don't pay anywhere virtually as well every bit a regular full-time task.

The best case scenario for a PhD educatee or postdoc is that you will exist paid enough to support yourself without making farthermost lifestyle sacrifices, i.e., living in a van. However, there are enough of programs and universities that do not even encounter that depression bar for a unmarried person with no dependents. For a graduate pupil or postdoc with a dependent spouse (east.g., of an international trainee) or children, the low stipend or salary is almost certainly inadequate.

Graduate students almost ever plow commencement to cut their living expenses to be able to live inside their ways. They know that they are supposed to devote the lion's share of their weekly energy to their coursework, enquiry, and teaching. Just when their backs are against the wall, some make money on the side to avoid going (further) into debt.

Career-Advancing Experiences

Some graduate students and postdocs are motivated to side hustle not by lack of income but rather lack of applied career training.

What careers does a PhD or postdoc prepare you lot for? These days, the vast majority of PhDs are not hired into tenure-track faculty positions. (Time to stop calling the jobs most PhDs get "alternative", correct?) Some universities have acknowledged this and put in place programming to help PhDs transition out of academia (my alma mater, Knuckles University, and in particular the Pratt School of Engineering, is innovating in this expanse), while others are still communicable up.

Of grade, PhDs have plenty of transferable skills that can be put to use in a broad variety of careers, but landing a chore is yet challenging.

Farther reading: How My PhD Prepared Me for Entrepreneurship

A judiciously chosen side hustle (or even volunteer piece of work) can assist a PhD build out her resumé/CV and network to stand out from the other PhD applicants. A side hustle can teach you new skills, requite you an opportunity to demonstrate the skills you already possess, and introduce you to professionals who can further your career journeying.

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Are Side Hustles Allowed past Your PhD Program or Postdoc Position?

While some academics may take the view that side hustling distracts from classes, pedagogy, research, etc., for some people a side hustle is the principal factor that enables them to stay in their graduate programs or postdoc positions. They side hustle considering they desire to go on doing PhD-level inquiry; otherwise, they can but leave and earn more money elsewhere! If conceived and managed properly, a side hustle is not a distraction from the student or postdoc's training simply rather an enhancement of it.

If you call up about graduate school or your postdoc every bit like to any other type of chore, usually the merely stipulations regarding your side hustle are that: 1) it does not interfere with your primary job and 2) it does not present a conflict of interest. That logic is helpful for thinking through whether a side hustle is immune, simply the universities sometimes add layers of complexity.

Farther reading: Tin can a Graduate Educatee Accept a Side Hustle?

Side Hustle Permissibility by Position Blazon: International, Fellow, Employee, Etc.

There may be explicit bans on making money on the side or it may exist frowned upon. The income and experience gained from a side hustle is not worth getting kicked out of your graduate plan or postdoc position.

International trainees

The F-i and J-one visas generally but permit employment straight in your chapters as a graduate pupil or postdoc. Sometimes, you lot can seek permission for other employment ventures, such every bit Optional Practical Training (OPT) for F-1 visa holders. A side hustle that you piece of work on simultaneously with your research volition likely not comply with these rules, then it'southward a no-get.

Fellowship Recipients (Graduate or Postdoc)

Check the terms of your fellowship funding supplied by your university, employer, or funding bureau. There may be a stipulation that no outside income is allowed as the fellowship is designed to support y'all completely and crave your consummate dedication. If yous choose to pursue a side income against the terms of your fellowship, proceed with extreme circumspection and recognize the downside is potentially losing your principal funding. In other cases, outside income is not mentioned past the fellowship terms or is even explicitly immune.

Inquiry and Teaching Assistants

This is the category of graduate students nigh likely to exist able to get away with a side hustle or be explicitly allowed because your responsibilities are by and large time-limited to xx hours per week (officially). Of class, across that, you are responsible for your dissertation work, so side hustling might conflict with that important pursuit. If you lot are in a contract with your university, bank check its terms. If outside income is not immune, proceed with caution as you might lose your assistantship. Yous might, withal, find a provision that allows outside income, perchance up to a certain number of hours per week.

Postdoc Employees

A postdoc employee has a regular job, albeit a enervating ane. Your desire to side hustle at that point in your training is more likely motivated by career advancement rather than income. Again, check your contract, simply a side hustle may very well be permissible as long as it doesn't interfere with your work. If you are working in your field, though, information technology could be a good idea to seek your advisor'southward permission in advance.

What Does Your Advisor Retrieve?

The person with the well-nigh important stance on your side hustle–afterwards you lot–is your advisor. Allowed, disallowed, frowned upon… The status of side hustling in the optics of your university, department, or funding agency is less important than its status to your counselor. If your advisor is an unforgiving taskmaster who expects his myopic view of the supremacy of enquiry to be adopted by his trainees, a side hustle is a very risky endeavor. However, if your advisor is a reasonable and kind person who respects work-life balance, it may be better to enquire for forgiveness rather than permission if your side hustle is discovered and viewed negatively.

