* The following are based on my opinions and personal experiences.
Pros:
· Set your own schedule – you can change it each week but they like you to set it at a month in advance if possible. I tend to go in and change it as I go if needed. If you need to make changes though, you need to do it before a child books your class or else you’ll have to cancel the class (you have 6 cancellations per the 6 month contract).
· Meet extremely adorable Chinese children who are mostly excited to meet a foreigner and learn English.
· Education is very important to the Chinese so they have great respect for their teachers.
· The lessons are created for you in powerpoints (PPT’s) and include Teacher Directions (TD) on every slide.
· If you feel that there are mistakes on the PPT’s or with the lesson content or that the child is placed in the wrong level, you can let VIPKid know and they listen to you. You can submit tickets very easily and they respond within 24 hours. This makes me feel like they care about my feedback and they value my opinions.
· After a few weeks you get the hang of their lesson plans and it doesn’t take much time to prepare for a class. I can do it in 5 minutes.
· I get to work from home while my kids sleep so I don’t feel like I’m missing out on their lives.
· You can earn $14-$22/hour. You get paid per lesson, and this rate is determined after your interview and demo class. You receive bonuses for your attendance (showing up and teaching each class) and participation. If you teach over 30 classes a month, you receive an extra $.50 per class ($1/hour) and if you teach 45 or more you receive an extra dollar per finished class ($2/hour).
Pay Rate
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Per 30-min
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Remarks
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Base Pay
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USD 7-9
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This is decided based on your credentials and demo lesson performance.
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Attendance bonus
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up to USD 1
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This is based on showing up on time and teaching the lesson according to schedule.
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Finished Class Bonus
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up to USD 1
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This is based on the number of classes you finish in a month. We use this to assess your teaching quality. If more students continue to book with you, you are rewarded.
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Total per 30-min
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USD 7-11
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Total per 1 hour
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USD 14-22
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· If a Trial student you teach purchases classes after you teach them, you receive a $5 bonus. So make trial classes fun and engaging. I learned not to worry too much about the material and more about having fun and making it a good experience for the child and parent.
· You don’t have to communicate with parents. The only thing required of you is submitting feedback that the parents can see after each lesson.
· Stay current with good teaching techniques including best practices for ESL students.
· The company sends out a weekly update to keep you in the loop. There is also a forum to ask questions and get ideas from other teachers. There's a new site called the Hutong which has made it even easier to ask questions, get answer, interact with other teachers, etc.
· You receive a paycheck once a month for having fun on video chat with kids. This job doesn’t require sales or marketing or excessive amounts of time. (If you are good at marketing, referral bonuses are nice.)
· Flexible Schedule - You can work as little or as many hours as you want.
· They have a team of people to help with any technical issues at all times.
· They have an APP that makes viewing your schedule very easy. You can even view upcoming lesson material via the app.
· You can see feedback from previous teachers so that you know more about a student before teaching them.
- You get a $2 bonus for each class you teach with less than 24 hours notice. (When you create your schedule you can choose this option. I only do it if I’m already teaching a class at 5:00 and no one at 5:30 yet. In that situation I would check the box for the 5:30 class to tell them I’m fine teaching with less than 24 hour notice (this is because I’m already up and teaching someone previous.) I wouldn’t open up a slot at 4:30 though because I don’t want to have to wake up earlier and check my schedule to see if I need to actually get out of bed or if I can continue sleeping until my class at 5. But that’s my personal preference and what works best for me.)
- There are a lot of opportunities for growth within the company, especially after you complete one contract. They're constantly improving things, offering teachers to test new features and programs, etc. They always have a monthly incentive which gives you a change to earn extra money on top of the classes you teach. It's a fun company to work for.
- I've personally met with the CEO and Co-founders of the company. They truly care about is teachers. They do everything they can to make our jobs easier. In the last 9 months this company has grown exponentially and it's always making changes for the better.
- Lesson Prep - You cannot view lesson plans (PPT’s) up to 2 weeks in advance. (I usually view them 15-20 minutes before I teach. Or after I’m done teaching for the day, I quickly view the PPT’s for the next day before doing anything else.) Other teachers suggest keeping an outline of each lesson so you can reuse your ideas the next time you teach it. This helped me when I was starting out so that I could quickly review a lesson before teaching if I hadn’t looked at it since the day or night before.) The lessons are so similar that now I can view a PPT and feel ready to teach it in 2-5 minutes.
Cons:
· Some mornings it can seem really early, especially if you were up late for a family thing or have a sick child. There are mornings where I wake up wishing class is cancelled but have to teach anyway.
· Sometimes students don’t show up for class but you are required to wait in the classroom until it is confirmed a student no show. (The pro side of this is that you can do other things on your computer as long as you’re still in the “Classroom”. So I’ve learned to open another tab and prepare the next day’s lessons while waiting for a student or read an interesting news article, read the scriptures, etc.)
· You don’t plan the lessons – you need to follow the lessons provided. (But you can still add your own style and creativity in teaching the content.) Some people wish they could teach their own content. This personally isn't a Con for me. Well... there are some slides where you will think to yourself, "What?! Why am I teaching this and how do I teach it?!"
· You get docked $10 every time you don’t show up for a class or if you cancel within 24 hours. (So don’t do this. It’s only happened to me once – when my Internet Service Provider was down and there was nothing I could do. I was new and didn’t know how to notify the company. But now I know and can share the knowledge. But that’s a rare awful situation that I hope never happens to anyone else.)
· You don’t get to choose your students so you’re not guaranteed the work you want. You have to teach for a while before parents and students discover you and start booking you. It takes most people about a month to have a regular schedule - meaning have the times you make available completely booked. The more time slots you can open, the better your chances.
· Each student has a trial class before becoming a VIPKid. If a Trial student doesn’t show up, you have to wait in the classroom for 15 minutes but you only get paid half of your normal pay rate per class. I.E. If you normally get paid $8/lesson, you would only get paid $4 for a lesson when a trial student doesn’t show up. This is rough at first when you are gaining a student base.
· Sometimes you have to restart your computer and clear the cache on your browser to ensure that all features on the platform work.
· You have to get used to teaching online through video feed. Sometimes there are video delays and an echo which are annoying but you can still teach through them.
· You don’t know your exact classes until 24 hours beforehand. You can be scheduled for a time you marked available up to 24 hours before that time so you have to diligently check your schedule every day to be sure that you don’t miss a class.
Here’s the Recruitment FAQ - it’s less wordy and more factual:
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