I’m a teacher. A pretty new teacher. I love teaching, but of course, the pay isn’t the best. One of the benefits, though, is two months off every summer. What can I do with that time?
Tutoring and teaching summer school are obvious suggestions, but I’d like to look beyond that. I’m not averse to taking classes or teaching myself a new skill. Hell, I’d consider going to medical school if I could do it nights and summers, but at almost 40 years old, I’m not sure I could pay back the loans over the rest of my career, especially if I only do doctoring during the summer (which surely isn’t possible). But I don’t want to give up teaching.
Are there good, professional jobs that you can just dabble in? Managing mutual funds apparently is all guesswork. How do you get started in that? And would you like to send me your money?
Seriously, I’d be terrible at sales (which is probably the key to that sort of job). I’m pretty sure I could handle the math, though, with a little practice. I’m in average shape, but not young, and not too physical. I’m very bright and absorb information quickly. I write well, but I’m not artistic or handy.
Could I teach myself programming and get short-term jobs on demand? What else could I do?
Could you give us some more information? If you could answer a few questions, that might help us give you better suggestions:
Where do you live, and would you be willing to go somewhere else for the summer?
What skills, other than those related to teaching, do you have?
You say you want a professional job for the summer. Which aspects of a job that you consider “professional” are important to you? Is it the pay you care about? Status? Working conditions? Amount of brainpower required? Something else?
How entrepreneurial are you?
I get that you’re asking about work during the summers. Would you be willing to put in some time and money during other parts of the year to make your summer job happen, though?
My parents have an extension on their house that was built by a couple of teachers during the summer break. Some teachers or professors lead educational tours, lecturing along the way, but I doubt a new teacher would be hired for that.
Central coast of California. Too far from any of the major cities to commute. I would consider moving for the summer, but I have cats who would need caring for and I’d have to factor in the expense. No family to worry about, though.
Nothing particularly marketable. I have the sort of soft skills that go with teaching, but no technical abilities to speak of and no marketable hobbies. My previous jobs were mostly human services. I’d like to try to branch out.
Pretty much those! I can make decent money teaching summer school for the hours it takes (which isn’t much–it’s typically half-days for about half the summer). Financially, there’s no point in taking a job that pays half what I make doing that, even if I get more hours. And I don’t want to just work retail or something like that–I’d like to expand my horizons and maybe develop some new skills in case I ever do burn out on teaching. (And of course, plenty of business skills can be applied to school administration, if I go that route some day).
I’d have to say not very. Trying to start a summer business could be an interesting challenge, but like I said, I’m not very good at sales and don’t enjoy it–and that seems to be necessary for any type of entrepreneurship.
My uncle and two other teachers started a summer business painting houses. By a few years after getting started each teacher was making as much from the summer job as he did from the teacher’s salary (which remained true even after my uncle had been teaching for many years and was at a higher salary level).
That kind of idea intrigues me, but I’ve never done any kind of painting or construction work outside of a Habitat for Humanity mission trip 20 years ago. I’m a lifelong renter and not very handy.
A handful of the teachers/coaches from my high school had their own handyman/small-scale contracting outfit that operated during the summers.
My question is whether or not you’re looking for supplemental income, or whether you’re looking for something to do to pass the time productively. If it’s the second, I’d recommend volunteering somewhere.
Central Coast, eh? I don’t know what county you’re in, but if you were here in SLO County, I would advise you to first put feelers out in your personal and/or professional network for a professional job that meets your criteria and see what turns up. There’s about a one degree of separation here and if there’s a good professional summer job to be had sooner or later you would hear about it.
I have a friend who took a course, I think at the local community college, and is now designing iPhone apps.
As mentioned I’d like to earn some extra money as well as take up some time and learn some new skills.
Like I said, I’m almost 40 and not in the best shape. I exercise, but I have old back and knee injuries that would preclude heavy labor. Plus, like I said, I’m not very physical or handy and more suited to professional type work. Though commercial fishing would certainly be a change of pace! I have to be back at school before Labor Day, though. (Mid-August.)
Designing iPhone apps sounds fun, though I understand it’s hard to monetize successfully. I guess I could just check out Cuesta’s catalog and see what classes they offer! Anyway, good advice. Thanks!
ACT/SAT coaching apparently pays pretty well - if you private tutor. You might want to see if you can get your first job working for one of the companies that runs seminars to get yourself up to speed - that apparently doesn’t pay much, but the second year you could offer your services independently.
Ooh! I like that idea! I kind of wanted to get away from teaching over the summer to reduce the chances of burnout down the road, but other than that, it’s perfect, and it would be a different kind of teaching than what I do now, which is elementary. (Being an elementary teacher would be a minor disadvantage to getting clients compared to being a HS teacher, but once I got the training you suggest and have good references, it wouldn’t matter. And it would be a benefit compared to someone who isn’t an actual teacher.)
I like the first suggestions, but do you know how well they pay or what it would take to do them professionally? I understand medical transcription is fading as an industry in this country; are there still jobs? I’d have to learn to type much better than I do now, but that should be doable with the motivation of a good job after.
I’ve thought about waiting tables or tending bar, but I haven’t done that since college, I wouldn’t build any career skills, and there are a ton of people already doing it with more experience.
No. Are you supposed to use your vacation time to plan future work? In fact, I doubt anyone would complain, but using time outside of the contracted employment period negotiated for us by the union to do unpaid work for the district would probably violate some rule or other. We get specific paid teacher workdays (when I am required to show up at the school and obviously couldn’t be working another job) to do planning and prep.
Can you?
There are professional jobs one can do for short stints. They are called things like “consultant”, “contractor”, or “freelancer”. But they typically require that you already have skills in what your are consulting, contracting or freelancing for. Project management, graphic design, computer programming and other technical disciplines are common. And you generally have to go out and sell yourself to people who might want to hire you.
Or maybe you can drive an Uber car.
Seriously. I don’t know why people think there are just high paying jobs lying around waiting for someone with no skills and no experience to just come along and “dabble”.
Yes, I think I can, at least the “teach myself programming” part. And if not, I can take classes. Can I get a job after doing that? Well I don’t know, but you’ve given me some potentially helpful information about what it would take to do so, so thank you.
Why you felt the need to condescendingly shit on my thread after doing so, especially when I’ve repeatedly expressed an openness to spending time building up skills and experience through training and work, and when I’ve already gotten a thread-full of valuable advise and suggestions indicating that yes, there are some relatively high-paying jobs you can dabble in if you are willing to train and learn the necessary skillls, I simply don’t understand.
Tutoring might work out well for you, but there’s more to it than you might expect. There are reasons why really good SAT/ACT tutors get paid well. We’re rarer than you probably suppose, and we do more than you’d think. You might also have to be willing to commute and/or travel, especially for summer work.
I love what I do, but it took a while before I could make it pay financially. And if you really don’t think you’re entrepreneurial, you might want plan to work for someone else. (If you pick your employer wisely, that might actually not be a bad deal for you. You won’t make nearly as much money as you would on your own, but you could do OK, and you wouldn’t have the burden of getting your own students, making a lot of your own materials, etc.)
I can make decent money teaching summer school for the hours it takes (which isn’t much–it’s typically half-days for about half the summer). Financially, there’s no point in taking a job that pays half what I make doing that, even if I get more hours. And I don’t want to just work retail or something like that–I’d like to expand my horizons and maybe develop some new skills in case I ever do burn out on teaching. (And of course, plenty of business skills can be applied to school administration, if I go that route some day).