The Bottom Line: The Spirit of the Law

The spirit of the police when it comes to side hustling during graduate school or your postdoc is that it should non distract from your training. (This sentiment does not employ to visa holders; the alphabetic character of the law is most important in that case.) Fiscal and career stress itself can easily distract from training, so it may be a thing of choosing the lesser of ii 'evils.'

Prohibitions against exterior income make sense when the income comes from a role-fourth dimension job with fixed hours (meaning that you lot wouldn't be able to stay late in lab if necessary) or if it takes and so much fourth dimension overall that you can't consummate your work healthily. But I don't find prohibitions against outside work that doesn't interfere with the student or postdoc'south primary 'job' any more logical than prohibitions against having a family unit or a hobby (bold no conflict of involvement).

Ultimately, rules or no rules and advisor's stance aside, you lot are the just person who gets to determine whether to pursue a side hustle. You are the one who will manage information technology and brand certain that it enhances your PhD training instead of detracting from information technology.

Types of PhD Side Hustles and Examples of PhD Side Hustles

I break side hustles for PhDs into four categories: ones that advance your career, ones that you enjoy, ones that pay well (enough), and passive income. A side hustle that pays well and advances your career is ideal. If you can't achieve that, doing something you enjoy is obviously preferable to doing something that you dislike or feel neutral toward that simply pays some bills. Passive income is exterior of this ranked order every bit it doesn't involve trading time directly for money.

By the style, if y'all are looking for a mode to increase your income that your advisor would exist totally on board with, effort applying for a fellowship. I've created a guide to applying for and winning fellowships that includes a list of wide, portable fellowships that pay total stipends/salaries.

Further reading: How to Find, Use for, and Win a Fellowship During Your PhD or Postdoc

PhD Side Hustles that Advance Your Career

There's no better type of side hustle than one that pays you and helps yous along in your career. Through this type of side hustle, yous put your current skills to use, learn new skills, expand your network, and/or explore a possible career path. Often, this sort of side hustle is related to your electric current field of research or uses skills you've honed during your PhD. Y'all might even be able to start working for a potential future employer while you're withal in training.

Examples of PhD side hustles that advance your career are:

Consulting
- Pedagogy (Derek)
- Zoo and aquarium evaluation (Kathayoon)
- Design (Mark)
- Data science (Edward)
Writing
- Freelance writing (Derek)
- Freelance academic writing (Vicki)
- Journalism
Editing
- Freelance scientific paper editing (Julie and Amy)
- Freelance scientific paper editing (Jenni)
- Thesis/dissertation editing
Internships
- Scientific research summer internship (Alice)
- Applied science summer internship (David)
Professional fellowships
- Science policy fellow (Emily)
Analysis
- Inquiry analyst for investor relations (Adam)
Didactics
- Offshoot
- Online professor (Kathayoon)

PhD Side Hustles that Yous Enjoy

Sometimes an enjoyable hobby can be monetized or you can discover significant and please in a side hustle. This kind of side hustle is one you would likely spend some time doing even if you weren't being paid and can exist peculiarly revitalizing during the long slog of your PhD or postdoc.

Examples of PhD side hustles that yous might bask are:

Monetized hobby
- Art
- Crafts
- YouTube (Shannon)
- Singing (Meggan)
Not-academic teaching
- Piano (Kathayoon)
- Fitness classes (Anonymous)
Resident advising
- Resident advising for graduate students (David)
- Resident advising for a fraternity (Adrian)

PhD Side Hustles that Pay the Bills

If the only purpose a side hustle fulfills is bringing in some money, it'south done its chore. Sometimes these pursuits are necessary for survival, just you shouldn't spend any more time on them than absolutely necessary.

Examples of PhD side hustles that (likely) merely bring in income are:

Tutoring
Retail
Food service
Uber/Lyft
Childcare

PhD Passive Income

Passive income has go a bit of a buzzword in recent years. Ostensibly, passive income occurs after you brand some kind of investment that then pays a residual.

Making a monetary investment in a rental property or dividend-paying stock is a classic example of passive income. The former is definitely a possible income source for a PhD who owns her own home.

Further reading: Should I Buy a Home During Grad School?

If you don't take money upward front, you can "invest" your fourth dimension and talent into a production that people will buy over time. The classic example of that type is an author who is paid a royalty with each book sale.

The current fad incarnation of passive investing is a promise that you tin can "make money while yous slumber!" through online business, mostly selling previously created digital products. (I do this in my business concern.) Nevertheless, nearly no online business runs for long without input of fourth dimension and labor. The upside for a graduate student or postdoc, however, is that the large time investment needed upward front to generate passive income and the maintenance over the long term can mostly be performed on your ain schedule and under the radar.

