preschool teacher

teacher

childcare provider

substitute teacher

regional recruiter

ChildCare Careers

I thought working for a sub agency would give me the flexibility to create my own hours as well as possible permanent job opportunities. That's what CCC advertises. This was important to me because I was hoping to experience working at a school and learn its culture before applying for a permanent job. Upon hire, you have to select a certain number of cities you're willing to work in. I was hoping to stay fairly local, but I ended up needing to commute very far during rush hour. In addition to that being a huge inconvenience and drain on my car, it made it difficult to find schools where I would actually want to work based on location alone. That also makes the "flexible hours" misleading. Sometimes you need to factor in an extra 90+ minutes each way for the commute. 

I did eventually find a school where I would want to work and as luck would have it, they were hiring for permanent positions. I applied, got a phone interview where I seemed to have made a favorable impression, only for the school to call me back and tell me they couldn't afford CCC's fee to remove me from their contract. For schools to receive substitutes, they agree to pay CCC a fee to permanently hire any subs sent. I was told that management had inquired about the process and found that CCC's fee was too large. Even if I were to quit my job at CCC, that contract would follow me for something like 5 months. It's a very sketchy binding agreement. I did my best to read the contract before signing, but that part was well hidden under some legalese. 

One thing I did read very clearly on an online onboarding application is that I had to initial that I had seen a training video. Not having seen the video, I did not initial. My application would not submit without me having initialed that line. I contacted my regional hiring manager and she ensured me that I would watch the video at our upcoming meeting. Against my better judgement, I initialed. It seems as though they prey upon teachers who either don't read contracts or don't understand confusing legalese.

Management favors the schools over the teachers. Some of these schools were borderline abusive towards us subs, providing no resources for us to do our expected duties, and falsely reporting that we were abusing children or had no control of the children. For example, I was sent to a Chinese immersion school. I do not speak Chinese, but was assured it wouldn't be a problem as each classroom had Chinese speaking teachers/assistants and most of the students were bilingual. That was not the case. It was very difficult to manage students who were not only very oppositional, but did not speak English, especially for me as a new person coming in not having an established rapport with the child. CCC would contact me, report whatever BS the school said about me, and informed me that I was being written up. They would not even take my side of the story into consideration. Once in awhile the person who called me was sympathetic, but they still told me that they had to follow protocol and write me up. Some of these schools are objectively toxic and CCC should listen to their subs and refuse to send sub to these schools, but they care more about dollar signs than the wellbeing of their employees.

At the time, I had almost 15 years of work experience, an ECE certificate with Program Director certification, and a BA in Elementary Education. They paid me barely above minimum wage, something like $15/hr when minimum wage in San Jose was $13.50. They said I could earn an extra $0.50/hr if I went and got my Site Supervisor certificate. Big whoop! Let me tell you, that paycheck barely paid for the insane amount of gas I spent getting to work.

Placement is the office who controls what hours you get, where you go, days off, clock in and clock outs. Recruiters only handle getting you set up for the job. The experience of being at different locations, working with different people and children is the only perks of the job. Yes, some days may be challenging but just like you, kids have bad days too. Who doesn't like a challenge though? You learn new ways of how to handle kids, understanding them and them understanding you. The kids teach you a lot of patiences. The kids make it a rewarding job. However, placement doesn't care about you. They don't compensate you if they sent you to a location and the location is closed. They will send you to locations with 45 plus kids and only you with another sub. You can provide a feedback about it but they don't care. Placement will blow up your phone with calls, text and emails. Also, will threaten you with a '24 hour responding policy'. They disregard the fact that you have a life outside of the job. They don't trust that when they assign you a job, you will show up. If you state your maximum distance you are willing to drive is 25 miles, they will send you assignments 35 miles away and only give you an additional $5 per day total for the hour and a half drive there and back. Placement only sends me four hour shifts for the past three weeks expecting this is enough to pay bills. This is after this sent me an email thanking me for my hard work and good feedbacks from the locations I've been too. They will send you assignments during your shift knowing you can't be on your phone while on the shift. You have the option to accept and reject assignments but they accept the assignments for me anyways then want me to reconfirm the assignments they ALREADY accepted for me. Personally, I wouldn't work for this company. Unless you're a working student with little to no bills, this would be a good start off job for you but other than that I wouldn't recommend. They pay for your CPR and AED training but you don't get paid for the actual training day which can be around 5-7 hours long. I understand placement sends you to locations who need your help but come on now... you're telling me 20 hours per week is enough? My availability is mon-fri from 7-7 and I only get 20 hours per week? My recruiter recommend me to put mon-fri 7-7 so I am ensured the most amount of jobs and hours. FALSE! 

