consultant

travel consultant

english as a second language teacher

educational consultant

account manager

EF Education First

Their onboarding was me listening to people talk while going through PowerPoints, very little hands on work. They made me do one lesson plan and then threw me into a center desperate for teachers with a workload that had very little room to lesson plan at all, let alone make quality lesson plans they were asking for. 
Their poor communication first led me to believing I would receive my visa reimbursement upon arrival it took 3 months.  
Furthermore post medical emergency, I was informed I could apply for sick leave through headquarters after using up annual leave days which could have been negotiated. 
I also lost bonuses for using up sick days for a medical emergency which was not communicated clearly at all leaving to confusion and bitterness on my end. 
They want you to stick to the teachers notes, but not at the same time and any penalties are were on me not their poorly designed courses. It is unclear, it is like being told to follow a recipe verbatim and add your own twist but if those twist mess up the dish it's on you. 
The word on the street is that the local teachers make half of what the international teachers make, meaning any dissatisfaction with salary was faced with the perspective that we as foreigners were rich. They made me work overtime for a holiday event and then only paid me and the other workers overtime after someone reported it and their headquarters got involved. 
Furthermore a lot of teachers are unhappy, sometimes I found them crying at work. Teachers were tired and some were just printing out teachers notes, while others were pouring time and energy into lesson planning. Our DOS and center director weren't on top of making sure everyone was held to the same expectations. From my experience there was favoritism. One worker slept in and came in late, but did not get a warning, but I was late after having anxiety due to their high expectations and a failing system, and I got a warning. It wasn't fair or consistent for me. 
Finally during the exit procedure, they communicate 5 minutes after my shift ends, on my last day, that a large sum of money would be taken out of my account because "I took extra annual leave and the system prorates it for December". When asked why the response was "It's just the system"...Then FIX YOUR SYSTEM. It was giving scam, and to make matters worse, when picking up my passport I was told to bring my receipt in for reimbursement, when I went to headquarters, they were unaware of what I was talking about. It would be as easy as pulling up the old email for reference but they shut down my work email THE NEXT DAY after my final shift. There was no explanation for this. I do not recommend working here. 

This place is the worst of for-profit education models. They've got a beautiful piece of real estate in Fisherman's Wharf, with floor-to-ceiling windows, hi-tech computer labs, and foosball tables. Their students pay thousands of dollars to attend classes at this beautiful school and live in San Francisco. (Their housing, by the way, is usually in remote or run down parts of the city. Students complain all the time, both to teachers and to management. As far as I know nothing changes). They pay their teachers poorly, barely above minimum wage for teaching time, and prep time is at minimum wage and actual countable prep hours are very limited.  No benefits or job security. The CEO, meanwhile, is a billionaire. Management is disorganized, frequently juggling multiple student or teacher complaints/issues at once, and generally unclear about expectations. No support or structure here. At best, I felt overlooked. At worst, I felt exploited.

I saw the bad reviews for this position and thought, how bad could it really be? There are always bad reviews for jobs online from that one person who disagreed with their manager, had a bad experience one time, etc. I don't usually write reviews for my past employers, good or bad, because I believe everyone's experience is unique and job descriptions/interviews give the best sense of whether you think a position is right for you.

But I feel compelled to write this one: if you care abousteer clear of this unscrupulous company. They won't tell you this, but it's an open secret that their teachers quit all the time. People disappeared after a few months, weeks, or even days here. This is simply not an environment in which being a dedicated, caring, responsive teacher is valued, encouraged or inculcated. Worse yet, a solid % of the students have realized they're being scammed and will grumble about it during class (rightfully!) - making for a difficult classroom environment  to say the least. 

Still, I understand that high teacher turnover produces a disruptive environment for students and management alike. Despite my frustrations with them, I sympathized with management having to scramble together lesson plans and teaching schedules at the last minute whenever a teacher would quit. But EF must know that this is symptomatic of a larger issue at the way the organization runs. There's clearly money at the top of this that's not coming down to where it matters most (student satisfaction, teacher support, stressed-out managers juggling more demands than they can handle, etc).  Maybe take a look at that.

A typical day at work consists of sitting at a computer for 7 to 8 hours a day. I deal with specific flight requests, flight changes, name changes, and searching for a quality product at a low cost. I deal with all travel arrangements for high school students coming to the US for a year abroad. In my role there is very little creativity and when the organization is presented with a new innovative idea, it typically is shut down with the remarks that we must keep doing things how we have always done them.