Examples of PhD side hustles that are passive income:

Writing (i.east., published author)
Patent holder (licensed)
Digital products
- Flash cards and ebook (Alex)
- Courses
Investing for electric current income
Landlording

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Balancing Your Side Hustle with Your PhD Work

Figuring out how to make coin and settling into a groove of earning a side income tin can be exciting. It can even be more gratifying at times than your research equally research is basically a series of failures punctuated by occasional successes. In those weeks and month when nothing is going correct in your research, being able to plow to an action with a known effect ($$!) tin be a welcome relief. However, you should not forget why yous are pursuing the side hustle in the start place: to stop your PhD and pursue a certain career. (Of grade, your side hustle may spur y'all to leave your program, but only do then after serious reflection! It shouldn't be near the side hustle per se but a carefully considered evolution of your career plans.)

To that end, there are a few strategies you tin use to make certain your side hustle complements and does non compete with your main function:

1) Track Your Fourth dimension

Set weekly limits for yourself on the amount of fourth dimension you will spend on your part as a graduate student or postdoc vs. on your side hustle. If your time spent side hustling creeps besides high or your time spent on enquiry dips as well low, yous know you need to readjust. Look your weekly fourth dimension goals to modify throughout the seasons of your PhD preparation.

two) Fix Geographic and/or Temporal Boundaries

It's best if you bear your side hustle in a unlike location than your primary PhD workspace; for instance, you could work from dwelling house on your side hustle and never in your office or on campus. An alternative to geographic boundaries is temporal boundaries, such as never working on your side hustle during daytime working hours. The exact boundaries you set up will depend heavily on the nature of both your PhD piece of work and your side hustle.

3) Choose a Flexible Side Hustle

An platonic side hustle for a PhD is i that can be achieved from anywhere at any time and ramped upwards or down depending on how busy you are with your research. This is non realistic for all side hustles, only the more axes of flexibility yours has the better it will complement your primary job.

4) Go along Your Side Hustle Serenity (If Possible)

An internship or professional person fellowship that requires time away from your graduate program or postdoc apparently tin can't be kept hugger-mugger, but many other side hustles can fly under the radar of your advisor and department if you lot want them to. The seriousness of the possible repercussions or how "frowned upon" side hustling is should dictate how open you are near your pursuit. Go along in mind that a side hustle in your current field of research may very well get dorsum to your advisor as communities are quite small, so in that example it may be better to be completely in a higher place board.

Best Fiscal Practices for Your Side Hustle

Most side hustles are independent contractor or cocky-employment positions, which means that you become an entrepreneur (or solopreneur) of a kind. In that location are some common all-time practices in self-employment you should put in place from the offset of your side hustle.

Further reading:

Best Financial Practices for Your PhD Side Hustle
How to Pay Revenue enhancement on Your PhD Side Hustle

1) Use a Separate Business organisation Checking Business relationship

Separating your personal transactions from your business transactions at the account level will assist yous keep rails of exactly how much money you lot are earning after expenses and what is deductible on your tax return. You can make periodic transfers from your business concern account to your personal account to pay yourself.

two) Set Aside Money for Tax Payments (Quarterly or Annually)

Your PhD side hustle generates (potentially) taxable income, discipline not only to income tax simply also in many cases self-employment revenue enhancement. Add your marginal tax brackets at the federal, state, and local levels together with the FICA taxation yous must pay, and set aside that fraction of each of your side hustle paychecks to ultimately pay the extra tax. If you earn enough in your side hustle compared to your principal job, you eventually will need to offset paying quarterly estimated tax. Fellowship recipients who don't have automatic taxation withholding are already familiar with this process. Even if you aren't required to pay quarterly, expect a larger year-end tax bill.

Further reading: The Complete Guide to Quarterly Estimated Taxation for Fellowship Recipients

3) Give your Earnings a Chore

The best way to ensure y'all don't blow your side income is to assign it a chore to be completed as soon as information technology hits your personal account. You could pay a specific pecker or two with your side income or only allow yourself certain indulgences from your side income. For case, Jenni saved her side hustle earnings for travel.

Closing Advice and Thoughts from PhD Side Hustlers

"Honestly, information technology kept me sane to have other things going on… [They] helped me to end my dissertation more than rapidly because I was more focused on the time I had, instead of having lots of unstructured fourth dimension to work." – Kathayoon

"I'd encourage graduate students to pursue a lot of different opportunities while in school, even ones that are at a slant from what they usually practise. It'south easy to get tunnel vision as a grad student, simply if you lot open yourself upward, you can develop really useful skills while reinvigorating your academic work." – Derek

"I definitely recommend finding something in grad school that's unrelated to the work you lot do, monetized or not, so that if all your experiments neglect one week, you still have something meaningful to throw yourself into." – Shannon

"This experience was critical for my transition out of graduate school. I ended upwards getting a full-time offer at the same company later on possibly 2 months of hourly piece of work and have been at that place for about 2 years now. The best office was that I had an opportunity to endeavour out my chore earlier starting full-time. How else do you know if you desire to launch a career in a certain field?" – Adam

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