It may be a week in advance; it may be an hour in advance. It may be a new assignment at a new school; it may be a school where everyone—kids included—already knows your name. But you get an assignment for a school  or daycare in need of a substitute teacher, and off you go.

Every school is different: different teaching methods, different schedules, different standards, etc cetera. But you still learn the basic skills for when you’re ready for the next step in your career: working at one of these daycares full time.

If you find a school that likes you enough and thinks you’re a great match, they will let you know. All you have to do is inform CCC about it before you apply. They will help you with the transition, giving one more week or so of assignments while you get training at your permanent job. And sometimes the director will vouch for you to start off with a higher salary since they’ve seen you work with their kids.

But what if something happens at this permanent job? Like they have to downsize, or something personal happens on your end? That’s okay; if you have a good enough track record with CCC, then you’re eligible to be re-hired. I was lucky enough to have been hired by them pre- and post- full time daycare job.

Yes; there are slumps, especially in the summer and during the holiday season. There may be times where you get an assignment and it’s cancelled during your commute. That’s okay; you will be compensated for two hours of the shift you would’ve had, and you may have a shift pick up that same day too, if you’re lucky.

If you ask me, though, I say it’s worth it. I’ve had multiple job offers, directly thanks to this job. And it led me to what I’d consider the best job of my life so far.

This job is very custom. You can choose the hours and days of the week that you're willing to work. You can also choose the age groups you want to work with.
people with no experience (as of right now) only get $14 an hour; with 1+yr experience is $15.
They also work on a point system. You get 50 points on your account for starters. You get one point per day and you work up to 100 points on the account. You lose 3 points if you deny an offer that's within your availability and 5 points if you deny an offer you accepted already. you lose no points if you get an offer that's outside of your availability. if you get to 0 points, you're fired.
You mostly get work offers based on this availability: Monday - Friday 8 to 9 hours & willing to drive at least 20 miles from your home
You RARELY get offers when you put availability for half a shift (4hrs)
You're not allowed to take more than 6 days off at a time. If you need 7 or more, they literally tell you to just "quit" and reapply once you're available again.
You can be sent offers around 2 hours before, during, and after the availability you put down. If you do not accept them or deny them, 3 points will be deducted from you.
No benefits are offered if you live in texas because they're allowed to not offer any.
Best part of the job is that you get paid every friday.
The worst part of the job are the directors of the select daycares that you get sent to. They're allowed to report you for any reason without bringing the problem to you first. If you get reported for even small things, you get warnings on your record that can turn into strikes. if you reach your 3rd strike, you're fired.
My best recommendation is to just use this job as something to get some extra side money from or a placeholder. This is not a job that you should be working in long-term. There's no workplace ladder you can climb.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The flexibility and personal relations is the best! I also appreciated the opportunity to work in various locations thereby being placed frequently in locations that were the best fit for both myself and the schools in which I worked.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
While working in the Austin area I had to deal with traffic. And occasionally I would be in classrooms that didn't have permanent teachers so the children were lacking structure. But children quickly adhered to my instructions and guidance. I have a very busy life so I would miss getting texts for job assignments and then miss opportunities occasionally. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The staff at CCC are very accommodating, helpful and courteous. I felt part of the team very quickly. They were also very encouraging when I was new and trying to navigate the App and company website. It's a big work family that collaborates with Preschools/Daycares with the goal of caring for children.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I receive my assignments via the phone App (usually a week in advance)and I am able to accept or reject them. Occasionally I would get assignments at the last minute. I would show up at whatever school I am assigned and be welcomed by the staff. Children are always intrigued if I'm new but at repeat assignments I am always welcomed with big smiles and sometimes hugs. I assist the lead teacher with activities, snacks and lunches, potty training, diapers, crafts (depending on the age) naps and outdoor time.

I am aiming to be a teacher (Just got my AA, working to get BA), and this is my first experience in a teaching setting. It is definitely just an okay job. 

It is quite flexible in which you set your own hours in which you can work, and you can tell them specific days you can't work (if you had already made plans/an appt/out of town/etc.). However, it can get quite stressful since if you have not told them you are busy on a certain day, then you are expected to automatically be free that day if they need you. They can call you at 6 in the morning to come in that same day for work, and you will lose points if you miss that text/call. My anxiety skyrockets quite a bit during weekdays before I go to bed thinking if I accidentally sleep in and miss an assignment text.

There was an incident where I had been offered an assignment for a whole week at one location but missed the deadline to accept it (2 hours) by 5 minutes, and when I instantly called the coordinator to see if I can still accept it, they said the assignment was already taken by someone else. However 3 out of the 5 days that week, I was called at 6am to work at that same location. It was frustrating because I had been called 3 random mornings when I could have just accepted the job for the week to begin with. 

