Side Income

Today’s post is from Derek Attig, whose freelance and on-campus jobs during grad school helped him transition into his post-PhD career. He has a great point at the end that all grad students should apply in their lives!

Name: Derek Attig

Graduate Institution: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Department/Program: History

1. What were your side or temporary jobs?

I wrote for the book culture website Book Riot and worked as a teaching/learning consultant (helping grad students teach more effectively) on campus.

2. How much did you earn?

The teaching consultant job was a graduate student hourly position and paid $13.50/hour. Book Riot has a revenue sharing system where contributors are paid quarterly based on the traffic their posts generate.

3. How did you balance your jobs with your graduate work?

I was lucky in that both of my side jobs were pretty flexible. I could write for Book Riot whenever I found time, and the teaching consultant job could adjust to fit the needs of my program. But still, it was a lot to juggle. I managed by carefully blocking out my time, assigning different time slots to different tasks, and carefully prioritizing.

4. Did your jobs complement your graduate work or advance your career?

My dissertation was on the history of print culture (bookmobiles!), so writing for Book Riot was both relevant and energizing as I worked on it. Teaching was always central to how I imagined my career (whatever that was going to be), and the teaching consultant job kept my knowledge and skills in that area sharp.

And, it turns out, they were both central to my transition from the academic job market to a non-academic job. Having Book Riot on my resume helped me land a marketing/communications job immediately after receiving the PhD. And my job now involves working with graduate students—a set of skills I honed in the consulting job.

5. How did you get started with your job?

Networking, of various kinds.

I got the Book Riot job thanks to blogging and Twitter. I had started blogging about (or, at least, adjacent to) my research when I started dissertating. Then I saw on Twitter that Book Riot wanted contributors. I used a blog post and an article I’d written for Boing Boing (a gig I picked up by through a connection I made as a Google Policy Fellow) as writing samples and got the job.

I got an interview for the teaching consultant job because I knew someone who worked in that office. The position wasn’t really advertised, but she knew about it and encouraged me to contact the supervisor. I got the job because I had extensive teaching experience and had pursued various opportunities to mentor other grad students on teaching within my department. Just one or the other might not have cut it.

6. Is there anything else you would like to share about your experience?

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 do. It’s easy to get tunnel vision as a grad student, but if you open yourself up, you can develop really useful skills while reinvigorating your academic work.

Today’s post is by Meggan Farish on performing jazz in a local band, which is an enjoyable hobby for her as well as an income stream. She has great advice about keeping organized with your side job and how to get started as a local musician.

Name: Meggan Farish

Institution: Duke University

Department: History

As a graduate student, I supplement my income by performing with jazz bands. I started in 2010, while living in Columbia, SC. Columbia has a thriving jazz scene, and I began “sitting in” with various musicians. In time, I built a following and put together my own band. When I moved to Durham for graduate school, I met a saxophonist in need of a lead singer and began performing with his quintet.

I have been playing with the same musicians for years, and since our repertoire has not changed drastically and we do not spend a great deal of time rehearsing, playing music takes up very little of my life (maybe two Fridays per month). The gigs in SC are generally more time consuming since I have to travel, but I would likely visit home that often regardless and am at a place in my graduate career where I can work from just about anywhere.

My advice to anyone thinking of making music a side job is to be prepared for the vicissitudes of performing in a local band. Promotional shows do not always pay, and regular gigs can get nixed with little to no warning. I recently lost a gig I had for several years because the restaurant needed to make cutbacks. It is a nice way to supplement my income, but I do not rely on it to pay my bills. Networking, having good YouTube videos (preferably at least one polished studio recording), and maintaining a presence in social media to promote your skills are all key to being a successful local artist. Additionally, it is critical to keep track of scheduled performances and to show up prepared and on time. Forgetting a gig or being late will quickly kill a career in music. Also, keep accurate records of your income and set aside a percentage to cover your state and federal income taxes. Typically, you will receive a 1099 at year-end from the establishments where you or your band perform.

While it is doubtful that music will advance my career as a historian, I believe it has made my years of rigorous graduate study far more enjoyable. If anything, it has allowed me a much-needed break from my studies and provided an avenue to meet new people.

The grad student featured in today’s side job series is a true hustler! Kathayoon balanced her graduate work with THREE side jobs that furthered her career, lined her pockets, and gave her a much-needed break. She even used her consulting network to get her first post-PhD job. It’s truly amazing how much she was able to do in addition to her PhD.

Name: Kathayoon Khalil

Graduate Institution: Stanford University

Department/Program: Graduate School of Education

1.     What was your side or temporary job?

I taught classes for the Miami University of Ohio’s online program Project Dragonfly, taught piano lessons to local kids, and did evaluation consulting for zoos and aquariums.

2.     How much did you earn?

Miami offers a stipend of $750 per class, so I would do two classes per term. I charged $30/hour for piano lessons and $70/hr for consulting.

3.     How did you balance your job with your graduate work?

I tried to keep a strict 8-5:30 schedule in grad school so I would stay efficient – plus I don’t work well at night. The course instructing and consulting was in the same line of work (zoo and aquarium education) as my graduate work, and I love hanging out with kids and playing music so teaching piano lessons was like a breath of fresh air for an hour every day!

4.     Does/did your job complement your graduate work or advance your career?

I got to build a lot of important skills by consulting, and teaching online courses allowed me to travel and both allowed me to make connections to people in my field who acted as study subjects for my dissertation, and eventually helped me get a job after graduation.

5.     How did you get started with your job?

With Miami, I had a friend at the Cincinnati Zoo (where the program is based) who introduced me to the staff.

With consulting, a mentor of mine connected me with a colleague in the Bay Area who needed help evaluating an exhibit. Once it got out that I was providing that service, several other people in our field – both in California and elsewhere in the country – offered me projects at their institutions.

With piano lessons, I signed up on care.com to be a babysitter and at my first interview, I mentioned being a pianist and the parents asked me to teach their children. Friends of the family heard that I taught lessons, and asked me to take on their children as students.

6.     Is there anything else you would like to share about your experience?

Honestly, it kept me sane to have other things going on, even though sometimes I was so busy I had no time to eat until dinner. But I wouldn’t do anything differently! I needed the money, but I also needed the distraction to some extent. Having these other things going on helped me to finish my dissertation more quickly because I was more focused on the time I had, instead of having lots of unstructured time to work.