My New Favorite Side Hustle: Teaching with VIPKid

What It’s Like to Teach English Online with VIPKid and How to Get Started

Teaching online has become commonplace, and if you’re interested in learning how to get started as an ESL teacher with the VIPKid platform, keep reading!

You don’t need any official prior teaching experience or certificates, though they do like to see at least a year of tutoring, babysitting, or some other way of caring for younger kids even if it’s your siblings. And you must have a bachelor’s degree in anything.

If you happened to see my last post, you already know that I took a 6 month long mini retirement! It was such a strange experience, and I had a bit of a hard time with it.

But since I already went into the details in that post, if you’d like to read more about it, you can just check it out at the link above. For now though, I’d like to discuss my next adventure back into the working world, starting with my new favorite side hustle: VIPKid!

Back up, What’s A “Side Hustle”?

If you’ve never encountered this term before, allow me to explain. A side hustle is simply something you do to make money that is not your main source of income. Also know as a second job, a side hustle can really be any extra work, usually done on a part time basis.

Work like freelance photography, babysitting, lawn care on the weekends, or selling your old stuff on Ebay all could count as a side hustle. Some people even become lucky enough that their side hustle makes them more than their main job! (And if that’s the case, then please let me know what you’re doing and how!)

For me, all of my work can be considered “side hustle” income right now, since I’m working part time and my husband is really our main source of income.

Okay So What is VIPKid?

VIPKid is a company that contracts native English speakers (read: neutral accent) in America to help teach English online to kids in China. Completely remote, and you don’t need to know any Chinese, it’s a service that pairs you together with a child in China via something similar to a Skype call so that you can help them practice their English skills and accent.

Who is Qualified for VIPKid?

You must have a bachelor’s degree, but it can be in any subject.
You have to have at least 1 year experience working with children – This can be as a licensed teacher, but it doesn’t have to be! It can also include tutoring, babysitting, Sunday school, after school programs, etc.
Must have a neutral American accent
You must be eligible to legally work in the U.S.
You have to have access to a webcam and high-speed internet

How Much Does This Side Hustle VIPKid Pay?

The classes are 25 minutes each, and you get paid between $7-$9 per class. However, they offer bonus incentives according to how many classes you teach in a month (there is no minimum or maximum number that you are required to teach by the way).

So really depending on the scale and how many classes you teach, you make between $7.80 and $12.20 per class. Since you can teach two classes in an hour, that puts you in a nice healthy range of $15.60-$24.40 per hour. That’s pretty amazing for just a side hustle!

Right, But How Does VIPKid Actually Work?

You open up time slots that you want to teach, and parents book a class with you for their child (ages range from 4-16). Once you are booked for a lesson, VIPKid provides you with the materials. This is essentially a PowerPoint presentation that includes different activities which you will go through with the student.

All of the lesson objectives are included on the screen, so there aren’t any lesson plans to make up or keep track of. It’s designed so you can quickly flip through the lesson a few minutes ahead of time, grab a few props to help you teach it, and go!

Teach with VIPKid — It’s very early here. >.<

Now the catch is they are all on Beijing time. If you live on the American east coast like I do, that means they are 12 hours ahead of us. And since this is basically an after school gig for these students, prime teaching time for VIPKid ends up being from 5am-8am our time.

And it only gets earlier when we turn the clocks back or if you’re in an even later time zone, like PST. If you don’t love getting up early, that could be a major downside! However, if you also have a regular 9am-5pm job, this could actually squeeze in kind of perfectly for you. #brightside

What’s the Hiring Process Like for VIPKid?

All in all, they hired me in about two weeks. The first step is filling out their online application. If you qualify, they will invite you to submit a short 1 minute demo lesson. It’s just one slide from one of their powerpoints, and you record yourself teaching it using your smart phone.

Or, if you’d rather, you can submit it online with your webcam. I think they are just initially checking that you are indeed a real person, and that you do actually have an American accent.

Once that’s complete they will reach out to you to schedule a mock lesson. This is a ten minute meeting with a real live VIPKid rep, who pretends to be a young learner with limited English speaking ability where you try to teach them a provided lesson.

Here they are looking to make sure you have a good classroom background setting, lighting, some props, and can teach using techniques appropriate for a young English As A Second Language student. You can’t fail out at this point either.

If they don’t think you are ready to pass, they will give you some pointers and schedule you to try again. and there are so many helpful videos on YouTube that other teachers have made regarding this part too. Go search for “VIPKid Mock Lesson” and you won’t be disappointed! Everything you could ever wish to know is there!

After you pass the mock lesson stage, you’ll need to study their online TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) materials and pass the quiz. It’s a little dry at times, but mostly interesting developmental psychology stuff.

Then you submit your final paperwork – a copy of your bachelor’s degree, proof that you can legally work in the U.S., and a background check.

That’s it! I thought the hiring process was simple and straightforward. There are a ton of resources out there. Which made things so much easier to follow. Thank you internet!

Final Thoughts On My New Favorite Side Hustle: VIPKid

So, I’ve been working with VIPKid for a good long while now, and I’ve got to say, I LOVE IT! It’s honestly one of the best jobs I’ve ever had in terms of time flexibility, location flexibility, decent pay, and fun work!

The kids are so so so cute, and it is just really interesting to get to see a little inside look into their culture and their lives. I have a few regulars that continue to book classes with me every week, and I really enjoy talking with them as their speaking abilities grow!

Even though not all of my available slots may not be regularly booked, the volume of work has so far been exactly what I can handle. VIPKid also offers free workshops, where you can hop in a teleconference webinar with sometimes hundreds of other teachers, ask questions, and learn about a topic in more detail or practice teaching techniques. They have an online forum where you can win prizes. It’s just overall a cool community.

And Speaking of the VIPKid Community…

It’s huge! As of recent numbers, there are more than 65,000 teachers on the platform and more than 500,000 active students taking classes! And I’ve heard with such massive demand like this, VIPKid plans to eventually expand to other countries, other languages, and even classes for adults! It’s crazy to watch the exponential growth of this company that’s only a little over 5 years old!

If this side hustle sounds like something you’re interested in doing, let me know! If you have any questions about it or just want to chat, reach out! I do have a referral link HERE, as VIPKid also pays referral bonuses to teachers when you sign up with their link! I hope you found this info useful and interesting, keep chasing those dreams!