Teaching online is probably better than most TEFL jobs

I am a teacher... sort of. I have a college degree and did some 40 hour TEFL course as is required by the government over here and it came with a work permit that will soon expire now that it is unlikely we are returning to school anytime soon.

I would not be qualified to teach back in the States and honestly, I wouldn't do so even if i was qualified for it. I wouldn't say that teaching is really the life for me, but I did it for a year and for the most part am glad I tried it so that I can say that I at least gave it a shot.

I was a little bit smart when i was employed and put some money away and also had a bit of a nest egg when I moved over here to begin with. Some of my co-workers, particularly the ones that have been here a number of years are unfortunately not doing as well. Some of them have started teaching online to tie them over (is it "tie" over or "tide" over?) until things get back to normal.

So i figured i would give it a go.

I have intentionally not included the name of the company because I don't know how they feel about that but anyway, there are a lot of them. They claim that you have to have some level of qualification but basically if you are recommended by someone that is already in their system and they like you in the interview you are allowed to come on board in a trial period.

You are paid between $12 and $25 per hour based on how many students request you and how well your reviews go.

The best thing for me is the fact that while you are required to work a certain amount of hours per month, this number is very low - as low as 30 hours per month. Of course if you want to make more money you do more hours.

So if you are a native English speaker (sorry if you aren't... i don't make the rules) and like the idea of getting paid from your house here are a couple of companies that don't require experience in order to work for them.

• Cambly
• VIPKid
• Palfish

If you are stuck at home now anyway, I suppose it is worth giving it a shot. I wouldn't say I LIKE doing it, but I don't hate it, and I kind of hate teaching English in Thai schools, so this might be better for me.

They also provide all the lessons and the technology, you just have to be the smiling face that answers questions and helps people with pronunciation.

At the moment this takes place primarily with Chinese students but there are markets for this all over the world... China just happens to be the big one right now.