School’s back in session, which means you’re juggling classes, clubs, and a rapidly approaching cuffing season. And unless you’ve got deep pockets or generous parents, you’re gonna need some money too.

Your full-time job is being a student, but a part-time gig is a no brainer.

Everyone at Devpost worked their way through school. We’ve washed dishes, TA’d classes, designed books, started a record label, shelved books at the library, and given campus tours.

For something more practical & related to your studies, ask your professors if they need help with their research. And don’t be afraid to look outside of CS / Engineering. Business, Economics, Chemistry, Biology, Art—I gaurantee there’s someone writing code in every building on campus.

Eager to get off campus? Reach out to local businesses and help them with their online presence and ecommerce. Could be the start of your freelance career.

BTW, if you’re interested in working for us part-time, on-campus, this fall & spring, we’re hiring campus reps at a bunch of schools. It’s a real, paying gig.

The challenge with any part-time job is balancing it with your course load and all the other balls you’ve got in the air.

Here are a few tips that helped us keep it together:

• Timebox and then seek help. Give papers and problem sets your all—for a defined period of time and then go get help. There’s no point wasting 10 hours on an assignment when 20 minutes with a TA can clear it up.
• A lot of campus jobs, like working at the library, come with major downtime. Use that time to do your homework. But ask if it’s OK first.
• Take some time off every week. Go to the library, play some ultimate, or just nap it out. College is supposed to be fun too.
• Split up group projects, complete your section, ask a teammate to review it, and do the same for them. I swear it’ll go faster than a big group discussion.
• This may be an unpopular suggestion, but schedule your classes in the morning. It’ll give you a few extra hours every day and you’ll have the arvo and early evening for your job & extracurriculars.
• Check if your school records lectures and if you can download them as podcasts. This works really well for classes without much boardwork. Pro tip: listen to them at 2–3x.