From Making Nothing to $1000 a Month
An unpaid intern’s guide to making money on the side
When I moved to Washington DC for a semester to work, I had the naive notion I could find a part-time job and make it work with my unpaid, hybrid internship.
The idea was to find a place I could work early in the morning and have the afternoons to do my internship. I sent applications everywhere, and only three places got back to me. All gave me rejections.
This is when the panic set in. I had spent more in a month than I had in the past three years on my university campus. It didn’t help I was freshly 21 and wanting to experience night life and happy hour specials on top of paying for groceries and a Metro card.
One night, I scrolled for hours trying to figure out how to afford existing in this new city while on the verge of frustrated tears. I wasn’t the only one in my program working without pay, but I felt isolated and in an impossible scenario.
It is important to recognize the amazing opportunity studying and working in DC is, and my internship has given me so much room to grow and learn skills I wouldn’t have otherwise. Still, walking the line between practicality and enjoying my experience to the fullest was overwhelming and left me wondering how to balance it all.
Advice I had been given by those who did the program before me was to try babysitting. Even though I had prior experience, babysitting didn’t seem like something I would have the time for. Before paying for the background check on Care, I exhausted every last option.
Then, I paid for the background check and scrolled for hours on Care messaging close to twenty families within walking distance that fit my hours of availability.
All at once, I had a stroke of luck. Grammarly wanted me to complete a hiring questionnaire, Varsity Tutors wanted me to do a video interview, and a family on Care wanted to meet.
One person can only commit to so many things. I decided on the video interview and meeting with the family from Care. Both went well, and all it cost was a few weeks of panicking, waiting, and $20 which I promptly made back.
Two months later, and I have been able to support myself without digging a hole into my savings account or racking up debt I can never pay off. Varsity Tutors provides a small amount to supplement my babysitting, and I recently wrote about my experience with Fiverr which also adds to my income.
Granted, the money I make goes directly to paying off bills, but at least I am making as much as I am spending. Nothing goes into savings, but I don’t need it to at this point of my life.
Key takeaways:
- Patience is key: A lot of the places I applied take time to provide responses. If there is an interview process, a background check, or a W-2, those all need to be reviewed and approved.
- Apply, apply, apply: If you are proactive about applying, opportunities will come sooner rather than later. My own experience resulted in a lot of rejections before viable options came along, but if I hadn’t applied to so many different places, I wouldn’t have had as many gigs to choose from.
- Know your need: Consider how much money you need to be making. If you’re looking for weekend spending money, then online services like Grammarly and Varsity Tutors may be easier to manage than babysitting. If you are like me and are trying to support more than Sunday brunches and bar covers, then something like babysitting, even if it’s just on weekends, might be better suited for you.
The following are affiliate links in which I may make a profit.
If you think Varsity Tutors might fit your need or is something you want to try, here is a link to sign up as a tutor. If you are a student and think you could benefit from tutoring services, here is a link to sign up as a client.
