by Matt Bird

Created on: June 13, 2009

Balancing a full time job and a college education is basically impossible. You'll never have enough time to get your homework done and attend classes while still maintaining the hours necessary to stay employed. Even a part time job can be tough in this regard, depending on the necessary hours and when your employer wants to work. This is the main reason why students work their butts off during the summer, so they don't necessarily HAVE to keep working during the school year.

But, unfortunately, expenses will continue to crop up regardless of how well you prepare, and you'll probably need to earn more money to compensate for them. Before you break down crying at the thought, don't despair; there are jobs out there, often around the campus, that will make handling your workload and your money problems at the same time a little bit easier. They may not be the most glamorous positions ever, but they certainly do the job. Here are just a few of them.

- Helium! Sounds like sucking up, doesn't it? It really isn't, though, as Helium is one of those decently-paying little jobs that you can do virtually anywhere and at any time. As long as you built up a nice solid basis of writing stars you can write a couple articles a day and keep making dough off upfront payments, not to mention steady page view income. It's not much, but every little bit helps with you're a student. Other content aggregators are good for this purpose, as well.

- Tutor. You're already at school; you presumably know the material; why not? Tutoring may sound tough, but it really isn't. Most of the time the student knows the material and just needs an extra kick in the pants to get going. So long as your own grades are sufficiently high you can probably enroll in tutoring through your school; if not, feel free to advertise your services on an independent basis.

- Library assistant. When I worked in a library as a teen they were called Pages; I'm not sure if they are in college libraries. Regardless, almost every campus on the planet has libraries, and they always need student help cleaning books. It's easy, peaceful work with manageable hours.

- Technical assistant. My school has a media room that employs student helpers every now and then for equipment rentals, printing services and general assistance. It's an easy job and pays pretty well, and if you're in the know about technology it's probably right up your alley.

- Bookstore or general store assistant. Again, easy job. You're a cashier. They'll be flexible with your hours since you're literally on campus.

- Pub staff. Not only will you get great tips from all the drunkards, but you'll be in the happiest place on campus. Bear in mind that you'll probably need extra accreditation to bartend, but it's not too hard to get.

- Teaching aide. If your marks are great you can shimmy in with your teacher and help with the marking and in-class stuff. Doesn't pay amazingly well, but it might help your grades if you're getting old material constantly re-hammered into your brain.

Sound good? Then get out there and land yourself a job. It's not nearly as hard as you might think, so long as you take the time to look.

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