I have been teaching with VIPKID for about a year and a half. Teaching for VIPKIDs is truly a dream job because you work from home and create your own schedule. I teach English to students who live in Beijing and speak Chinese, we communicate via video chat. I do NOT speak Chinese – we only speak English in our classes. Classes are each under 30 minutes.
I actually found VIPKIDs through Craigslist – it obviously seemed a little too good to be true. I decided to reach out to a few women who I found through Facebook – I searched VIPKIDs on Facebook (there are hundreds of VIPKIDs groups and even events on Facebook). I private messaged a few women who were in the VIPKID groups and who lived in America. I asked if this job was legit and if they could tell me a little bit more about the job. I heard back from two women – both who had young babies (like I did), had previously been teachers, and they lived in Ohio and Florida.
I decided to begin the interview process. I will say, the interview process is a lot of work and requires a lot of online training videos and a few video chat interviews.
SO WORTH IT!
Now that I have been teaching for over a year, this job is smooth sailing. I teach very minimal hours at the moment and am currently cutting back my classes even more because I am waiting for baby #2 to come…any day! Then I will be taking some time off to get adjusted with the new baby and I’ll start picking up classes again when I feel comfortable in doing so.
Probably the biggest negative of this job is the fact that the hours you have to teach are very early or late at night. Some people teach all through the night (those people are looking for more full-time pay/hours). I am also limited with my hours because I am a stay-at-home mom, so I cannot teach when my son is awake (unless my husband is home).
THERE IS TRUELY SO MUCH I COULD TELL YOU – I GET QUESTIONS ALL THE TIME. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR WANT MORE INFO!
CLICK HERE TO BEGIN THE INTERVIEW PROCESS
F.A.Q.’s
What is your schedule like?
Your schedule is created by YOU! We used to have a required amount of hours you had to teach in a week – however, because we are independent contractors, we no longer are REQUIRED to teach any amount. My schedule is usually:
M, W, F – 6-7am
Friday nights 8-10pm
Saturday (sometimes Sunday) morning 7-8am
*Like I said this all is dependent on what YOU WANT to teach. If I have something planned for an upcoming Friday night – I will not open any classes for Friday night. You do have to schedule a few weeks in advance .
Vacation Time?
If you have a vacation planned or just need some time off, you send an email to VIPKID saying you will be taking time off and then do not schedule classes…its that easy. I have been on vacation and taken my computer and a few “props” so I could still teach a few classes.
What do you need to start?
A few props: I started with a puppet, reward system (they do provide you with some) a white board.
What do you wear?
An orange shirt – this use to be required as our uniform, however they have since done away with the “uniform”- I still wear the orange sweat shirt that I bought from Walmart. Its just easy and recognizable for the students. I am usually wearing my pajama pants on the bottom and put the orange sweatshirt on over my pajama top!
What is the pay?
I make $8.50 per class. Each class is 25-28 minutes. My base pay is $17.00 an hour. VIPKID, as a company, is so amazing with incentives. Each month there is usually a way to make more!
Do you have to be certified teacher?
You do not need to be a certified teacher. They do require a bachelors degree – does not have to be a teaching degree.