Moonlighting

Now that summer is coming up, several people I know are making vacation plans. One person I know is spending several weeks in Europe; another person went to the Bahamas. Other people I know are planning cross-country road trips.

What will I be doing? Working, of course!

One reason that I work so much is that I can't afford not to. Several of the other grad students rely on student loans or help from spouses with full-time jobs; I don't have either. I have a teaching assistantship that provides me with a monthly stipend, but it isn't enough to live on.

I can't work a regular full-time job because the classes I teach are often in the middle of the day, and the class schedule changes every few months. So I "moonlight" by working additional part-time jobs to help make ends meet. I currently work part-time for a website.

I've worked as an adjunct instructor at different schools around the city, but I'm not working as an adjunct as often anymore because a) the adjunct positions are difficult to get since instructors are hired on an as-needed basis; b) the pay is extremely low, because apparently untenured faculty members don't need to have enough money for luxuries like rent and groceries; c) it can be very tiring to grade up to a hundred or more papers every week, especially when I also have my own graduate work to do.

College teaching jobs are difficult to come by in the summer. I was offered an adjunct position for a summer session at one school, but it paid less than what I would have earned working in retail for the same amount of time. I was lucky last summer in that I had a well-paying teaching job, but this summer I'm looking for at least one more part-time job to supplement the income from my website job.

So lately I've been scanning the Craiglist job ads for openings; I've also filled out online applications on the websites of different companies and stores that I'm interested in working for. I applied to a couple of temp agencies; one of them responded and said that I didn't have enough administrative experience (I haven't worked in an office since I did internships in college) but suggested that I apply to a different temp agency that offered warehouse positions.

(Side note: I read somewhere that people with graduate degrees are both overqualified and underqualified for many jobs outside of academia. I have heard of people with master's degrees and Ph.D.s succeeding outside of the academic world, but most people I know are working towards careers in teaching and research, as am I.)

I applied for other "assistant" positions at various offices, since they pay more than retail jobs, but it is true that they require a lot of skills that I don't have.

For example, I'm not familiar with several computer programs; although I can do my website job effectively, it's very likely that if I were given responsibility for most work involving a computer, at least two things could happen: a) the computer could break down, and then I, subsequently, would break down too, shrieking, "I don't know what happened! I just turned on the computer and it suddenly malfunctioned out of terror or revenge, or possibly both! I think it HATES me!" or b) I would lose a bunch of important files, and then the corporate employees would start talking to me like I'm eight years old in order to get me to understand how to work the darn thing, although eight year olds could probably operate computers better than I can, considering how technologically savvy kids are these days.

The one field outside of academia that I do have the most experience in is retail, so a lot of the jobs I've been applying for are in retail. Recently I went in for an interview for a "retail associate" position. When the interviewer told me how much the wages were, I swallowed hard but managed to keep a straight face, acting like it didn't bother me that I would have to work several hours to earn enough money to buy just one product from that store.

Even though I'm a workaholic, I wish that I had the time and money to go on my own vacation to some place I haven't been to before, like New York, Boston, or even a foreign country, like Italy. I don't get to do a lot of traveling; twice a year I visit my parents, who live in another state, for  a couple weeks each time. But during the rest of the year, I am working.

Someday, when I complete my Ph.D., I hope to find a full-time teaching job. It's okay if it's not a tenured position (though that is the ultimate goal of most Ph.D. candidates), because those are extremely difficult to get. But for me, being able to teach at a good school and earn enough money to live on without having to work additional jobs would be more than enough.

The fact that I don't earn a lot of money makes me a lot more careful about how I manage the money that I do earn. That's why I read blogs about saving money, like the one that Donna Freedman writes. Her blog is called Surviving and Thriving and is filled with great advice. She also writes a column for MSN Money's Smart Spending. She and I have exchanged several e-mails, and she was kind and generous enough to give me coupons for a free movie pass and a free soda at the theater, as well as a coupon for a free frozen dinner. It thrilled me to be able to watch a movie for free, especially since I only watch movies two or three times a year. It also thrilled me that the soda they gave me at the theater was HUGE, because I love Coca-Cola, even though a couple of my brain cells probably die every time I drink it.

Incidentally, I recently won the grand prize in Donna's annual giveaway on her blog: a $100 Amazon.com gift card! Thank you, Donna! I was really hoping for the gift card, because my dissertation committee has assigned me a very long reading list that includes many books that aren't available in the library. A few months ago, I also won a prize in one of Donna's weekly giveaways (she hosts one every Friday on her blog); I won several different kinds of Godiva chocolate.

Winning prizes like that makes me think of those rare good weather days in Chicago; because the weather is so extreme the rest of the year, everyone always takes advantage of the mild weather on those days and goes outside. (Then again, for us Chicagoans, anything above thirty degrees or even anything in the double digits is considered a good day.) So winning a gift card and chocolate, saving money through coupons, and being careful about how much I spend and where I spend it have taught me to value my money. I've also learned to be grateful that I have the opportunity to work part-time jobs; even though the paychecks are smaller than I'd like, they're better than no paychecks at all.

It also makes me a lot more aware of the people who have less money or no money at all. So I try to help them in small ways. I can't write a big check to charities, but I usually say yes (unless I'm really hard up for cash) when the cashiers at grocery stores ask me if I'd like to donate a few bucks to whatever charity they're sponsoring that week. I also set aside a few dollars to buy Streetwise papers each week, which is the newspaper that homeless people sell on street corners; I think they get to keep $1.25 out of every $2. Sometimes I give sandwiches or bags of chips to other homeless people. I gave away bags of clothes and shoes that were still in good condition to the Salvation Army.

Donna also says that people should set aside a few bucks every week for a "cash cache", or an emergency fund. That's what I've been doing too. Recently I found a five dollar bill on the sidewalk when I was running errands. I put it into my "cash cache". Although it's technically my emergency fund, I've secretly named it my "vacation fund" as well. Someday, when I have enough money, I'd like to take my own vacation, escape from all of my work, and have a chance to breathe, for the first time in years.


What about you? Have you ever done any moonlighting? What kinds of part-time jobs/day jobs have you had, and what did you like best/least about them?