Making extra cash as a philosopher?

In our March "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

Any advice on making some extra cash as a philosopher (generally, or even in the UK in particular)? I have a decent permanent job that allows me to live comfortably and save a little. But I don't really make enough to also put money toward my student loans, which I would like to do. I'm wondering if anyone has advice on how to make some money in the short term as a philosopher. I don't think there is an option to teach summer courses at my university. Any tips?

Hmm...good question! One option is to try to publish some public philosophy, as I know that many venues compensate authors. Then again, publishing public-facing work is tough and I'm not sure it tends to be terribly well compensated. Aside from this, I'm not sure. It's always possible to pursue various 'side-hustles' (e.g., bartending, driving for Lyft, etc.), but the OP seems to be looking for ways to make extra cash as a philosopher. In any case, it would be great to hear from readers. 

Have you pursued ways to make extra cash, either as a philosopher or as a side-hustle? Any tips?

Comments

[Ex-Tutor]

Depending on the details of your contract (second jobs are not always legally/tax-wise simple): private tutoring.

In Australia you can easily bring in $50 an hour pretax (10 years ago for me, probably more now) tutoring upper high school and university students.

Particularly easy if you can tutor mathematics or science, but I know there is also a good market for English literature (if you can stand the Shakespeare) and English as a second language.

[Law and Philosophy]

I agree that tutoring is an excellent way of earning some extra cash, particularly test prep. As an LSAT tutor, I was making $60 an hour, and plenty make more. Some tutoring companies require that you take the test and receive a high score before tutoring, which is a bit of a time suck, but the LSAT is an extremely manageable test for philosophers. There is an almost endless supply of students eager for tutoring. I admit, I found the work pretty dull, but it is good money on flexible hours.

[Derek Bowman]

In terms of tutoring, at least here in the U.S. there is definitely more money in test prep tutoring, though my sense is that rates have been somewhat driven down by various tutoring platforms trying to be the Uber/DoorDash of tutoring.

For philosophy specifically, I currently tutor a U.S. based student who is enrolled in the University of London's distance learning degree program. My sense is that this is a relatively common practice for students in that program, and he had hired other philosophy tutors before to help read and discuss his practice exam essays. My sense is that those tutors did this regularly as a side gig. But this student sought me out, so I'm not sure where one would go to advertise as or to look for such a tutor.

[Peter]

I am in the fortunate situation that I am paid quite regularly additional money as a philosopher:
- salary compensation for invited public or outreach talks (e.g. in libraries, museums, government etc. - usually about 300-500 EUR for 30-60min, depending on the place)
- As a member of ethics committees (but quite time-consuming "hobby")
- a few additional invited teaching sessions at other departments/faculties.
- launching and teaching an advanced study course on the topic of your competence at your university, for which interested external participants pay a participation fee (ca. 1500 EUR salary / day where I am based)

[academic migrant]

Piggybacking on this thread. I saw a call for external examiners. Do they pay? and is the money worth the time?

[Michel]

Academic migrant: my understanding most of the time, it comes with an honorarium. But not much; I've done it once, and got ~$300.

Not every university does, though; my PhD-granting institution, for example, didn't.

As for the OP: I do a variety of sall things on the side, but none pay very much (including a translation/copy editing gig for another university). Your best bet, IMO, is to find an unrelated part-time job you can do remotely or during your time off.

[Leonard J. Waks]

The best approach may be to establishy a consultancy. I have made considerable extra cash as a consultant. I started as a philosopher (Ph.d. Wisconsin, TT ppositions at Purdue and Stanfod.) I doubled in education, branching out from philosophy of education, my main interest and something difficult to teach in pohilosophy depwrtments. Not sure exactly how mybinitial consulting gigs started, but eventually quite a it of work came to me. Significantly, in retirement I have had many opportunities and now am a distinguished prof in China and am in demand as speaker and consultant. Still doing philosophy research in every spare moment -in my 80s.