I have learned much patience in this role as the daily routine can become very frustrating and sometimes you don't always hear what you would like to hear from your manager. It has been difficult learning this tough skill, but I feel that it will carry me a long way in the future and I am glad to have experience this as a young professional. I have also learned to pay a lot more attention to detail. In my position it can be very easy to make a minor mistake which costs the company money. I have learned to double check work, while still meeting deadlines in an effective manner.

One of the best aspects of my job at EF is my co-workers. EF has a tendency to hire professionals who are recently out of college, so it is very easy to relate and spend time with your co-workers as many are in the same position as you. However, this also leads to a drawback, as there is little opportunity for advancement many of these co-workers tend to leave after 2 - 3 years to pursue other career opportunities.

The hardest part of my job is sticking to the routine. Every day is essentially the same thing, with a few minor differences. I would like a career that is more hands on and on my feet as opposed to sitting at a desk, staring at a computer screen for the entire day.

The most enjoyable part of my job, which happens very rarely, is to see the fruits of my labor. Every now and then we hear about a student who had a very beneficial experience while on a trip with us. It feels good to know that you were a part of his or her experience and reminds you that while what you are doing seems redundant, it is making a difference in someone's life.

Before working with EF online I researched all the online companies I was able to locate. Then I rated the companies from the first to the tenth. EF fulfilled all the areas of I was looking for. I applied and got the position. I worked here for about 2 months. I had hoped to work longer ,but my internet became an issue. Although I had not had issue with my internet in the past I did find out several months later that the signal was low in the back portion of my home. If I come across another opportunity I will be working from the front of my home. After leaving EF Online I have not applied with another service. I felt that I was already at the best one available. I appreciate the fact they were organized, they did not baby me, they were operated by mature adults, they respected those of us who did not teach as if we were part clown. While I was upset that I had to depart the company I respect their decision. I saw that they are involved in online teaching outside of China and I plan to investigate that. 

I hope that those teachers that worked in China did not lose the positions and were hopefully able to secure a position in the centres. I am hopeful that I am able to one come to China and visit the learning Centres. Coming from a music background I would like to visit public schools in China, as well.

   All the people employed with EF were helpful and very nice. I really hope that I am able to to reconnect with them in the future. While I would not have been able to support myself on the amount I made it was my intention to use this as a supplement to my current salary. 

Typical work online- introduction of student and teacher, warm up , introduction of lesson, assisting student if he/ she does not understand.  If student is unable to understand any English use TPR and have student repeat. Speak slowly so student is able to hear. Perfect job, fantastic culture. I loved everything about working for the firm.

The orientation program and the platform are very intuitive, easy to use and during your trial period, you get assigned a mentor that guides you through how the EF platform works. I had two different mentors who were amazing, experienced people at the beginning and made the transition smooth. 

You open up availability every week. On Thursdays, classes are assigned to you according to the availability you set the week before. Getting classes was not ever a problem until Autumn 2021 when the company decided to overhire a lot of new, inexperienced tutors from not-so-developed countries to cut down labour costs that more qualified, veteran native-speaking teachers like myself were causing the company. 

Apart from that, the management changed during the pandemic. It was previously managed by a former ESL teacher with a business background but in late 2019, the new management was comprised of people with a business background that had little to no regard/respect for teachers and applied a series of policies that made it extremely difficult to get students.

Last but not least, their cancellation policy is outrageous. You get paid 40% of the hourly rate ONLY if the student cancels the class within 2 hours of the class starting time. Otherwise, if the student cancels within 48 hours, your class slot is left blank and you can only replace the time you've lost if you're lucky enough to be able to get a sub from the board (which seldom happens). To add insult to injury, if the student did not cancel the class but does not attend it, you only get paid 30% of the hourly rate.

Finally, if you work at EF remotely, do not expect to be able to grow within the company or getting anything in return except for what little pay you would get from the classes you've taught. The management doesn't care, veteran teachers are constantly disincentivized.

Hope this helps!

EF is a garbage place to work. They expect you to give your personal resources for the good of the company. They require 5+ years of education and pay less than a fast-food service job, and then split that pay and pay even less if you’re not actively teaching. 

The employee turnover is so ridiculous you stop learning new hires’ names because they will likely be gone in 3 months. They leave because they realize the burnout is imminent and there is no opportunity for advancement. 

They call staff “family” because it’s the only way they can prolong people from quitting. 

Multiple campuses have formed unions because of workers rights and labor violations (unpaid hours). 

If there’s a manager here you like it’s because they’re a good person; EF Had nothing to do with it.

You’re constantly bombarded with emails directed to the rich  employees in Switzerland offering their used professional bikes or employee development opportunities that don’t exist for the teachers in the USA. 

Senior management lies about commitment to living standards and admitted that they don’t consider a region’s cost of living when choosing compensation. 

