I've submitted my PhD recently and am currently unemployed. I want to work and wanted to know if any of you had any suggestions for how I could make money. I don't mind want it is, it doesn't have to be related to academia!

Hope some of you can put your brains to additional use and give me some ideas!

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sell stuff
Tutoring
dog walking/sitting (I'm currently in desparate need of a good dog walker! - they tend to charge £10 per 45 min walk)
Doggy day care (like day care, but for dogs!)
Cat feeding/sitting
house sitting
car washing
home baking - sell to unsuspecting public (may need some kind of hygeine certificate to do this!)

ok so I just re-read the post - I'd definitely enquire at some unis, they seem to be desparate for temporary staff, but not willing to take on full timers, so may be worth ringing around for associate lecturer roles or simlar.

I know you're in the social sciences Delta but don't know your particular skills so my suggestions (such as they are) are academic-based:

1. Contact the international department of your uni and suggest/offer your assistance to students for whom English is not their first language.

2. Contact editors of journals and see if there is any copy-writing/editing jobs going. My supervisor suggested this to me a while ago. I didn't do anything about it but as an editor of a journal himself he assured me that it was okay to 'cold-call' editors.

3. See if the OU has any vacancies.

4. Contact think-tank type organisations and enquire about vacancies. Also charities/philanthropic organisations don't always advertise in the normal way so some of them might be worth a call.

Good luck - I have just started a job which is not academic but in a university setting. At the moment I am in the fish out of water stage; I don't know where anything is, don't know who everybody is, not sure of procedures etc but fingers crossed it will all 'click' soon.

Best of luck Delta

Excellent suggestions Sneaks and Ady. I've already contacted many, many academics within the University where I did the PhD and although nearly all got back to me not one of them could offer anything but I'll try some more. Really good suggestions from the two of you and I'll see what all I can follow up.

Ady and Sneaks, all the best with your new jobs. I'm sure you both feel a bit out of you depth but you'll soon find your place. I'm delighted you both got something as it gives me hope.:p

Hello Delta,

You have got excellent advice already. The only thing that I can add would be to look at the job vacancies in the web-site of your city-council. They often organise leisure evening courses on a range of topics and you could do some teaching for them.

You can of course decide to offer private tuitions. You could also try your uni library, they might need some casual help in the evenings or weekends.

In my Uni, departments ask willing PGs to take notes or assist disable students at lectures and tutorials. The hourly rate is not a lot -£8.50 - but it's better than nothing.

Good Luck with it!

C.
:-)

I'd think about marking too - we seem to have tons of stuff that needs marking with no one to do it around my uni!

Also - think about lurking around unis with pregnant people -they'll be taking their mat leave sooner or later and if you're there, then you'll be the obvious cover choice :p

Thanks everyone! I asked about marking a couple of weeks ago but there's none going and no teaching, tutorials, demonstrating and while I'll keep trying every avenue I'm looking at following up some of Sneaks suggestions. You've all been great and keep brain storming and if something happens I'll make sure to let you all be the first to know.

Hi Delta, some really good advice below. I'll try and add my tuppence-worth though. You will shortly have a PhD. This makes you an independent researcher - and your expertise really goes beyond the social sciences. You're probably not doing this (so apologies if I now accidentally insult you), but do not pigeon -ole yourself. You have statistical expertise, knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research. You can most likely code, I know you've done psychometrics (you once PM'd me about something to do with it) - and that leaves you a strong candidate for a lot of jobs - stuff you may not have thought about...

Time to blue-sky and think out of the box...


Have you thought of market research? Some basic qual stuff and limited quant?


I know for a fact you'd be considered at some consultancies. At my place, we've just taken on a people who have master's degree in social sciences and we're pharmaceutics - it's because they have transferable research skills like you.

There are recruitment agencies out there for researchers - and there are research jobs (ease depending on how restricted you are travel-wise).

You know so much more than you realise compared to a graduate, and it does leave you in a strong position for a lot of research jobs - skills to pay the bills, as they say! Just remember, you trained as a researcher (which happened to be in the field of social sciences). You more than likely have very good data collection, analysis and report-writing skills. This makes you a highly versatile and skilled individual with a deep understanding of the research process, a capable gun for hire to the right bidder. The full package.

Best of luck, delta! (up)

walminski, no, that's really good advice and I'm not insulted. Quite honestly, I'm very glad to read all sorts of ideas as some I could plan for longer-term and some I could action sooner rather than later. I've already made the decision I will be signing off if I'm made to work 35/ 40 hours per week for JSA. I do think it's fair to be made to work for minimum wage (not what I want of course) or to do some part-time work for JSA but not a full 40 hour per week as that's less than minimum wage and a slap in the face.

Thanks everyone! Any other ideas, please do let me know.

I'll let you know how I get on job wise.

======= Date Modified 08 Nov 2011 13:43:38 =======
double post

ooh actually walminski has some great ideas. have you thought about organsiations such as MORI, or the yougov people? - they always need someone whose handy with a survey.

My hubster's workplace also takes on Drs in all kinds of disciplines, but need people who can do stats PM me if you want details, they're london based.

Also think of civil service fast streams - there is a recruitment freeze in place at the mo on civil service work, but this does NOT include the fast stream, so it will be competitve but worth a shot!

Sneaks - I think the fast stream for civil service had a 17th Oct deadline.

Delta - I'm in the same position as you. Currently doinda bit of teaching, but not really enough to survive on.

My money making schemes have included contacting the inland revenue to see if I'm due any tax back and signing up to take part in clinical drug trials. So far nothing has come of that one as I didn't meet the inclusion criteria for the latest trial.

I have been looking at temporary Christmas jobs as I've been getting interviews for academic posts so really hoping to get something for the new year. So far I've been turned down for a job in boots :-( Think I failed the online 'what would you do in this situation' test. I've also applied for a temp job with the local post sorting office as they tend to need a lot of temps. Not heard back from that one yet. I'm also going to approach a couple of shops or bars but I'm putting off doing that as long as I can.

Good luck with the search. Do you have a viva date yet? I'm STILL waiting to hear about mine.

I think the specific fast streams e.g. HR, statistics, GORS, have different dates throughout the year. Probably worth checking, as well as the civil service recruitment gateway.

Oh and Gumtree often has random one off jobs on there.

I'm also considering care work if none of the academic jobs pan out. My supervisor is applying for funding that may include a postdoc so I may work with her on that and do care work in the mean time.