There are also incidents of just rarely getting assignments sometimes. The schedule is just very unpredictable. 

However, on the plus side, this job is rewarding. The teachers I have worked with have been mostly very kind and the students are usually kind as well. I meet a lot of different people and kids, so it's great experience. I learned a lot about the classroom setting at this job. :)

I recommend this job to a lot of people, so it is not bad at all! There are pros and cons like any job.

Initially I was excited about working with CCC to get that classroom experience. Although I've enjoyed working with kids, CCC is what I'm not happy with at all. The placement coordinators in the beginning were nice & understanding. Now there's different people & they're rude. When I first got hired, I felt like something was odd about it because of how quickly they made an offer, but I needed the class experience.
  CCC sold this dream that you could accept or decline assignments & yet I've already been chewed out twice for declining one because of how last minute it was. If you have your own reliable transportation, then cool but assignments are very sporadic & sometimes too far. This was a good place to work for to get that in class experience, however I'd prefer not to get chewed out & "warned" if I decline an assignment. 
    The most enjoyable part is the kids & the teachers at the schools that I've been to. I've learned a lot & this has only reassured me that I want to teach. One thing is that if you want to work for a school that you subbed at, CCC wants a fee from the school that you want to work at or else you have to wait a year to be able to work there. Thankfully I have no interest in working at a Headstart.
   I wouldn't recommend CCC solely based on management & how declining an assignment is something that you can't do unless you want to get chewed out. If you have reliable transportation, need the experience, & don't mind being called an hour before an assignment, then sure.

A typical day at work involves checking in, getting assigned to a site, and spending the day engaging with kids through play and support. Each day is different depending on the location and group, which keeps things fresh and interesting. I’ve learned how to adapt quickly, communicate more effectively, and handle unexpected situations with patience. Management is supportive, flexible, and easy to reach, which is especially helpful as a college student. The workplace culture is welcoming—staff at every site are friendly, and you never feel out of place, even if it’s your first time there. The hardest part of the job is occasionally dealing with challenging behavior, but it’s rare, and there's always someone around to help. The most enjoyable part is simply spending time with the kids and seeing their excitement—it makes every day fulfilling and fun. I genuinely love working with CCC.

What is the best part of working at the company?
the flexibility and ease of scheduling and choosing your shifts. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
it’s not guaranteed work. there are times when you won’t get any offers for a shift for quite some time. around christmas time my first year i literally didn’t get one call for 2 weeks straight (most schools were closed for 1 of those weeks, so really it’s more like i didn’t get any calls for 1 week). that adds up and takes a chunk out of your wallet. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
you don’t really see too many other people from the company since you are sent to schools, so the environment really depends on what school you are sent too. the only interaction you really have with other CCC staff is when you get hired and have to see the recruiter, or when you call/get a call from the people who schedule your shifts. those people are all pretty nice. i never had an issue with any of them. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
sometimes you have a shift scheduled ahead of time and sometimes you get an offer that morning. then you just accept it, and head to the school at the time it says too. you specify how far you’re willing to commute and the hours you’re willing to work, so the offers are always within that time frame. and if they aren’t, they offer extra money if you take a shift outside your preferences

Childcare Careers is mostly on-call. If you are not pre scheduled one day, they will call you last minute on the day they need you to work at 6 am (which is when I was ALWAYS called) and expected you to accept the last minute change. They expect you to pay for parking out of pocket for most, if not all, daycares located in downtown Sacramento and then get reimbursed. You can not choose not to work in those certain areas. Commutes are always long because assignments are given out through all of Sacramento based on  the mile radius you choose. You  never know where you are going to drive to work until you are called. The daycares they sent you to are not the greatest. Most of the teachers are rude and dont care to interact but rather give you orders so days are very long, and stressful. Also, the ladies that call to ask if you are available to work (placement coordinators) are very rude if you do not accept an assignment. You get scolded and questioned if you decline. Also, they have a 24 hour policy for sick call ins that is not negotiable, even if you are sick and have a doctors note. They just tell you that the doctors note doesnt matter because you did not give 24 hour notice. You get warnings for everything like last minute availability changes. Overall, it's just not a fun place to work at. The only good thing is the pay is higher than other companies.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Preschool teacher 55 salaries reported	$18.46 per hour
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Childcare provider 59 salaries reported	$18.80 per hour
Substitute teacher 17 salaries reported	$19.76 per hour
Regional recruiter 2 salaries reported	$30.50 per hour

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