On campus: teaching jobs are the most well-paid
The two student jobs with the highest hourly rate are private tutoring and teaching assistantships (TAs). TAs usually work on campus – they help a professor teach some lower-level classes. Tutors, meanwhile, can work both on and off campus. They can provide paid peer support to students of their own university, or they can tutor children and adults outside of campus.
These jobs also help international students understand their own field more deeply because they usually teach classes within their own field of specialty. It might be difficult for first- or second-year undergraduates to get a TA, but they can easily tutor their major to high schoolers.
The biggest perk of these two jobs might well be the pay. CIC News says that, in Canada, TAs are paid an average of CA$23/hour, while private tutors generally earn CA$30/hour. That is well above the minimum wage of CA$16.65. In the US, tutors make around US$25/hour, while TAs often make around US$14/hour. As for the UK, tutors there can make anything between £25 to over £50 per hour, depending on the difficulty and rarity of the subject that they teach, as well as their qualifications. Graduate students, those in STEM (science and technology), students at prestigious universities, and those with previous teaching experience tend to earn more. Many agencies are eager to recruit these students as part-time tutors.
As an international student, you could also opt to tutor your native language to those learning it as a foreign language. Being a foreign native speaker might make you get more work or even a higher hourly rate than a local teacher who's a non-native speaker. Online tutoring can be done from the comfort of your dorm or apartment, but you might also earn more by tutoring at a person's house. Well-off families often have a good budget to hire private tutors to teach their children at home.
As teaching is a people-centric job, being a TA or a tutor is also a great opportunity to build your network. The professor you work under, the students you teach and the families of these students become valuable contacts. They might write you a reference letter or even get you a full-time position after graduating.
Another campus job closely related to teaching assistantships is research assistantships. These positions might be more widely available if you study in a big, research-intensive university. But like TAs, they are more easily available to graduate students or third/fourth-year undergraduates. In Australia, undergraduate research assistants at prestigious universities can earn around AU$30 per hour while graduate ones earn more, around AU$50. In the UK, they make an average of £15 per hour, according to Pearson PTE. Regardless of salary, this job is great for those who want to boost their research or industry-specific CV and pursue a Ph.D. in the future.
Other campus jobs: library assistant and campus ambassador
What if you don't like teaching, or your level of expertise in your field isn't high enough yet for you to teach? Don't worry; there are other jobs on campus.
Many students can work in the university library as an assistant with no other skills other than basic administrative, collaboration and language skills. In the US, they make as much money as teaching assistants, that is, about US$14 per hour. In Canada, they generally make CA$15-18 an hour. This is a slightly less common student job in other parts of the world; it remains most common in North America.
Vacancies for library assistantships are usually listed on the university library's website, so make sure to check it out regularly. If you are more introverted, being a library assistant might suit you better than being a teacher – while you still need interpersonal skills, you will not have to spend as much time talking. Another advantage is that your workplace is likely to be a short walk from your classes. You will not need to travel a double commute because you can go to work on the campus itself after your classes.
If you are an extroverted social butterfly, you might prefer being a campus ambassador. Their role is to promote the institution as well as guide new students. This job is excellent for those studying marketing, communications, public relations, diplomacy, or business because it allows you to apply the skills you learn in class to the real world. This job might only be seasonal. Many institutions recruit student/campus ambassadors only in the summer preceding a new academic year in order to attract applicants.
As an international campus ambassador, you might be made responsible for recruiting and guiding other international students, i.e., those who will likely face the same challenges as you did when you first arrived. On the downside, this job pays less than teaching, research and library assistantship: usually around US$13 per hour.
Hospitality jobs have low entry requirements and unlimited earning potential from tips
Part-time jobs in the hospitality and service sectors often get a bad rap for paying the minimum wage and having stressful environments. These jobs include bartending, waiting tables and being a receptionist. On the plus side, there are always many vacancies for these positions, the entry requirements are low, and you can potentially earn a lot from tips. Basic training is usually done on the job once you're recruited.
The hourly wage for waitpersons tends to linger around the minimum wage. For instance, the minimum hourly wage in Ireland is €11.30, and waitpersons are paid an average of €12/hour. In France, waitpersons are generally paid exactly the minimum hourly wage, which is €11.27 in 2023. The situation is quite different in the US, though. In many US states, restaurant owners are legally allowed to pay waitpersons less than the minimum wage if they are allowed to receive tips from customers. But if you have a knack for customer service and work at a restaurant where customers tip generously, you can make over US$100 in tips per day – which makes your total earnings much higher than even a tutor's.
Some students with a low-stress tolerance might find it unbearable to work in a fast-paced restaurant or with difficult customers – no matter how much they earn in tips. Newly arrived international students might also be unfamiliar with the language, the body language and the wider cultural norms of this new country, which makes it more difficult for them to “read” customers properly. These students might prefer the safer cocoon of on-campus jobs.
Being a bartender is fairly similar to being a waiter/waitress, except you are more likely to work at night. Mixologists are paid more, usually around US$15/hour, but they need to be trained or even qualified in mixing drinks. Another common hospitality job for students is as receptionist. In most countries, they make the equivalent of US$15/hour. In hotels, it's a great job to practice various languages, plus one which offers attractive benefits like discounted stays at the hotel.
The gig economy has created many freelance opportunities
With the advent of the gig economy in the last two decades, new part-time ways of earning money have appeared. While these jobs are too unstable to make a decent full-time income, they can be great for students who only need some pocket money. When accepting gigs, you have to be careful, though, that the amount of work doesn't exceed the maximum number of hours you're allowed to work on a student visa (usually 20 hours/week).
On websites like Upwork and Fiverr, you can take up freelance gigs for various skills ranging from translation to coding to graphic design. The earning potential here varies a lot depending on what skills you're offering, what your client's budget is, and how well you negotiate. If you have an international driver's license and feel comfortable enough to drive in a foreign country, you can also work as a ride-share driver for companies like Uber or as a delivery driver for food apps.
Babysitting and pet walking are also job options, especially if you have experience taking care of pets (e.g., your own back home) and kids (e.g., younger siblings). These two jobs can be very well-paid: US$18-20/hour for babysitting one child in the US, £8-12 in the UK, €10-12 in France, and nearly €13 in Germany. Pet sitters and dog walkers can also earn the equivalent of US$14-20 per hour.
Please keep in mind, however, that these last two jobs come with a high level of responsibility. Making a mistake as a waiter will just make a disgruntled customer get the wrong food order, but making a mistake as a babysitter/petsitter could result in a child or animal being injured. You should consider these jobs only if you are sure of your ability to handle them. Some well-off families might even pay you to combine the job of a babysitter with that of a private tutor. You will, of course, be paid more then.
