Students are notorious for being lazy but increasingly they are being forced into paid work while studying to supplement their living expenses.
With a hike in housing prices, living costs, travel charges and those awful tuition fee increases, students are more than ever being found serving behind the bar rather than drinking at it.
If you are a student reading this and need a bit more financial independence, either from the state or your parents, help is at hand with the following best paid/least effort jobs. With a manageable fifteen hours a week you can make a good dent in that overdraft which seems to be rudely overstaying its welcome. And if you are blessed with the financial stability to have avoided a debt chasm then a job could help you pay off fees or fund travelling in the holidays.
A great place to start is Gumtree, probably no news there, but maybe you're looking for the wrong type of job. Step away from hospitality and retail. Underpaid and overworked springs to mind, and you will also have to deal with the 'great' British public, something which should instil dread in any sane being.
A well paid option in big cities, where universities conveniently usually are, is nannying. Or mannying if you happen to be contemporarily open minded. In London especially there are a wealth of parents looking to fob their little angels off on an unsuspecting student for somewhere between £10-£20 an hour. Because of that thing called education most charges only need to be kept an eye on from three in the afternoon (ish) till bedtime, because if you're paying for help you may as well get your money's worth and avoid dealing with those awkward awake phases. Despite maybe having to negotiate temper tantrums and needing to introduce the idea of manners to some overly priviledged children, working three till six pm ideffinitely trumps serving pints from three till six am in a sticky floored nightclub.
If the idea of having to negotiate some small person's emotional needs makes you feel ill there is a similar position which dodges the need for too much physiological involvement. Tutoring needs patience but usually only in bite-sized one hour chunks and has similar, if not better, financial reciprocation. If you are studying for a degree in something that can correlate loosely with a school subject then try registering with one of the many online tutoring agencies. There are plenty of websites willing to take you on if you can prove a strong academic record and feign a liking for children. With tutors usually trumping nannies in the pay stakes the job also has the added bonus of being on a freelance basis where you can more or less dictate your own hours. Also after a few jobs you can usually privately arrange more work through contacts which cannily skips the agency fees.
Children are not for everyone, and neither is hard work. So for those of you looking for minimal effort and maximum returns- fear not. Medical trials could be the answer. There is of course the risk of mutating into something entirely unrelated to your former self (see elephant man), or the chance of some pretty grim side effects, but if you're of a gambling disposition then the compensation can be handsome. Companies are ready and willing to pay thousands of pounds to use you as their guinea pigs. You will need to be happy to have a full medical examination and usually you would be required to stay in the centre for at least a couple of nights while being observed and plied with drugs.
There is a further option, which requires a certain slip of morals but can, again, be lucrative. Sugar daddy websites are increasingly becoming popular with students who are struggling financially and with older wealthy gentlemen or ladies who are looking to pay an 'allowance' in return for regular company from these students. It would be naive to think your charming company will keep the wolf from the door mind you and realistically most of the people holding the purse strings are looking for company of an intimate kind. There have been heart-warming tales of girls being paid £1000 for dinner and their company, but a quick browse through some sugar daddy, or sugar mummy, profiles will tell you these are the exception. The cash providers are primarily lonely and looking to buy a trophy girlfriend or boyfriend. However, if this doesn't turn your stomach you could be rewarded handsomely for tolerating being leered at over an over-priced dinner. 'Sugar-babies' can dictate on their profiles how much allowance per month they expect in return for their company and are usually the recipients of luxury gifts and holidays should they welcome the life offered to them.
So the next time you think the only answer to your money woes is to wipe tables and serve expensive alcohol to inebriated tourists, think again and look a little outside the box to greener pastures.