By Ollie Hurcum
While studying at university, it can be easy to forget that such a time as 7am exists. Even your earliest lectures at 9am likely see you only rolling out of bed at half eight.
Of course, this isn’t because you’re inherently lazy, it can’t be helped that teenagers and young adults have a natural waking time of at least 9am.
Unfortunately, once university is over you’ll have to face the fact that 7am is when much of the world has to wake up each morning for their usual nine-five shift at work. If you’re already struggling to get up in time for morning lectures, the idea of starting each day so early five times a week probably isn’t very appealing.
Thankfully, not every job requires such an early start. Here are some jobs with less conventional working hours:
Private tutor
After school, weekend, and online tutors can set their own hours, and are typically in demand during the afternoon and evenings. This is another high-skilled job, requiring an academic background in the subjects you choose to teach. Depending on your subject, your experience, and the level at which you’re teaching, you will typically earn between £20 and £50 (US$28-70) per one-hour lesson.
Journalist
Journalists work to their deadlines. While the hours can be long and unpredictable, journalists working for a daily morning newspaper typically work from late afternoon until the early hours, after most of the day’s events have already taken place.
This is highly skilled work requiring excellent written communication skills, strong initiative, ambition, and the ability to keep cool under pressure. Salaries start from around £12,000 (US$16,759) and can rise to heights of £80,000 (US$111,726) and above over the course of your career.
Stand-up comedian
If you’re the funniest person you know, maybe you’ve got a knack for stand-up comedy. Comedians typically work evenings, although of course, if you’re really wanting to make a living out of your comedy, then when you’re not performing, you’re writing new routines and you’re practicing them again and again. You can’t just turn up and wing it. Most comedians are self-employed, so it’s a bit of a risky career path, and you’ll have to put up with your fair share of heckling and bad gigs when you first start. Many professional comedians make between £10,000 and £100,000 (US$13,966-139,657) a year.
Bartender
It may not be putting your university degree to the best use but working as a bartender guarantees you lazy mornings in exchange for working into the early hours of the morning. Earnings vary according to location, but the UK average is around £15,000 (US$20,949) a year. A good bartender is organized, social, and well-practiced at their craft.
Waiter/waitress
Again, this isn’t a conventional job for a university graduate but might be a useful stop-gap while you assess your career options. The working hours of waiters and waitresses are based around meal-times. Restaurants serving lunch and dinner tend to open from midday, meaning you’d have to arrive sometime late morning. In the UK, you can expect to earn around £14,000 (US$19,552) a year.
Bouncer
Door supervisors or bouncers check the suitability of people wanting to enter venues like pubs, bars and nightclubs and look after the safety of the people inside. A bouncer’s typical working hours reflect the fact these venues tend to be open from late in the evening till the early hours, and you can expect to be paid around £10 (US$14) an hour.
Baker
If you’ve got a knack for making something special in the kitchen, maybe take your love of bread, cakes and pastries and build a career out of it. Bakers working where their products are going to be sold tend to work extremely early hours. However, bakeries which deliver to their clients often work from the evening till late into the night, so their produce is ready for delivery in the morning.
It’s not unheard of for bakers to work from 8pm till 5am. The pay varies according to experience, but head bakers can earn around £30,000 (US$41,897) a year.
Freelance writer
Freelancers tend not to have a steady income, but they can be much more flexible about where and when they work. You need to be able to write well and meet the deadlines you’re set, but that’s exactly what’s required for university study anyway. You’ll also need to spend time networking in order to gain freelance assignments in the first place.
There are a wide variety of freelance writing jobs out there, from copy-editing and technical writing to those which are a little more unusual.
Ollie Hurcum writes for Inspiring Interns, which specialises in sourcing candidates for internships and graduate jobs.
