Part time job during PhD years?

[Leif_Erikson]

I am just beginning my PhD, and am in need of some extra cash. I was wondering if anyone does any part time work during their PhD? Does anyone have any good ideas of part time work that could use our skills as highly educated individuals? The only things I can really think of are tutoring or working for a test prep company. Anything else in the medical/educational/engineering field that would make a good part time job for only a couple of hours each week?

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[BrightandClear]

Well, I'm doing my masters and not a PhD, but I've found teaching for a test prep company pretty easy and lucrative (I taught the BS/VR sections for one of the big name MCAT programs). It also gives you connections for bringing in private tutoring $$.

 

[Choculitis]

Yeah, I work with a guy who also does that. The money is pretty decent—$25 an hour for group classes if you get good performance reviews, and significantly more for private tutoring.

 

[PTPoeny]

Check with your school, most have rather strict rules about the types and amounts of (outside) work you can do as a funded PhD student.

 

[hopefuldoc97239]

Check with your school, most have rather strict rules about the types and amounts of (outside) work you can do as a funded PhD student.

Furthermore, if your PhD work is funded by any sort of NRSA (including MSTP, but others could apply as well), then as a condition of your stipend you have basically agreed not to take on any real jobs. You're allowed to do a little bit of extra paid research or teaching, but it's supposed to be truly minor.

"Under no circumstances may the conditions of stipend supplementation or the services provided for compensation interfere with, detract from, or prolong the fellow’s approved Kirschstein-NRSA training program."

Your school is supposed to approve any jobs that you do "to verify that the circumstances will not detract from or prolong the approved training program."

(Source)

 

[PfNO22]

Clearly for someone with children, the stipend would not cover expenses. Maybe the school can help find more money in certain cases;

 

[Shifty B]

Most programs don't overtly allow outside work and may have policies prohibiting it. However, these same programs also do not actively enforce these policies either.

The most lucrative fields you can get into are test prep and computers. Teaching for Kaplan or Princeton review are reliable sources of income that many people have done in the past. Private tutoring, as has been mentioned, are even more lucrative and you can set the schedule. Computer work can also be lucrative. If you find a couple of small businesses that want web sites or need help setting up computers around the office you probably can get up to $60 an hour for this work.

I do have one point of caution. During your PhD your efforts are best spent quickly getting through your PhD, both financially and otherwise. I would try to limit any outside work to at max 5-10 hours weekly. To work any more you'd have to really need the money. Put it this way, if you screw around and spend 5 years in your PhD instead of 4, you're essentially losing 1 year of peak income at the end of your career, which can be $200k or more. Not to mention the emotional costs of an extra PhD year.

No amount of tutoring during your PhD is going to equal that.

 

[Shifty B]

Oh, one other point. I wouldn't bother checking with your program or asking them to approve minor side work unless they make it clear to you that it is the explicit program policy.

It is easier to ask forgiveness than ask permission.

 

[hopefuldoc97239]

It is easier to ask forgiveness than ask permission.

Exactly the kind of advice I'd expect from someone with the word "Shifty" in his/her user name...

But this is risky advice and I caution against it. Some PI's would forgive you, but some would not. Some would be furious that you were effectively getting paid salary to work in their lab, and using some of that time to work for someone else. They see their lab as your first only priority, you could permanently damage their opinion of you.

So I really would ask permission first. If you refuse that advice, at least do some detective work and see what other students have done and gotten away with.


I've done tutoring and charged $20-$30 for general or organic chemistry. In my experience, this is not as great as it sounds. If the location is inconvenient, you might only be making less than $10 if it takes time to get where the tutee wants to meet you. If you have to pay for parking that eats into your costs. You can set some geographical restrictions, but then you run the risk of losing customers. The worst part for you is that if you really need the money, this would not be a very reliable stream of income. You get lots of interest right before a test, and then long periods where not many people want your help. I'd suggest keeping this as a back-up plan.

If I were you, I'd try to look for a job teaching a laboratory section for a science class at a local community college (or even university). Surely if you're in an MD/PhD program there must be something you're marginally qualified to teach, right? Chemistry or biology? A lot of biology departments have trouble finding people qualified to teach anatomy classes, but with a med school background you should be a good fit. It can be hard to get your foot in the door with these jobs, but once you're in you're in. If you can get one section that should be about 5 hours of work a week including prep work and grading, and you might make somewhere from $50 to $100 for your time. If you do well, they might give you two sections the next quarter, which makes your prep work more efficient.

Another idea... you could try picking up a part-time job at a restaurant. You don't make a ton of money, but it's steady income, no prep work other than putting on the right clothes and showing up, leave the worries at the door, lots of places will give you time off when you need it, and with tips you might actually make more than tutoring or other ideas.

The computer idea... That sounds like a fishing expedition. I don't know where you live, but in my city (Portland) you can't throw a rock without hitting a freelance web designer who has a portfolio and everything. The market is saturated.

But hey, think creatively! You can sell your plasma! Maybe you could become a sperm donor! You need a crazy-high sperm count for this, but if you're already near a hospital... and if you're already in the mood then it's easy money!

 

[GellaBella]

In my program we were not supposed to work outside of the PhD program...but as many people alluded to, there really wasn't a very good way for people to know whether we were working outside or not, and many PIs did not care as long as it did not interfere with projects.

I know many people that taught courses at community colleges during the year, while they were PhD candidates.

My fiance also ran a lucrative pool service (opening and closing pools for the summer/maintenance etc) for the first two summers. He made more in the 10 hrs/week he did doing that each summer than our PhD stipends.

I sure did miss that extra money when he decided to stop.

 

[Shifty B]

I can't help it if my name connotes a certain amount of rule-breaking

Regardless, I still don't recommend asking permission. I can envision too many scenarios where it harms you.

There are only two outcomes: yes or no. Even if yes, then there are negative outcomes.

For instance, maybe your PI doesn't think you're serious enough about research/lab work. Even if he grants permission, will ultimately see you as a slacker because you're focusing time on something else. Every PI sees only their lab work as important, and they may even get offended by time you spend on required PhD courses. How are they going to feel about your side job?

If no, which is pretty likely, then you're really stuck. If you work after requesting permission and being denied, there is pretty much no way you can weasel out of that if you get caught. This could lead to repercussions up to possible dismissal. If you never asked and get caught, you can always claim that you thought it was frowned upon but not expressly prohibited and get off with a warning.

Let me reiterate though. There are three rules here:
1) easier to ask forgiveness than permission
2) less than 10 hours a week
3) more than $20 per hour

If you can't pull this off and you have kids and really need the money, then just take out a student loan. Interest rates are really low and you can easily pay it off later. You'll still have much smaller loans than MD only students.