It’s possible to make a (great) living while working online jobs in college.
I know this because it’s exactly what I did when I was in college. I know your struggle.
You’re juggling classes with what feels like endless busy work, you’re trying to gain experience to land a good job when you graduate, and you’re stuck with a rising tuition bill you need to pay.
And they say college is supposed to be the best years of your life??
That’s why I’m writing this article to hopefully shed some light on the best online jobs for college students (you) to quickly earn some income AND gain real world work experience.
You won’t need a degree to do any of these jobs. Plus, they’re actually legit. You can proudly put them on your resume when you graduate and start job hunting.
While the economy we’re in is definitely making it more difficult to find “traditional” jobs, it’s actually easier than ever to find “gig” jobs.
In this article I’m going to provide you with a lot of online job examples. I recommend you pick one and just run with it.
Best Online Jobs For College Students (A Full List)
Freelance Writing
This is where I started my first side hustle when I was in college. My background is “off the beaten path” so to speak.
I basically had no money and the only job I was qualified for was a valet job about 30 minutes away from my house. Needless to say I was desperate to figure out a way to work online.
Having valet experience just doesn’t help when you’re trying to get into tech sales.
So I went onto a site called Upwork (previously oDesk) and I created a profile to transcribe business meetings.
In 2 hours I made $30 for the work and I’ve never looked back.
Freelance writing literally paid for my rent, food, and tuition costs.
I transitioned from transcription writing, to content writing, to copywriting where I was able to earn more money each time.
Within 8 months I earned over $40,000 which was life changing for me.
Not only did I get paid, but I was able to get paid to learn. It eventually helped me with landing a sales job at one of the best financial technology companies in tech.
Freelance Design
The internet is almost all visuals.
Design is the process of sending a message through the visual medium. Images can help influence millions of people. That’s why becoming a freelance designer can be a rewarding online job.
You’ll be responsible for things like:
- Logos
- Landing pages
- Brochures
- Email designs
- Advertisements
- And much more
You can easily earn between $25-$40/hr depending on your skill level in the beginning!
Freelance Developer
You can have minimal skills as a freelance web developer and still make great money with this side hustle.
Even if you don’t plan to go into tech and make developing a lifelong career, you can still learn valuable skills and make money at the same time.
Obviously you’ll need to take a course or two to get the basics, but front end and back end developers are desperately needed right now.
Freelance Video & Audio Editor
Youtube is the second most used search engine on the planet.
When there’s a gold rush, be the person selling shovels. As a video and/or audio editor, you’re the person selling shovels.
Teach English Online
When you think of teaching English, you may visualize yourself in front of 30 foreign students in a far away land.
That’s just not the case anymore.
In fact, thousands of people are teaching English to students from the homes. Technology like Zoom and Skype have made it really unnecessary to bring in full time teachers.
Plus, English is the preferred language for doing business in the world, and many international parents will pay top dollar for a quality teacher.
Online learning is so much more convenient than face to face. You can teach 1-on-1 or in small groups, you can set your own times, and you never waste time commuting.
Getting started is also relatively simple. You need to be a native English speaker, have a quality internet connection, get a quick certification, and have plenty of patience.
If you can mark off those items, you’ll be good to go!
Transcriber
There’s a healthy market for transcriptionists, even with computers getting better and better!
You can start immediately as a transcriptionist too.
There are 3 main buckets for transcription work:
- Medical
- Legal
- General
Medical: You transcribe medical reports provided by nurses, surgeons, physicians, and other healthcare professionals.
Legal: You transcribe legal documents created by attorneys, judges, and paralegals.
General: These are general transcriptions. Anything from meetings to podcast episodes (which is very popular!).
Transcription work can also take the form of video captions too.
This is where you’ll transcribe the video into text format and match it with the audio. It’s really popular for Youtube videos and Facebook ads.
Virtual Executive Assistant
If you’re an organized person, you’ll love being an executive assistant.
You’ll be responsible for a wide variety of tasks. From answering the phone to setting meetings to building pitch decks.
You can expect to earn anywhere from $10-20/hr.
The best part?
You’re going to gain a wealth of business experience. You’ll learn the daily habits of successful executives and business owners.
It’s well worth the effort to land this online job.
Bookkeeper
Are you majoring in finance?
Do you want to gain real world experience while making pretty decent money?
Consider becoming a bookkeeper online for your local businesses. Almost all businesses need a bookkeeper to help track their finances.
You’ll be tasked with relatively simple work like recording income and expenses, preparing reports for the CFO, and sending invoices.
You can easily earn between $15-$40/hr doing this work.
In fact, I’ve written an entire article about how to become a bookkeeper you might find to be helpful!
Social Media Manager
Do you love memes? Could you see yourself meme scrolling all day?
Because that’s basically the primary job requirement for being a social media manager (okay, obviously there’s more, you actually have to make the memes too).
Seriously, businesses are in constant need of people to help manage comments, improve their engagement, and grow a community around their brand.
If you’re good at making hilarious GIFs, then you can start getting clients!
Search Engine Evaluator
Make the internet a better place. That’s the premise behind Google and Bing hiring feedback partners to improve their search engines.
Basically all you would need to do is fill out forms about your experience searching through the internet and you’ll get paid an hourly wage to do this.
Link Outreach Specialist (For SEO)
This is a little secret of mine. It’s something you won’t find really anywhere on any other research for college students.
Why?
Because not many people actually realize how necessary a link outreach specialist is for every business.
It’s also my second favorite online job for college students after freelancing.
As a link outreach specialist you’ll be tasked with finding and generating high quality links for the clients of digital marketing companies.
You can easily make $2,000-$3,000/month doing this work and you need ZERO previous experience.
Scoping
Bet you’ve never heard of this online job!
A scopist is a person who edits the transcripts for court reporters.
Basically, court reporters make money per page instead of per hour, which means they find it lucrative to outsource their editing.
You don’t need any certification or extensive background to get started either, much like bookkeeping or proofreading.
Proofreading
If you’re an English major, you’ll love this side hustle.
There’s about one million books being written on a yearly basis. There’s about 30 TIMES (yes, easily 30,000,000) websites updating their content on a yearly basis.
There’s so much content on the internet it’s ridiculous.
That’s why there’s such a high demand for quality proofreaders.
You don’t need any certification. You just need to have an eye for detail and spotting grammar and typo mistakes.
Automation Analyst
Have you ever heard of Zapier?
It’s the company focused on helping businesses create automations in their workflows.
It’s a fantastic company.
The problem?
They only provide access to the clay, but someone needs to mold it into pottery (so to speak).
This is where an automation analyst can come in handy. You’ll be responsible for building the automations businesses will use to help streamline their processes.
Online Journalist
News blogs are always looking for good writers to help quickly spin up stories for their readers.
If you’re really interested in current events, politics, sports, or even local news, you can find a home as an online journalist.
You’ll basically be responsible for:
- Research
- Writing
- Interviewing
- Editing
Executive Summary: Online Jobs For College Students
The world we live in has forever changed.
If you’re in college right now you have one of the greatest opportunities ever. The ability to do high quality work online.
Generations before us never had this opportunity. You don’t need to be a broke college student. You can continue with your studies and work from home, while making great money.
If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment!