Pros
Compensation: around $4 per hour more than most companies. I have looked around and even applied at a few other companies and I cannot find any that pay anywhere near what I make.
Mentoring program: 1-1 quarterly reviews of teaching from experienced colleagues. We used to only get "mentoring" if we got a parent complaint. Now it is part of our ongoing professional development. The Mentor chooses (not sure how) a class for you both to review and you go over it together discussing what you did well and what you can improve upon. She or he shares ideas of how to use the platform to make learning more fun and effective. Now, you can even choose the class you want to be reviewed. They are also available to help with questions between mentoring sessions. This is a truly excellent program and I am grateful to Svetlana T for her ongoing support.
Students: 98% of students are eager and advanced! My previous experience was with students from China (before the government banned foreign tutoring companies). I'm not sure if Taiwanese students get more support, but I have found them to be even better students.
Platform: the teaching tools are relatively intuitive and easy to use.
Teacher Liasons: There is a group of experienced teachers who are also corporate employees who help the rest of us navigate the system and just provide helpful tips and advice on how to be better teachers. In particular, Matthew A, McKenna W, Marko I, and Svetlana T have been exceedingly helpful and supportive.
Cons
Note: most of these are improving since the new management took over.
Corporate Communication: They rarely email you, even about important things. Even after the new management took over, they have never asked the teachers for their suggestions on what can be done to improve. When I was "accidentally" fired, they completely ignored my emails to inquire why. As I could not log into the platform and didn't have any other email addresses, I was stuck. The only reason I was re-hired (I was mistakenly put into a category of teachers who had not done any of the required training) was because a few weeks after it happened, I got an email from someone I had emailed a couple months earlier about the demo team. The back story here is another example of poor corporate communication. I had done the training to be considered for the demo team and the next step was to schedule a meeting, but the email had no link to do so, nor was there anywhere under the training tab to do so. I had messaged the company through the comm center to advise me on how to proceed THREE TIMES over six months and been ignored. One day I mentioned this to one of the teacher liasons (I'm not sure what their actual title is) and he said, "why don't you email so and so?" and gave me his email. So I did. A couple months later, I got an apologetic email inviting me to schedule an appointment, but at that point I had been fired. He went out of his way to help find out what had happened and got me in touch with the right people so that I could be re-hired at my same level. I was so grateful. Had he not intervened, I can guarantee I would be giving this company a one star review.
The Comm Center: The above story is one example of how terrible the comm center was. There are numerous other examples I could give, but essentially I had given up on using it. It was terrible. However, just this week I was prepping for a class and saw that the material was incorrect and wildly too difficult for the level 3 students, so I took a shot and messaged the comm center. Much to my surprise, they received the message and took action and within three hours had managed to change the lesson. I was impressed! So as I said at the top of this list of cons, things are improving.
Student-Teacher communication: it's difficult and awkward. At VIPKid there were several ways to communicate with students and parents directly (through the platform of course, so it can be monitored). But here there is little back and forth.
Teacher-Teaching Assistant communication: it's nonexisitent. The same goes between teachers and the Teaching Assistants who are the liasons with the parents. There is a place where we can write and see what other teachers have written about issues with students (they need to be up/downgraded, need headphones, etc.) but often the same comments continue to be made with no action taken to resolve them. A few times I have created a ticket in the comm center to bring an issue to the attention of someone else because I had no way to communicate with the TA who seemed to be doing nothing. But even that didn't seem to help. It would be great if there were at least a way for teachers to see comments by the TAs so we know something is being done.
Training: There could be a lot more short training modules on different topics. If you are having trouble with something on the platform, or just want to learn more, you search for a topic in the training area, such as "dice" or "gamification" and nothing comes up. It may be in there, but there's no way to find it.
Onboarding: it was painful. I was originally hired while I was still working for VIPKid (which I absolutely loved) back in 2020. Thinking I might be able to get better hours, I began the onboarding process. I only got one or two steps in the process before realizing that I was better off where I was. After I lost my job, along with thousands of other teachers when China banned foreign tutoring companies, I was out of work for a while. A friend mentioned she was still teaching and I asked how. She told me that her company had a Taiwanese division. I realized it was TutorABC and since I was already in the system, she gave me an email of someone whom I reached out to, and I was miraculously hired. I was so grateful and eager to get started as I had been out of work for almost a year. EVEN with my eagerness AND my friend's help, it still took me six weeks to onboard. Everything was difficult, non intuitive and confusing. I cried at least three times in the process. If I had had any other options, I would have given up. But I didn't. I'm glad now, and once on the teaching platform, I found it relatively easy to navigate. I have never referred any of my friends to TutorABC because I don't want the hassle of having to help them go through this process. I hope they have improved it. That said, I could not have done it without the help of Marko I, one of the best of the teacher liasons.
