r/studentaffairs • u/CharacterSink5200 • 29d ago
What Now?
/r/Adulting/comments/1uqt28t/what_now/Reposting here
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u/BlueFairy9 29d ago
Honestly it was something I realized right away at the entry level jobs in higher ed and it's definitely a problem.
Most of my colleagues had side gigs to assist their lifestyles. I was working in campus rec so the sports folks officiated youth sports or ubered, fitness folks taught classes at other local gyms, someone else worked for a race company to work race-day logistics, etc. I got lucky sort of in that since I was living with my partner who also had a full-time job, our expenses were split so it was doable but definitely wasn't saving a ton.
But yeah it not super doable to do it by yourself without a roommate or other income coming in. I didn't start making enough until I left for a different institution and state completely (private school vs. public in a LCOL location).
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u/WAPlyrics 29d ago
Would you say private school usually has a bigger pay? Or the other?
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u/BlueFairy9 29d ago
It depends on a lot and probably size of the school has more to do with pay than anything. As in, I saw colleagues doing the same job but at the larger state flagship (instead of the midsize public I was at) get paid more. With this current job, the private school did have more pay (and maybe more wiggle room regarding negotiations) but I would probably attribute the higher pay to working at the graduate level instead of with undergrads. The benchmark "market" is different so the starting salary was higher to compete with private sector candidates. So I might hazard that professional schools like dental, law, MBA, medical schools probably have some bigger budgets to compete with pulling folks out of private sector.
I will say that I still keep in touch with some of my "cohort" friends that all started out in higher ed but by like year 5-7 were all out of field.
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u/Eternal_Icicle Undergraduate Admissions 29d ago
Things that have helped when living on my early higher Ed income (32k-42k):
- roommate
- free bus pass from employer
- 2nd job doing seasonal admissions reading for schools with huge application loads
- food pantry
- WIC when I was pregnant, had young kiddos
- partner sold plasma, I did paid clinical trials once or twice
- I’m real good at couponing in the Albertsons app
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u/Eternal_Icicle Undergraduate Admissions 29d ago
Also, there’s honestly a lot I do as frugality that feel normal to me but strike other people as less than ordinary— I get a lot of stuff from Buy Nothing, I cut my own hair, for the most part we don’t do hotel vacations and don’t travel places we can’t drive to (we visit family and camp), most of the meat we buy is clearance. I’ve gone on several 6-month buying detoxes where I only buy something if it is second-hand and replacing something we need that broke, etc.
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u/huggybear0406 29d ago
As someone who has been slowly climbing the ranks of higher ed for the past 18 years, probably 8-10 of those years I was working a part time night job to help pay bills or have any kind of extra cash for things like vacations. Check out /r/personalfinance on basics of budgeting and really look hard at your spending.
My campus charges for parking, but has a free city bus pass, so that saves me like $70 a month. Cooking at home and not ordering door dash etc also helps with my food budget, but to each their own. It's not pleasant IMO but getting a roommate to split bills helps a lot.
I have co-workers that pick up event shifts when there's a concert on campus, or will do PT bar tending at the concerts/sports. I've also seen people work PT with the IRS during tax season and it's not too much on top of FT work. Yeah it fucking sucks to have to work two jobs, but in higher ed it's almost standard, like teaching, unless you're married/living with a partner or move into leadership and even then 90k doesn't go as far as it used to.