VIPKid Employee Reviews for Teacher

It was fine for the first year or so, but you're obviously a number and not a person to this company. Very shady company that will look for excuses not to pay you.

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Fun, flexible and productive financially

Teacher (Former Employee) - Remote - 4 September 2023

What is the best part of working at the company?Best job ever! It's convenient and flexible.What is the most stressful part about working at the company?You have to manage your sleeping pattern as work hours are early mornings What is the work environment and culture like at the company?It's whatever you make of it because it's from the comfort of your own house.What is a typical day like for you at the company?It's fun as you interact and teach children English in an interactive manner.

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Insights into VIPKid

Based on 23 survey responses

What people like

Ability to learn new things
Time and location flexibility
Clear sense of purpose

Not worth the hassle

Teacher (Former Employee) - Remote - 3 July 2021

While their pay and platform are one of the best in the industry, the culture of competition and always having to check your pay and screenshot to prove start and end time for classes was just insane. After three years and over 5,000 classes my work/life balance made it not worth it.

Cons

Time change, cancellation policy

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This is a fun, flexible job.

Teacher (Former Employee) - On-line - 3 June 2021

The job is a lot of fun. The children are very respectful and work hard. Due to the time difference it is hard to get a lot of hours. I typically work every day for a short time. Parents will book your class for 25 minutes and you go through the premade lesson with the child. The lessons are taught one-on-one. If you need to cancel a class with a child due to sickness or death in the family they will fine you $10 per class.

Pros

Make your own schedule.

Cons

They fine you for canceling a class.

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Good while it lasts...

ONLINE TEACHING CONTRACTOR (Current Employee) - Gatineau, QC - 3 May 2021

I've really enjoyed my two years at VIPKid, but my schedule has become much-less reliable than before; my ratings are very high and I get very good feedback from clients, however my scheduled hours have taken a nosedive and there seems little you can do about it.

Pros

Choose you own hours

Cons

erratic schedule dependant on variables beyond your control

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Workplace provides many opportunities

On-line Teacher TV (Former Employee) - Lethbridge, AB - 12 April 2021

I’m very happy working with VIPKid. There are numerous opportunities to join a professional learning group. The company is fair, responsive and friendly. I am happy working with VIPKid.

Pros

Can work at home Can choose number of hours worked

Cons

Work during night and early morning

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A pretty good side gig

Teacher (Former Employee) - Online in Toronto - 4 December 2020

I’ve worked for VIP for just under a year. It was slow at the start getting students but things started picking up as my time continued. You definitely have to be an entertainer and a teacher with this job. You are going against and competing with literally thousands of other teachers. I am a full-time teacher but I was able to make just under $21,000 with this job so I am definitely not complaining. To do this I basically worked 7 days a week for 3 hours a day. That being said the per class amount you get is just so so. Before, they had said that they would re-negotiate your salary after you have taught for one year and only if you met certain requirements (for example, you have to have taught a certain number of classes within the year, you have to have missed no less than three classes within that year, etc). I was told by them that now they do not adjust your salary and what you make on your first day as a base salary will be the same no matter how long or how well you do with them. That is very frustrating. The bottom line is this: if you are a skilled, energetic teacher who doesn’t mind getting up early or staying up late at night then it is a good side job. I would not recommend this as a full-time employment, however.

Pros

Work when you want

Cons

12 hour time difference makes the teaching hours challenging

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Horrible, Slimy Company

Teacher (Former Employee) - Calgary, AB - 30 May 2020

VIPKID is ok at best. I am putting one star because they have pulled every teacher into a new "pay schedule," beginning August 2020, and sugar coated the email to imply it was a reward. Literally every teacher has received a pay cut. They change policies without communication. This company is a joke. They removed raises, which were hard to get in the first place and it's ridiculous. Avoid this company.and a slap in the face.

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No bookings

Teacher (Former Employee) - Canada - 18 May 2020

I put HOURS of my own time into VIPKid. I made a great intro video, obtained as many certifications as I could, obtained TEOSL basic and advanced, and read VIPKid blogs. I am a good teacher - great in fact - but I could not get enough bookings. I waited patiently - I am in my 8th month now - but... still not nearly enough bookings. I wrote to the company three times, but they didn't seem to care. I felt alone and under valued by VIPKid. They have tens of thousands of teachers, so why would they care about me? I don't like that kind of culture. I recently closed all my open slots and took a job with a local tutoring company. My experience with VIPKid was a total waste of time. I am hugely disappointed.

