Smarthinking Reviews

Pros

Working from home, flexible hours

Cons

Little room to advance, ridiculously low pay for desired credentials

Pros

Flexible hours, tutoring experience to get in the door

Cons

Few hours, arbitrary assessments, change in schedule and lead tutor every term, no communication

Pros

You can work from home.

Cons

I worked for Smarthinking for four years and it was awful. They don't give out raises unless you earn a graduate degree, and even then it's only a one-dollar raise. I should think a graduate degree, such as a PhD, is worth more than a dollar. The lead tutors are always nitpicking everything. I got in trouble once for not greeting a student in the right way. We're expected to provide very detailed feedback in just thirty minutes, but it's hard to do that if we're forced to read 10-15 page papers on topics we know nothing about. And they say that we supposedly only have to read ten pages, but that we should try to finish anyway. It's a crappy job and I'm willing to bet they make tons of money off the backs of the tutors they exploit. Regular tutors can make $20 an hour, so it's insane how they only pay us 10-12 an hour. The lead tutors always nitpicked every aspect of my markups, even though I consistently got good feedback from students on my markups. Also they often pressure us to drop our hours if there aren't enough essays, and if we won't do it, then they respond by forcing us to do it anyway or cutting our hours without our consent.

Pros

Remote work (can work at home); some paid sick leave, etc.

Cons

Low pay. Experienced tutors with master's and PhD degrees are paid 11 or 12 dollars in many instances, with zero raises given (not even a penny).

Pros

Work from home with complete flexibility with hours.

Cons

As with all work at home jobs, the lack of human interaction can be frustrating.

Pros

As a part-time online writing tutor, I liked how this job had flexibility in terms of scheduling, the ability to complete each day's required hours whenever was convenient, and the ability to work from home.

Cons

First of all, the pay is very low considering you are required to have a M.A. or a Ph.D. to do online writing tutoring work that undergraduates do (for the same or even higher pay) at campuses all over the country. More upsetting to me, though, was the complete inflexibility of the tutoring process. With strict time limits and a rigid structure for how each paper review had to be conducted, I never felt like I was doing my best work. Some papers are short with minimal issues that can certainly be treated effectively in half an hour with 2-3 highlighted areas for improvement, but the same cannot be said of many other essays. This structure is not useful for the tutors or, more importantly, the writers who have submitted their work for feedback. I also did not appreciate that the contract for this part-time, low-paying position prohibits accepting other tutoring jobs, not only while actively employed, but for one year after employment ends.

Pros

You work from home and get to use your advanced English degrees for something.

Cons

Smarthinking/Pearson is never happy with anything you do. All the advice is contradictory. They cannot keep up with the minimum wage laws in most areas.