You don’t know this yet…
But there are WAY more online English teaching jobs than teaching Chinese students with Qkids or VIPKID!
As a native English speaker, you might not even need a Bachelor’s degree, teaching certificate, or even any teaching experience for some of them (but you’ll definitely need a solid internet connection and lesson plans).
This week’s Featured Teacher is a guest post from Bret at OETJobs.com. He’s actually a member here but brings years of online and work from home experience. His site is an amazing resource for those of you searching for the best legitimate jobs teaching English online.
If you want to teach English online, you can cut through the garbage of outdated English teacher job listings, broken links, or shady teaching companies and get right to the best online teaching gigs here!
We decided to share posts on our sites given that online English teachers are looking for similar information about how to teach the English language part-time or full-time on Skype or other platforms.
You can see my post on his Youtube channel here: OETJobs: Interview with Jason from Teach Nomadic.
Let’s learn about the best jobs for online teachers looking to teach English as a second language online.
Take it away, Bret!
Job Search Problems
Many of the lists of online ESL teaching jobs are not well maintained. Some of the issues include links that are either broken or do not go to an application page, schools that are closed, extremely little information, and no reviews available. Also, some of the lists and posts are geared towards referral links. Referral links are fine except when you are given incorrect information. These are just a few of the issues you face when looking for an online ESL teaching job.
Incorrect or misleading information not only wastes your time, but it can cost you as well. The costs add up in the form of lost earnings. Let’s say that you get frustrated due to some of the issues listed above. You end up taking a job at $12 an hour. With a streamlined job search and the proper information, you might have been earning $20 an hour. In one month alone you could be losing almost $1300.
As a nomad teacher, you would be living a good life in many places in SE Asia for that amount alone. Well, as long as you don’t spend too much time in the expat bars.
Solutions
At OETJobs.com we have been working hard to solve the problems listed above. It is not perfect, but we have built and implemented a few tools to help you out.
Let’s go through some of the implementations and functions of the website. As to how well we are doing is up to you to judge.
Say Goodbye To Standard Searches
Instead of viewing static lists, why not use an advanced search function? As of the writing of this article, we feel we have the most advanced and unbiased search function available for online ESL teachers.
The search filters are dynamic, allowing you to make adjustments while keeping the search results on the screen at the same time. There is also a free-form search if you need to narrow down the results even further.
As you can see in the picture above, there are multiple filters for you to use.
Did I mention that as you adjust the sliders or check and uncheck the various boxes, the information changes, but remains on the screen? You really should see it in action to fully appreciate how this can help you in your job search.
All of this runs on your phone and tablet. This works out well for all of you nomad teachers on the go.
The search function also sits atop any of the individual school lists. This is a directory of the current lists:
- Chinese Schools
- North America Schools
- European Schools
- Phone Apps
- UK Schools
- Japanese Schools
- Korean Schools
- Philippine Schools
- Russian Schools
- Schools From Other Countries
- Create-A-Profile
I should mention that the Phone App list has jobs that are perfect for when you get in a financial bind. Yes, the life of a nomad teacher is fantastic, but it can be unpredictable financially.
Link Checker
It can be somewhat tiresome to click on a link to a job and discover that the school no longer exists or the link doesn’t work. If you click on the links provided on OETJobs, you will notice something different in the URL. All of the outbound links for job applications contain “apply”.
Why do they contain apply? We implemented an application that checks the health of the links during set intervals:
Is this perfect? Of course not, and there will be issues from time to time, but this is a move in the right direction. Compare the links on this favorite list to one of the more popular lists on OETJobs. You probably noticed the reviews and rankings on our site as well. Those will be covered later on.
Link Destination
With some of the popular job lists, the links only go to the homepage of the school’s website. When dealing with schools whose sites are in other languages like Chinese, this can be problematic. Our friendly staff at OETJobs has solved this problem by manually finding the best place to apply for each job.
Give Me The Straight Scoop
Spend any time on Facebook looking for a job, and you might get inundated with referral links. Not a big deal, and it is not much of an issue because it is apparent as to why the teacher is telling you to apply at their school with their magical link.
With some of the websites with job lists, referral and advertised jobs can be an issue since the opportunities you see might be based mainly on who is going to pay the most for referrals. This is not always the case, but it does happen.
At OETJobs we have reviews from the staff, members of our Facebook group, and crowdsourced information from teachers. All listings are ranked based on a five-star scale that can be seen directly on the pages designated for each school.
When available, reviews are listed on the individual job pages. Adjustments are made to the five-star scale as the staff continues to pull in the information.
There are other factors that go into the ranking, but that is part of the secret sauce that will remain undisclosed. What we listed above is more than good enough.
Do we have banner ads and referrals to schools? Yes, of course we do, but we do not taint our reviews in any manner.
Information Please
As a nomad teacher, you are typically looking for the most amount of valuable information in one spot. At OETJobs we help you by consolidating the data for each job onto the individual job review pages.
What this allows you to do is to stay on one website, view multiple jobs, while also being able to make educated decisions about each job.
On the individual job review pages, you will find a review at the top, videos about the job(if available), the requirements listed out, and a direct link to apply website. Along with that, you have a starred review at the bottom and any teacher reviews.
Keep in mind as well that all of the information is 100% unbiased. We don’t know of any other website like us at the moment.
Teacher’s Lounge
Our latest installment is a Q&A format that we call the Teacher’s Lounge. You are able to browse through the list of questions and answers, ask your own question, and help others by answering their questions.
We built this for those of you who are tired of the limitations of Facebook groups. You can create an account, use your current social media account, or log in using your Gmail account to join in on the fun. Start out by asking a question.
Teacher Diaries
Find out first hand what it is like to teach online through our Teacher Diaries. These are a series of interviews with online ESL teachers. Currently, we have interviews with a variety of teachers from different backgrounds. We have a few nomadic teachers as well such as Laura and Jelena.
Other Ways OETJobs Can Help You
Beyond what has already been explained, we also provide even more to all of you digital nomad teachers. Some of the useful items on our site include an updated blog, teaching guide, information about taking the TESOL or TEFL online, a highly informative post on how to create a better resume, and how to stay healthy while teaching online. We will continue to build out the site, search and other aspects to better serve you. Please do visit us and feel free to contact us anytime.
Thanks Jason for allowing us to post on your site!
P.S. If you made it this far then you might as well watch our cheesy intro video.