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Good

Teacher (Current Employee) - Calgary, AB - 18 February 2020

Good stuff. No problems yet. Just really early, thats all. West is not best in this scenario. The further east you are, the better time zone you have with China. Ive never had a problem with bookings since the second week

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This company is slowly getting worse

Teacher (Former Employee) - Home Based - 7 February 2020

The convenience and flexibility of this job make it very tempting. They were the deciding factors for me. If one is really ambitious, you can maybe even book a couple of classes before you go to your 9-5, if you needed/wanted some padding on the income. I worked for VIPkids for a year. Over the year, I developed a pretty strong connection with some of my regular students and I really liked teaching them. The technology is cool and the platform is improving as far as teaching materials go. However, over the course of the year - and especially towards the end of 2019 - VIPkid's policies changed. The quality of the support for teachers decreased both inside and outside the classroom. There is very little transparency in the company, I heard down the grapevine from a teacher based in China that the structure for parents also changed. I can't say for sure whether that is a direct cause, or maybe there are just way more teachers competing for classes but towards the end of 2019 there were less bookings than what I used to get on average. There were also huge changes made in payment structure and I do not believe that VIPkid did their due diligence to make teachers realize what was happening. As a teacher in Canada I also noticed that starting around October/November I was receiving less of my pay based on the average USD conversion rate. I tried to figure out what was going on and luckily my bank was able to show me the USD amount that VIPkids was sending me from their intermediary bank stateside. It was on average $20-30 less USD than what I was invoicing. Likely, I was being -

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Good Place

Online Teacher (Current Employee) - GTA, ON - 16 December 2019

Stay disciplined and follow time and class lesson plan, you will have no problems. You will enjoy this if you like to teach and are committed to go on to be a part of a chinese students' success

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Legit and easy work from home job

Teacher (Current Employee) - Vancouver, BC - 20 October 2019

VIPKID is a cool and easy job to do from home. The interview was process is lengthy and grueling for me but I now see it was well worth the time. It can be hard to have consistent bookings and a set amount of pay each month but for its flexibility, it is hard to beat. I open my slots and teach when I need to and then I can close etc. The cancellation policy is rough but they've also got a lot of cash incentives and so that's good. Everything has its pros and cons.

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Unprofessional

Teacher (Former Employee) - Canada - 11 July 2019

I had a really bad experience applying for this company. I passed the initial demo then I booked the first demo class after which I was asked to book a second demo and I had gotten a really good feedback with some minor issues like using less full English sentences etc. I even got a Congrats email asking me to book second mock interview. When I logged in to schedule a second mock class, I got a message your account has been locked. I then emailed the technical team and after a day I got an email saying, "You have failed the mock class and we apologize for the mixed messages". So unprofessional for such a big organization, initially they should have sent an email themselves instead of giving "mixed messages". I'm so shocked if I had not emailed the technical team they would not have bothered to even let me know.

Pros

None

Cons

Recruiting team needs to define proper communication methods to prospective employees.

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Official response from VIPKid

15 July 2019

We have been working to consolidate information provided to our future applicants to be more unified and transparent for those interested in joining the VIPKID teaching community. We apologize for any miscommunication that occurred during your interview. You are welcome to email us at teachvip@vipkid.com.cn if you have further questions.

Teaching, no guarantee

Teacher (Former Employee) - Alberta - 26 November 2018

The selection and interview process was great. The online classroom was great and worked well. The process the become a teacher was supported and understandable. Once you became a teacher however there was no support and they do not provide any help to get classes booked. I reached out multiple times and the only suggestions they made were to open more slots in a standard email with a list of 'tips and tricks' to get bookings. This did not change the situation and after 23days of open slots they still provided no help to match students with new teachers. Do NOT expect a certain amount of teaching or salary per month. It is not guaranteed!

Pros

Good interview process

Cons

NO work gaurantee (at all)

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Okay

Teacher (Former Employee) - Toronto, ON - 28 May 2018

Decent pay, but so many hurdles to get through. Managment is not the most supportive and training and all demo videos are unpaid. Trials are very hard to book with many student no shows. Overall have made the decision to leave this company as hours are not sufficient.

