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10-12 minute read
We’ve all been there.
Things are going great in uni — you have enough cash going around for your necessities and the odd night out with friends.
You just can’t help but to think, if only I had a bit more… I’d be able to get this.
You go on the internet and search “How to make money as a student” in the hopes that you’d find something easy that gives you flexibility and time.
In this article, we’re gonna be talking about just that.
We’ve been there, so we wanna share our twist on how to make money as a student in uni.
You don’t have to be a student to do these things…
but these jobs don’t require a degree, you don’t need a lot of technical skills to do them and you can do them regardless of your age.
Why Make Money As A Student
Before we get into what you can do to make money as a student, we need to talk about why you should go out there and make money as a student.
Yes, having extra money lying around is nice to have so that you can spend on things that are important to you…
but another major reason to go out there and start making money as a student is to know what it feels like to earn your own money, and for you to get some experience.
From our experience, school, college or university doesn’t really prepare you to enter the workforce.
So if you’re just waiting to graduate and then you start working, chances are you’re gonna find yourself a bit lost because what you learn in school is very different to what you’re actually gonna do on the job.
Most of the time we spend in school is spent learning theories.
When we start working, we’ll quickly come to the realization that the application of these theories is something different altogether.
So if you have at least some work experience while you’re still studying, not only will you be more prepared to enter the workforce after you graduate, but you’ll also be more critical of what you’re learning in school while earning some extra money at the same time.
How To Make Money As A Student
So now that we know why you should go out there and make some extra income while you’re still studying, let’s go into exactly how you can do that.
So besides getting a part-time job at your local Starbucks or retail stores, there are 3 main ways you can make money as a student without a university degree no matter how old you are.
1. Contract Jobs
The first is what I call contract jobs. Unlike part-time jobs, you’re not really tied down to a specific company or in some cases specific hours in a contract job.
Contract jobs are like one-off jobs that you do for a company when they need some extra help.
Some examples of contract jobs include:
- sales at any event, pop-up booth or retail outlet,
- it could be helping out with logistics at certain events,
- and if you’re into filmmaking or acting, I would also include acting and modelling
The true beauty of contract jobs is that you don’t have to commit at all unless you want to.
Because the jobs are mostly one-off jobs, you can pick and choose which jobs you want to take depending on your liking and what is offered as a reward.
The bad thing about contract jobs is that while some of them like acting and modelling can pay well, other jobs that don’t require a lot of skill will pay you minimum wage.
Some sales jobs will actually pay you nothing unless you make a sale since it’s purely commission based.
So let’s get into the details of some contract jobs and exactly how you can get started with one.
a) Sales
For sales jobs, you want to look out for places where companies need salespeople on the ground at their shop or pop-up.
For example, I (Edly) actually did a sales job when I was in my 1st year of uni selling tickets to nightclubs and bars in one of the most popular areas in KL.
Like many other sales jobs, I didn’t get paid a base salary, I only got paid based on commissions. On some nights I’d end up making a good chunk of money but on others I’d make nothing.
So if you like talking to people, if you’re an outgoing person, and if you want the potential to make a lot of money, then sales might be for you.
If you don’t like talking to people and sales is not your thing, then you can consider doing other jobs like helping out with logistics at events, retail stores and what not.
Keep in mind that sales wasn’t really my thing either.
I did it because I had the desire to work and it was my only option at the time to make money as a student.
So how do you find these jobs?
You can go onto Facebook and search Facebook groups on part time and freelance jobs.
But make sure to do your own background check on these companies to make sure that they’re legit and they’re not doing anything dodgy.
You can also go to Indeed.com one of my favourite websites to find jobs.
Just type in what job you’re looking for, where you want to work, and you can filter out the contract jobs or commission jobs.
b) Acting/modelling
Now if your interest is in acting, modelling or film making, there are a lot of opportunities to gain work experience in this field while you’re still studying.
You can create a profile at these agencies called casting agencies.
A casting agency keeps a profile of all the models and actors that sign up with them.
When an acting gig comes up, the agency then recommends their guys for the role based on client needs.
How to sign up with a casting agency
Creating a profile at a casting agency is free, but when you get your first modelling or acting gig, the agency will take a small cut of your pay depending on your agreement.
You can google local casting agencies in your area and set up an appointment to create your profile.
But again make sure you do your research on these agencies because you don’t want to end up in a dodgy one.
If you think that you can’t act or you’re not interested in acting I suggest signing up at the casting agencies anyway because you can also be a model instead of an actor.
And I’m not talking about a runway model, although you could do that if you wanted to, but a lot of companies are looking for average looking people to feature in their ads.
In the past, I was offered a gig being a hand model for McDonalds.
All I had to do was put my hand on their burger or something and they would take pictures and pay me RM500 for a 1-day shoot.
I didn’t end up doing it due to scheduling constraints, but what I’m trying to say is you don’t need to look like a Hollywood actor to do these things.
Keep in mind that companies are looking for ordinary looking people to feature in their ads.
Especially in Malaysia, companies look for a lot of different people from different races and cultural backgrounds.
You might think that you’re the ugliest or most untalented person ever but a company might look at your profile and think “this is the perfect person for our commercial”.
Personal experience
Acting in TV commercials was actually my first job ever.
And it was a great way to make money as a student.
My mum signed me up at a casting agency when I was very young. When I was just a baby, I did a diaper commercial that I don’t even remember being a part of.
Some of you might think that this is hard because you know nothing about acting but in my scenario, I wasn’t even the main character and my face was barely on screen.
The good thing about acting and modelling is that the pay can be really good for a day, 2 days or a weekend’s worth of work.
If you’re the main character, you can get paid RM5k-20k depending on the shoot and if you’re a side character, you can expect about RM1-3k.
Keep in mind that this is just for the weekend or even a day’s work in some situations.
That’s a pretty good way to make money as a student.
The downside to this industry is while you may just be working for a day or 2, the shooting sessions can sometimes go really long. I’ve been to shoots where they ended at 2-3am just because the director wasn’t happy.
Also, you have to be a bit careful because there are agencies that take advantage of you by putting you in some dodgy commercials. Nothing you can’t solve by doing some proper research and thoroughly reading every contract you enter into.
So if you’re into acting, modelling or film making, or if you just want to try your luck and earn a lot of money in a few days, then you can consider acting or modelling.
2. Freelance
Ok so the next type of work you can actually get into requires a little bit more skill than the previous ones mentioned.
Remember how I told you about how I worked in the film industry and also in sales?
Well what I did was I took that money and invested it into a few skills that could make me more money as a student.
I learned how to DJ and I learned how to do marketing for other people.
Once I had these skills, I could offer them to companies that needed it and that would pay me to get the job done.
So the second way to make some extra money while you’re studying is by freelancing your skills to companies.
This is one of my favourite ways to make money while studying because it just gives you a lot of freedom in terms of where and what time you work. You can also earn more money compared to contract jobs.
So if you’re in uni and you’re studying something like marketing, design, coding, film making, video editing or photography, these skills are actually in demand today and some companies are willing to outsource these jobs to you.
You can go on Indeed.com or Jobstreet to find some local companies or startups to freelance for.
You can even do this internationally on sites like UpWork, Fiverr or SEOclerks where you’ll get paid in US Dollars which is a massive plus when you’re trying to make money as a student.
If your skills are great, you can also dictate how much companies should pay you.
A good way to determine your worth is by knowing the value of the work you create.
The process of making money is always in how much value do you create with the services that you provide.
The bad
The downside to freelancing your skills is that you have to really take responsibility for your work and your life because other people are paying you and relying on you to get the job done.
This means you can’t fake your way up, you really need to be good at what you promote. If you’re not giving your customers their money’s worth, you wouldn’t have many more flowing in in the future!
So if you have any in demand skills that you can offer, you might want to consider this option.
It’s also a great way to practice your skills for smaller companies without the pressure of it needing to be extremely successful.
3. Business
There’s also another way to make money as a student.
This is for those of you who are a bit more adventurous and are willing to take risks.
This method also takes a little bit of money to start, but if you get it right, you’ll make that money back in no time.
This is by starting your own business or project. This could be starting a YouTube channel, blog, podcast.
It could also be other things like day trading, drop shipping, affiliate marketing, or it could be just traditional business models like flipping items or selling products in your local area.
The good thing about this method is that you can make a lot of money and there’s really no ceiling to how much money you can make.
Something that seems to stop a lot of people is the perception that you need an incredible business idea that will propel you on to be the next Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos.
All you need is a solid one. Even if your business doesn’t up scaling that well and you end up grossing RM10k per month, you won’t be complaining about that now would you.
Being young, we’re also afforded the risk of taking on a venture like this, something that gets more challenging as we start to grow older and start a family.
In fact, we believe that this is the best time to start a business. The skills you gain from it even if you fail is something you can’t buy.
As the saying goes, “If you don’t win, you learn.”
The bad
The downside is that initially this will take a lot of your time, and you might not get paid for the first 3, 6 or even 12 months.
But that’s the cost of success.
At this point of our lives, we shouldn’t be thinking too much about how much effort and work we need to put in.
Save the holidays and chilled times for when we’re older.
With this in mind, you have to be careful with where you put your money and you should never invest money that you’re not comfortable losing.
In business, there’s always the chance that it fails and you lose your upfront capital.
A good indicator that you’re good to go is by gauging your financial stability and additional risk you’re able to take on an investment.
Just know that starting your own business is an investment in yourself, and it’s returns can be way above what we would get on our conventional investments.
Personal experience
Starting this blog and YouTube channel is our attempt in trying to start our business.
The good thing is we’re not reliant on this becoming a success for our livelihoods, providing us the leeway to try things that might fail.
We’ve always wanted to try this out but as life has it, excuses always pop up to delay the start.
This isn’t some new idea in a niche that no one has explored, but we’ve decided to give it a shot since everyone has their own opinions on personal finance.
If we succeed, then great.
If things don’t work out, we’ve already learnt so much through this experience at such a minimal cost.
Win-win situation, no?
So if you’re the entrepreneurial type, you have some money saved up and you’re willing to take some risks, this might be the best option for you to make money as a student.
Recap — How To Actually Make Money As A Student
OK so that was a lot of information, let’s recap and break it down into simple steps that you can take right now to get started and make money as a student.
If you’ve never worked a job in your life and you wanna start now.
Get a contract job or if you have more time and you’re willing to give up some flexibility you can get a part-time job.
If you have been working on and off, or if you have a particular skill that is in demand, you can start freelancing your skills to companies.
If you don’t have any in demand skill, I highly recommend saving up some money from your contract jobs or wherever you get your money from and investing in yourself by developing an in demand skill.
You can start by just buying a book and find out what interests you and there are also tons of free courses and resources online that you can use to develop your skill.
Keep in mind that this skill will stay with you forever and if you develop it in the right way you will only get better at it which will help you generate more income in the future.
If you already have an in demand skill or you have some money saved up and you want to be adventurous, you can start your own business and project.
So that’s it for today’s article on how to make money as a student, let me know in the comments — what are some things you do to make some extra money while studying?