iTutorGroup Employee Reviews about "native"

Pros

Great way to develop your teaching chops, opportunity to make money and learn skills in times of economic crisis, lots of training tools, flexibility on interface and image database. In all honesty, I had some great moments with this company before the "big shift" occurred. It really helped me learn and develop some serious teaching skill, so now I can feel more confident in my ability.

Cons

Company has changed ownership, and has gone downhill ever since. I went from being offered promotions to recruiter and demo teacher, to being let go without any explanation, over the course of a few months. Hundreds of teachers in my social media were let go, for various reasons - vague descriptions of shifting industry standards (from connection, teaching style, status as native or foreign speaker etc). Company is basically just trying to pay teachers less - automation has also come to produce unwelcome environment.

Pros

Flexible schedule and cancellation policy

Cons

-They don't value teachers. Recently they have started to fire a lot of teachers who have been with the company for several years without any reason but being a non-native speaker. -No loyalty to teachers. -Horrible ratings policy requires you to maintain average of more than 9.5/10 per month. Only one spoiled kid giving you a 1 rating could cost you your job.

Pros

They have a decent platform and your colleagues are always ready to help. The kids are great, but I think you will find that with any Chinese company.

Cons

The curriculum is terrible. Basically, anyone can write curricula; it doesn't matter whether s/he has experience or not. Even if the lesson has flagrant errors, you still have to teach it, or be penalized should a student complain. The company doesn't care about qualifications. You get paid according to where you live. For example, you could have Ph.D in Education or Applied Linguistics, twenty years of experience, and be a native speaker, but if you choose to live in the Philipines or Thailand, you could make 2 or 3 dollars an hour. However, if you live in the States, for example, and have a Groupon TESL certificate (120 hours), chances are you will be making 10 times what the Ph.D is making. I've never seen such a disregard for quality. In addition, they are quite punitive to their teachers- there is no grace period to learn the ropes. You basically have to sink or swim.

Pros

The schedule is flexible. However, if you make any adjustment in your schedule or take any time off you immediately lose 10% of your pay which is given as a "prefect attendance" bonus.

Cons

Low pay ($2.00 USD per hour for native English teachers outside US for 45 min classes ) They tell you that 45 minute classes are rare, however, this is not true. In addition, you can teach up to 6 adults or 3 children in a 45 minute session and you have to complete an extensive report on each student that attended for an effective pay rate of $2.00 USD and hour.

Pros

I have made decent money there in the past (but that seems to have changed for the worse).

Cons

1) Rating System Your income and employment status with the company is based a completely capricious, unchecked and unappealable ratings from often angry kids or frustrated parents. Yes, they remove the lowest 3% of ratings from your penalty fees (they actually deduct your pay based on this), but these ratings do continue to stay on your permanent record, lowering your overall average. That means you'll loose raises and possibly your job in the no-so-long run. I have stellar ratings and even I lost a pay raise once because of basically two vindictive 8 or 9 year olds who gave severely low ratings in the same week, because they didn't feel like doing English after a day at school (can you blame them?). I make classes as entertaining and fun as possible. My 9.8 average dropped to 8 something overnight and I nearly was suspended. In one case, the kid had fun in class, but the parent obviously thought fun doesn't equal learning and gave a punishing rating and including every negative comment imaginable. If you like to be humiliated, this is the job for you. 2) Pay Pay is based on location not on your experience, your qualifications, your being a native speaker, or your skill, enthusiasm, charisma or any intrinsic quality you may have as a teacher. You may get a good service agreement if you're in the US, CA, UK or some other cities in the EU. If you're not in those places, you'll be paid well below minimum wage even for your region (try $2 an hour of which you could even be deducted pay). Why so many people from low paying regions (Serbia, Croatia etc) even apply, is a bit of a mystery. 3) Bait and Switch You'll be given a full schedule initially, but as soon as you reach 1000 hours and your raise is coming up, suddenly everything will change (at least from what I've experienced and seen from others). You'll be put on "demo" classes which pay very little and can be quite stressful. Your normal bookings will suddenly drop. It's like you're working for a different company. In my case, my service agreement suddenly changed and my salary was permanently lowered AFTER I was hired. I nearly quit on the spot. As this lower payment was only for adult classes and I was assigned to teach kids, I decided to stay. I had no idea at that time that some kid's classes would also pay that adult wage, as do demo, as do many things. They obfuscate these important details as much as possible. I had to work for months and months before these serious payment issues began to affect me. Not a welcome surprise.

Pros

First month was fair and I enjoyed the company. I had what I would call a fair split of the 45min classes ($8/hr) and 30min classes ($16/hr). I taught about 50 regular classes and had about 8 of the really lame $8/hr.

Cons

Now I'm into my second month...and all they seem to give me is the borderline criminal 45min classes. I've taught about 30 classes this month and 15 have been 45 minute classes. They have brought my pay average down to almost 11 dollars an hour for the month. This is unacceptable as a fully qualified US native teacher and if it continues I will be taking my business to another online company. I refuse pouring my soul out for the same wage I could get working at Mcdonalds. I have a high average (9.61)...because I know the PR people monitoring this page LOVE to run to the "youre just not one of the best teachers excuse."

Pros

It was a good company before 2020. It seems that the pandemic affected them greatly...

Cons

In 2020, the company started firing non-natives massively... I worked there for 4 yrs, maintaining a perfect teacher rating for yrs. It came out of the blue and for no particular reason. Since I heard from other colleagues that the same happened to them, it seems that the company favors only native speakers from now on...

Pros

Very flexible, and if you are a Bona Fia English teacher who can hit a high average consistently, you will get lost of classes. Freedom to work from home is always a bonus.

Cons

Very pooly written materials, containing phrases and terminology that are obviously not written by a native, and lots of errors both factual and grammatical.