Here’s a post from our CEO, Amanda, on how teaching online is an amazing opportunity to make money while you’re teaching in Thailand, trying to save money for your travels, paying your bills, or replacing a job that may have not given you the freedom you’ve always wanted. It truly is a flexible, rewarding and enjoyable way to make money.
VIPKID is an online teaching and education company. Their headquarters are located in Beijing. They have their own platform and app for Native English Speakers from the US or Canada to teach English one on to one to Chinese students ages 4-16. You must have a Bachelor’s Degree to be qualified for the position, but it can be in any subject. It is not imperative that you have teaching experience for this. If you have had any experience with kids, such as babysitting, being a camp counselor or tutoring, that is relevant enough to be hired. If you’re interested in signing up, please use my referral link and I’m more than happy to help you with the interview process.
I’ve been a VIPKID teacher for three and a half years now, and it is the best job I’ve ever had. It’s really the dream to make your own schedule and make some great money while being flexible. When I was teaching at a school in Thailand, I would come home and teach a few hours a night to just have money for my travel fund, which allowed me to go to New Zealand an Australia for a month, which was a very expensive trip that I’d never thought I’d be able to take in my entire life. I am grateful for VIPKID once again, now that the travel industry will be down for at least a few months, so I am able to have a better peace of mind in paying my bills and planning for the future.
There is no minimum amount of hours you need to teach per week. In the beginning, you will want to open as many hours as possible to start getting students to book you. VIPKID is hiring now and there are even more hours than usual because the students in China are home as their schools are closed.
Payment:
Each class is 25 minutes long. You have the opportunity to make $18-$22 an hour depending on your experience. In the beginning, you will most likely teach a different student every time, but after a few weeks, you will start to get “regulars” booking you and it’s a rewarding way to watch the progression of your students. The way VIPKID breaks down the payment of their classes can be confusing, but I will explain it to you here.
You will be told your “base pay” after your first mock class. If you don’t have any teaching experience or a teaching degree, you will most likely have a base pay of “$8.50” If the class is finished “As Scheduled” this means that you didn’t have any IT issues or weren’t late to class, you are given another $1. So you are at $9.50. If you teach at least 45 classes in the month, you get another $1. So your final payment per class for the month would be $10.50. If you open slots “last minute,” which means less than 24 hours before the class start, you are awarded an extra $2! So you could potentially make $11.50 a class, so $23 an hour.
VIPKID’s system and platform is very easy to use, and they take care of all of this for you. You have the option to get paid weekly, biweekly, or monthly via direct deposit. It’s pretty amazing. They are never late on payments and it is all completely legitimate. You occasionally even get paid early.
Timing:
All you need to do is open time slots and students book you. The hours work on the Chinese time zone, and the “peak” hours are 5pm-9pm so in EST time that’s 6am-11am. Now that the students are still home, there are more hours in the morning and throughout the day. You could technically teach 13 classes a day, 6.5 hours, if you stayed up all night, but that is definitely not the sustainable approach to teaching, but if you need to do it, you could! In the beginning, make sure not to schedule too many classes in a row because teaching for 25 minutes may not seem long, but it requires your complete focus, so it definitely gets exhausting. I never teach more than 5 in a row. I think 3 is the magic number, but times when I’m hustling I’ll do 4-5 in a row with an hour break and do another 2 or 3 in a row. The months I’ve made the most money, were the times I taught 7-10 classes a day. It really helped rack up the money fast. The amazing thing is you can always open a few slots, see how they book and then open more. Or open a lot all at once and check back often to see how they’re booking and close slots. It’s really amazing having the flexibility of making your schedule like this.
Classroom Set Up:
VIPKID expects all their teachers to have a “classroom” set up. This looks different for every teacher. What they are looking for the most is that you have bright lighting. Especially during your interviews, this is very important. It is best to have an extra lamp on your desk or table. They want to make sure the students are able to clearly see you, as it is very important while learning a new language to be able to not only hear how the words are pronounced, but see as they’re spoken. You’re expected to have some sort of appropriate background, you could have a map of the world, a print out of the alphabet, or anything fun you can think of. They want to make sure your classroom is colorful and inviting to the student.
Props:
VIPKID expects that all teachers have props in their classroom. They want to see that you have a small whiteboard, some stuffed animals, puppets or anything else that may make the student smile and add to an interactive learning experience. It is very important to have props, be comfortable integrating them into the lesson and using them with excitement during your interviews.
Teaching Style:
VIPKID has a very specific way on how they want their teachers to teach. They expect you to be VERY enthusiastic. This may be uncomfortable at first, but it is quite a fun learning process that may require you laughing at yourself a bit along the way. There are many amazing YouTube videos that help demonstrate the enthusiastic teaching style. VIPKID also has very specific “TPR” which is the body language that you must use when teaching certain aspects. These TPR moves are very important to learn before scheduling your interview. Here’s a great video that explains the teaching style.
Interview Process:
The interview process is definitely tedious, but once it is complete, the job is very easy! I will break down the steps of the interview process. They have also made the process quicker and easier. You will have three interviews. The demo lesson, mock class one, and mock class two. Here are some YouTube videos that explain the hiring process in extreme detail.
Demo:
For the demo lesson (the first interview) you have three options. We suggest the Smart Demo as it is the quickest and least time consuming option. There is a high success rate in passing when choosing to do the Smart Demo as well. Here are your three options below, so you can decide for yourself what may be best.
Interview Live via the VIPKID platform with an employee at the headquarters in Beijing.
Smart Demo - the shortest possible option, takes place on your Smartphone, you have to answer a quick 5 questions and you only need to record yourself teaching one slide. You have 2 ½ mins to teach it and you can re-record the video as many times as you’d like before submitting it.
Recorded 5 minute demo - Teach a few slides and record yourself in the platform. This takes longer and has no benefit over the Smart Demo.
We hope you’ve been intrigued by the possibility of getting a very flexible remote job! Stay tuned for our next blog post this week about the detailed interview process. We will explain the necessary steps to pass all your interviews and become a VIPKID teacher! It is possible to get through the entire hiring process in a week to a week and a half.
Please use my referral link or code (AMAND0043) when signing up for VIPKID.
Please feel free to comment below, or email us at info@settleinabroad.com with any questions.
Check out our second blog post about passing the Mock 1 and Mock 2 Class here.