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AWFUL company

Teacher (Current Employee) - Remote - 14 May 2018

Probably the worst people I’ve ever dealt with. You can work for them for 40 hours a week for two years and one day you get a stomach bug, no raise. They are heartless when you write in to address an issue. They are very rude and treat their teachers like robots. They are probably *the worst* people that you could ever have to deal with. After working at this company for two years, having perfect attendance and a 5 star rating with the students I can say- I hate this company with all of my being. I hope they go down in flames.

Pros

Great kids

Cons

Too many to list. Just terrible human beings.

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I love my job with VIPKID

Teacher (Current Employee) - Halifax Regional Municipality, NS - 25 October 2017

I teach for VIPKID from NS Canada. Pros: 1. Salary $20 per hour 2. Bonuses for attendance, punctuality, converting trial students to regular students, holiday contests, etc. 3. Flexible schedule that you control 4. User friendly teaching platform 5. Immediate access online support 6. Great company culture- Although I’ve never laid eyes on the head office or other staff, I feel like I’m truly part of a team. 7. Happy students and parents 8. Convenient hours for me Cons: I really do not have anything negative to say about VIPKID.

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Never judge a book by its cover...

Teacher (Former Employee) - Toronto, Canada - 9 January 2017

I worked for VIPKID for a little over 4 months. At first, I was very excited as the company seemed to provide a great experience for both teacher and students. The PowerPoint presentations we used seemed colourful and kid friendly (minus the millions of mistakes and content that did not make any sense). I got to meet some really great students in this time, and I had many regular students booking me every week. You will get a lot of "bad" students too, so be prepared to get frustrated. I hated when I had to wait 15-25 minutes in the classroom for a student to show up, yet if I didn't show up for a legitimate reason, I was penalized. During November and December, I reduced my hours to the minimum because I suffered a pinched nerve and was not well, but I tried to show up to the majority of my classes. By December, I went over the allowed # of cancellations and no-shows, so they cancelled my last 2 classes, and just sent me a letter that I have been terminated. I was unable to write back in fresh desk, so I replied to the email directly to explain my situation, but did not get a response. I at least wanted the chance to say goodbye to my most dedicated student who came a very long way from the very first time he started. This showed me that they do not care for their teachers, but definitely not for their students either. I care about my students success, and I felt so bad when they cancelled my final class with that student. I would have at least said my goodbyes and praised him for his remarkable progress. However,VIPKID likes to make money more than having it's -

Pros

a little extra income, doing what you love most

Cons

not allowed to get sick, terrible policy, uncaring staff, it is a business, not a school

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Good pay and support. Flexible hours if you are an early bird!

Teacher (Current Employee) - Home Based - 28 November 2016

I have worked for VIPKid for 6 months, and I enjoy it. The lessons are prepared, there are bonuses and fun incentives, and best of all, you get to choose your own schedule. The company has grown fast and there are some growing pains, but management is clearly working hard to remedy the problems. Currently, I work from 4-7:30 every weekday morning and some on the weekends. As an extra job or a full-time gig, it's a good deal. The downside is that there are no benefits and if you are sick, well, you do have to work! Still, I think the positives outweigh the negatives!

Pros

make your own schedule

Cons

must carefully schedule time off and stay healthy!

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Strict and unaccomodating company

Teacher (Former Employee) - Toronto, ON - 27 July 2016

This company started out great, you make your own hours and work from the comfort of your home. It's a bit tough to make any decent money from them AND have a social life as you'll have to be working on China time zone. Then I started to see some flaws in the companies professionalism and how they treat their employees. You are not allowed to call in sick. If you are under the weather and cannot muster the energy to be high level, silly and goofy with the children you have two options - cancel the class and take a $10USD deduction per class missed (and you are only allowed 5 cancellations per contract term). Or suck it up and teach the class, but if you get a negative feedback from a parent, you will also get penalized and potentially loose money from that as well.

Pros

You make your own hours, work from home.

Cons

There is no 'real time' option to talk to anyone if you have a problem or question, They are ridiculous and unrealistic with their expectations of you, No communication with their employees what so ever.

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