How To Make Money This Summer For College Students

This warm summer weather has been bringing back memories of my college days when I used to have a summer vacation. Sitting around usually got pretty boring though, so I actually spent most of my summer vacations working to make some money. How else could I afford to put the ramen on the table in the fall? Anyway, I thought I would share a few things I learned from the summer job experiences throughout college for all of the current college students looking for ways to make money this summer.

Use your social network. For some reason, they fail to teach you how important networking really is in college. Practically every summer job I got throughout college was through friends, friends’ parents, professors, etc. The skills you develop in college don’t do you any good unless other people know about them, and that’s where networking works its magic. When the person in charge of hiring already knows you or gets a recommendation from someone who knows you, they’ll be more likely to hire you even if there’s a complete stranger who may be more qualified for the position. Why? Because they have a better idea of what to expect from you.

Look for internships. For summer internships, you should start looking as soon as the semester starts. At the very least, you should make a note of the deadlines for the internships that you’re really interested in. From my experiences, companies usually make their decisions in March or April for summer internships. While some internships may not pay well (or at all), you will gain extremely valuable experience that will help you in the future. My first internship was unpaid. My second one paid pretty well, and my third internship paid really well.

Sell your old stuff. Each time you go back home, you’ll probably start to notice a lot of stuff that you’ve grown out of now. I found all kinds of things — sports equipment, clothes, musical instrument accessories, textbooks, CDs, DVDs, and on and on. Selling textbooks became a summer ritual throughout my undergrad years. If you don’t have a lot of old stuff, then help your parents sell some of their old stuff and convince them to give you a portion of the profits.

Get creative. If your social network didn’t come through, you weren’t able to land an internship, and you’ve already sold all of your old stuff, then it’s time to get creative. When it comes to finding ways to make money, you’re only limited by your own imagination. Don’t believe me? Check out these unusual ways college students have made money. Instead of sitting there complaining about not having a summer job, put on your thinking cap and come up with something creative, and maybe next summer I’ll be writing about your brilliantly creative way to make money during the summer.

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