How To Make Money While Job Hunting

Inevitably, job searching is a difficult time, and you need to be on top of your game to perform well during interviews. Financial strain during your job search only serves to exasperate the stress that can come when you're looking for a job. Fortunately, you can take your finances into your own hands when you are unemployed or underemployed.

How to Make Money Online or From Home While Job Searching

1. Share Your Thoughts and Earn Cash

Put your opinions to work! Share them in paid surveys from Opinion Outpost. You can earn cash, gift cards, and chances to win $10,000 all by completing surveys on topics relevant to you!

How to Get Started:You can sign up here to start earning cash. Want more options? Check out our guide on how to make money when you're unemployed.

2. Start Freelancing Today

It's very possible that you have skills that you can leverage as a freelancer. There is ample opportunity to make money online as a freelancer, and you can find everything from entry-level gigs anyone can do to corporate consulting work.

How to Get Started:It's free to sign up on and browse jobs on sites like Upwork.com, Peopleperhour.com, or Guru.com. Be sure to fill out your profile, and link to any personal sites you may have (LinkedIn, a portfolio or blog, for example) that are relevant to the gigs you'll be applying to. When browsing jobs, think about both your professional and your personal skill set.

For example, maybe you're an accountant who has a really awesome personal Instagram account—in addition to a freelance accounting gig, you could also apply for social media management positions. Common entry-level and mid-level work from home freelance jobs include:

• Data administration
• Virtual assistant
• Social media manager
• Virtual office manager
• Content writer
• Transcriber
• Project coordinator

3. Learn Graphic Design.

Graphic design is another way to make money online fast. While it sounds like a major feat, with the proliferation of free graphic tools like Canva, it's easier than ever to become a graphic designer, especially if you focus on digital, rather than print design.

How to Get Started: Here's a list of free graphic design courses. In addition to free design tools like Canva and Vectr, you can also do a free trial on standard industry platforms such as Adobe Photoshop and Sketch. You can find freelance design gigs on sites like Upwork.com, Peopleperhour.com, or Guru.com, or even on Craigslist! In addition, participating in contests on 99 Designs is a great way to get experience while potentially earning cash.

4. Clean Out Your Closet.

If you have clothes, shoes or accessories you don't wear, considering selling them online. You don't need to own designer duds in order to make money selling your clothes online. With the right approach, you can sell gently-worn, mainstream brands.

How to Get Started: Platforms like Poshmark and Mercari make it super easy and quick to sell your clothes from the comfort of your own home. To sell your items fast, be sure to take quality photos, describe your items thoroughly, and match or beat prices of similar items. Another way to make money from clothes sitting in your closet is through ThredUp. ThredUp will mail you a bag that you'll fill with clothes and mail back to them.

5. Offer Your Services on Fiverr.

On Fiverr, you can find a cornucopia of services for sale, from data entry to translation, genealogy research to greeting card creation, astrology readings to voice-overs. Fiverr is different from other freelance sites in that you list the services you can offer, and buyers come to you with a proposal.

How to Get Started: You can sign up for free on Fiverr.com! When listing your services, it's important to be aware of the "going rate" for that service and set your prices accordingly. Most gigs are for sale for amounts ranging from $5 to $10.

6. Join Amazon Mechanical Turk.

Despite the recent progress in AI technology, there are still many things that humans can do better than computers. Amazon Mechanical Turk allows companies to post "HITs," or business intelligence tasks, that workers can complete for minimal amounts of cash.

How to Get Started: You can join as a worker here. Note, you'll need an Amazon account to sign up.

7. Leverage Your Car or Home.

The "sharing economy" is only getting stronger. Your car or home could be a great way to bring in some extra income!

How to Get Started: If you have extra space in your home, consider listing it on Airbnb. Airbnb allows you have total control over the rental experience. You can choose the days you'd like to list, how much notice you need, and the minimum and maximum days that a guest can stay.

You can rent out your unused space on Neighbor. It's free to list your space and you can get started in less than 5 minutes.

If you're experienced with animals, another way to make use of the space in your home is through pet sitting. On sites like Rover.com, you can sign up to board pets at your home while their owners are on vacation.

If you like driving, consider signing up as a driver for Uber or Lyft. Alternately, rent your car out for others to use in Turo marketplace.