This company is awful and requires employees to use personal devices for logging student attendance and data, etc. This also compromises student personal data. 

Benefits aren’t available to 90% of teachers because they keep you under 32 hours… just barely. 

0/10 opportunity for growth or salary increase. Unbelievably stressful and creates a parasitic culture of “family” that means support the company while it wrings teachers dry.  


Extreme underpay, and always classified as part time no matter how many hours you work so they can deny health insurance. Tremendous responsibilities that outweigh the pay by a lot. Materials created by higher paid full time corporate staff are awful, poorly organized and often with mistakes.  It’s the teachers job to figure out what to do with it. Many different “products” and resources for the teachers to use, but that just means an overwhelming abundance of things to figure out.  The mix of students includes teenagers to middle aged individuals, all with different needs and goals.  It’s the teachers job to figure out how to satisfy them.  Teachers are given raw feedback scores from surveys that affect career advancement opportunities but it’s such generic scores that we have no idea where we are really failing or succeeding.  Management proposes more trainings and classroom observations but that’s just more work.  The gap between the pay we need to survive and the pay we actually receive is so extreme that no modest offer of a pay rise will even come close.  It’s going to be severe teacher turnover indefinitely until bad rumors spread and students stop coming.  My guess is campuses will start to close and upper management will be blindsided by it because the company is so top-down they have no idea how bad it’s getting until it’s too late.  And the upper management is so far removed from the every day operations they won’t know how to fix anything until it’s already too late.

This company does not care about education, they only care about profit. Ironically, if they actually invested in teachers rather than putting all the money into lawyers and sales staff, they would make even more profits. Students are also regularly placed in the wrong levels because again, the goal is not education, it's profits and getting as many students as possible. If the goal was education, teachers would have much more authority in this company. They also hire all online teachers as independent contractors to avoid giving them employment benefits or raises. There is no way to make a living wage off of working here. Also, you have no direct contact with any physical person who you can call and if you submit a request for help, you just get an anonymous response. All in all, it was heartbreaking to see that an organization can care so little about the teachers who are the backbone and foundation of their company. Also, because the headquarters are in Switzerland, the employees in Switzerland have much better employment benefits in alignment with Swiss law. You think they would want to extend this to employees in other countries but instead they choose to take advantage of the situation in other countries to maximize the owner's profits. 

Pros: co-workers are great. Free coffee and pastries on Friday mornings. Some teacher development. Resources provided.

Cons: 
1) 15 mins prep time for a each 80 mins teaching block is hardly sufficient. Most teachers spend about 30-45 mins in prep including lesson planning, searching for extra materials (coursebook does not fill 2 x 80 mins block), making copies, grading etc.

2) Teachers are evaluated not by teaching abilities but by Net Promoter Scores (NPS) which is used to rate performances in customer service. If students dislike you and your eval scores fall below 4.2, then management will have a talk with you. You'll feel more like an entertainer than a teacher most of the time. Students are more like customers than students.

3) Management do not disclose the fact that teachers can use accrued sick time if they called in sick, or get paid for jury duty.

4) Work schedule can be unpredictable.

5) Forced to take unpaid time off when enrollment numbers are down.

6) They will cut your hours when you have worked too many hours because they want to make sure you stay in the part-time status. So new hires get more hours than if you have worked there for a while. You have to ask academic manager if you are close to maxing your hours.

7) Pay is inadequate for San Diego. E.g. you make about $3.75 before taxes for each 15-mins prep time. Many teachers have to take up a second job waiting tables on nights and weekends.

1:learn a new technique in marketing and work by new plan to make the work better for future

2::respect the time and doing my job perfect.

3:Management in business and organizations is the function that coordinates the efforts of people to accomplish goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization or initiative to accomplish a goal. Resourcing encompasses the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial resources, technological resources, and natural resources. Management is also an academic discipline, a social science whose object of study is the social organization and  EF has it.
 
4:i can say that they're good but some of them make problem by gossip.  i mean every were no matter what,  enemy will show up

5:when i call the customers we using program name: customer relation system(crm) for example some times i have to call over, 150 people and try to make the come to the office, and make them booking courses to study.

6:actually lunch time, because i  take rest and chill  with my co-workers and bosses . we laugh and really enjoy that moment.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Consultant 31 salaries reported	$52,903 per year
Travel consultant 13 salaries reported	$46,000 per year
English as a second language teacher 8 salaries reported	$21.48 per hour
Educational consultant 5 salaries reported	$48,000 per year
Account manager 9 salaries reported	$53,889 per year

Working at EF (Education First): Company Overview and Reviews

EF (Education First)

EF (Education First) Ratings

Popular jobs at EF (Education First)

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected