by Ashley
First, a funny story…
When hubs and I first moved to Arizona he didn’t immediately have a job. He rustled up all kinds of side-gigs, though, including buying/selling stuff online (which can be quite lucrative if you’re good at it), working security at fraternity parties and clubs, doing random odd jobs that mostly included manual labor (e.g., wheel barrowing rocks from the front of a house to the back, laying flagstone, etc.). Early that first semester a new grad school friend asked what my hubs did and I told her, “He hustles!” Her eyes got all wide, “Really!?! Like…he sells drugs???” LOL!!! Apparently I’m not gangster enough to realize that “hustlin’” is a slang term for slinging drugs. I laughed and explained myself – “No, husband doesn’t sell drugs! He just does a ton of random things right now to earn an income!!!”
But I still like to think of the term (hustlin’) as referring to working your butt off to try to make money (through legal means, of course)!
So, all this to say…I’ve been trying to figure out some ways to hustle up some extra income for myself.
Initially I thought I might try to apply for other online teaching jobs. But after discovering how well paid I am compared to other online teaching institutions, I didn’t think it’d be a sound investment of my limited time. A better use would be to continue trying to beef up my research program, publish, and land a better long-term position (more on that discussion in this post).
But in the meantime…what could I hustle up?
Well, I’d love if I could do more work for my current online teaching university (since their compensation is more than fair). The problem is that I’ve been trying to get extra classes from them for over a year at this point and every time I’ve been granted an extra section, it’s been canceled due to low enrollment. I haven’t been able to get new classes altogether because the instructors have been hanging onto their classes (no surprise since everywhere else pays peanuts in comparison).
So I emailed my boss today with a novel idea.
“Hey – what if I developed an entirely new course for the department? I have a great idea for one that I honestly think would be a valuable asset to the program and, as luck would have it, it just happens to be my own area of expertise! wink, wink!”
(Side note: obviously my tone was more professional, but that’s the gist)
Annnnnd, I received a pretty prompt reply:
“As for your question about a [redacted] class – you are correct, no such course exists in our curriculum. The idea of developing one is outside of my direct control – as it would need to be something the department deemed appropriate and worthwhile. That said, I know they are always considering additions to the curriculum as appropriate and possible. Let me float the idea around the department and see if this is something they’d be interested it. It may be that developing it for [online dissemination] would be a nice way to make it available to students across our campuses. Let me think on this and get back to you.”
YEAH, BABY!!!
I mean, let’s not get all excited and count our chickens before the eggs have hatched! But I would just LOVE if I had the opportunity to create this class. Not only is it an area I’m passionate about, but then I’d be able to add a 3rd class to my online teaching portfolio! Hello extra money, get in my bank account (False. You won’t be in my account long enough because you’ll be busy paying down my debts). You get the point.
So there you have it. Just putting out feelers, planting seeds of ideas, and trying to hustle up a little extra cash. Now, let me get back to grading. I have exactly one week between Spring and Summer sessions and I plan to use my entire 3 preschool days being CRAZY PRODUCTIVE with research. If I say it, it will happen. And all that good stuff. ; )
Hope you’re kicking butt at work lately!
Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Freshly 40, married mother of two, working in academia. Trying to finally (finally!) pay off that ridiculous 6-digit student loan debt!
From my experience, a course that isn’t in the current curriculum or catalog would be hard to pass through curriculum committee. It would have to be shown as a viable alternative to a course already existing in degree plan or a viable elective. Not only this but it often takes quite a bit of time to go through appropriate channels. In the mean time, it might be offered as a special topics course. However, please consider that it might have very low enrollment. Compensation may be reduced to match enrollment and then you’ve spent A LOT of time creating a fully functional course for minimum pay.
I might suggest you look at developing an online course of an already established face-to-face course. I’m not sure how your institution operates, but sometimes there are stipends to online course development for existing courses that have not been taught online before or even recently.
Tutoring was always an option for me. People tend to not like my field of choice and are often desperate for assistance. I made a lot of money. I also found it beneficial for teaching because people would often ask me questions that they would never ask an instructor for fear of feeling stupid. So I got to see where students had issues with the material.
Not my field but I also know individuals who made side money editing dissertations, theses, and other papers. Spell and grammar check don’t catch everything.
I could go on and on but I will stop here.