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Earn while you learn: 10 best part-time jobs for college students

From DailyFinance With classes starting soon, students start to scout out extra cash for books and food. But how to find the ideal part-time job to help finance your tuition and fun funds? If flipping burgers won't cut it for you, consider one of the following 10 best part-time jobs for students, as named by our unscientific Money College ranking.

9. Home painting. Manage a paint team with College Works Painting. Control your own branch of painters and clients. This means that you get paid a percentage of each job's profit rather than an hourly wage. According to the company's site, a branch manager can make anywhere between $5,000 to $36,000 per year depending on the team's performance. The company even awards bonuses ranging from $1,000 to $4,000 to some above-average workers.

See the entire list of 10 best part-time jobs for college students

College student offering professional painting this summer

PRINCETON –

Brendan Toohey, a sophomore at UMass Amherst, majoring in economics and Spanish, will spend his summer in an internship program with the College Works Painting Company. Thinking of improving your home with a new coat of paint? Starting in the spring, Toohey will be working weekends, doing estimates for homeowners interested in having their house painted. Once school is out for the summer, the internship becomes a fulltime job. Toohey will be hiring painters, painting homes, organizing payroll, conducting sales and marketing, and managing customer relations.

Toohey got involved in the College Works program through college and was selected through an interview process of about 6,000 undergraduate students.

“There are two internship models, a sales and marketing and a management leadership model,” said Toohey. “I chose the management leadership program because it encompasses the real life experience of running a small business and all that’s involved. “I will have to work hard, take ownership on my own results, and persevere through some difficult challenges, but I am welcoming the experience with a big set of open arms. The internship will serve as an invaluable opportunity for me to gain real life business and managerial experience while still in college,” Toohey added.

Toohey said the top five to 10 percent of the 6,000 students at UMass got selected for the internship through an information session, formal interview, reverse interview, a research phase which included phoning and picking the brains of past interns, electronic personality assessments, and a final interview. This is an investment of between $5,000 and $10,000 for the company. “We had an orientation in December that introduced us to the values and mission of the company and allowed us to meet other interns, had our first formal training which included two full days of classroom training focusing on sales, marketing, painting technology, and whole life and time management success,” said Toohey.

In addition, each intern goes through special trainings at Benjamin Moore and Sherwin paint stores that also includes ladder certification training. As spring nears, there will be advanced sales and production training and throughout the summer there are payroll Fridays, where company and team development are stressed through activities and guest speakers.

“All interns go through in the field paint and EPA lead certification training before we start working in the summer,” said Toohey. College Works is very competitive in its pricing and usually ends up being somewhere in the middle, said Toohey. “Although you can’t ‘test drive’ your paint job before you purchase it, we have information for home owners to ‘kick the tires,’” said Toohey. “Only a handful of other contractors can match our deep material discounts, low labor costs, and group discounts on insurance and worker’s compensation. Since we do business in over 20 states, the paint and insurance companies work with us to reach the best deals. “It’s getting the security and benefits of a large company but still being able to have a personal home painting experience,” he added. By doing a walk-around with the homeowner, Toohey said he will be able to provide a more detailed estimate. “Customizing the estimate to exactly what the homeowner’s needs are allows them to be the one that controls the price based off their comments in the walk around. My job is to listen and come up with a specific price. Painting can be an expensive endeavor, but we try to make every individual situation work even in tough economic times,” he said.

Toohey will be managing the branch of Massachusetts that consists of Princeton, Sterling, Holden, Shrewsbury, and everything north of Salisbury Street in Worcester. Toohey will not be painting, just managing the business. The average crew is two to four professional painters who are fully licensed and insured. All material cost and labor are factored into the estimates.

Anyone interested in more information regarding a painting estimate or looking for potential employment can contact Toohey at 508-612-3025 or by email at brend.toohey@gmail.com