english teacher

Spicus

This is a contract position.  If you want time off, you should do your best to request it at least two weeks in advance.  The managers are kind and try to accommodate but are at the mercy of the people above them.  They are excellent at responding.  The money is not good at all.  You have to work a lot just to make anything.  It may be good for a little pocket change but is not good even for a part-time gig.  There are no incentives and no time off.  It can be very easy to develop burn out.  You do not have any control over how you are assigned classes.  The managers do this.  You may have a regular student assigned to you and given to another teacher if it is a make-up class.  You do not get paid for postponed classes.  The students are kind and interact well.  However, many of them have little time to spend outside of the classroom to study.  Their improvement is very slow.  Your classes are by phone with no online camera.  Ultimately, there are other online companies that will be far more worth your time.  

*UP TO* $10.20/ hr pay. 
Not $10.20/hr (which is already quite abysmal) but: UP To...No thanks .

Easy to get hired.  Easy Simple interview + Mock Lesson.  Do not need a Degree.

Most Students are Cool. Management is Ok.

They do provide lessons (which need updating & revamping.) You are encouraged to supplement implement your own materials.

If a student complains (even if it's without merit or there are tech issues On Their End) it's never on the Student; the Teacher ONLY suffers

Not A JOB or really even a Side Hustle: You CAN BARELY make a consistent Part- Time income off SPICUS let alone anything FULL-TIME.

Overall it's THE PAY that makes this gig So Not Worth It.



You can’t even afford rent with how much you earn. I used to work the full days, Sunday to Friday, 8 hours a day. The most I made is a little over a thousand dollars. This is a schedule that had a minimum of 20 students a day. I’ve changed schedules now, and guess how much I make a month. $200. If you’re looking to fill your resume from having a lapse, then go for this job. Management is more of a mixed bag, sometimes they are very relaxed but other times would bombard your phone with calls just to check if you’ll be able to take the class. I would understand if they were paying you enough for it, but at this point it’s pretty much free labor.

One complaint from a student gets you fired. Students purposefully hang up when they’re too sleepy to have a lesson in the mornings. Any technical difficulties will result in a fault for the tutor and the tutor will not get paid. Also, management doesn’t understand English very well and are hard to communicate with. They add classes during your shift without telling you. You could use the restroom and come back and have missed a class. And that’s still your fault. Overall not worth it. You could be a telemarketer and make more. 

They start you off well enough, but the constant barrage of 10-minute classes that start and end immediately upon one another gives you no breathing room at all. Teaching Koreans is rewarding because you can connect with them much better, but the slightest complaint at any time ends up with the removal of most of your classes without any communication from management at all. The pay is horribly low as well, so this isn't a company to stick with for the long haul.

I worked for Spicus for a long time. The highlight is definitely the students. They are great. Management varies. It’s pretty easy to teach English to the students, but they don’t pay much and you won’t get many raises if you stay a long time.
It’s pretty laid back, but they only pay once a month. That part isn’t great. It’s ok for a temporary fix, but don’t plan on staying. The hours are very difficult to deal with.

Overall good environment to work, the classes all came with material so there was no need to prep, sometimes the material was outdated or a bit boring and the student would complain. Overall a pretty good experience as management was pretty quick to respond to any issues. The only thing I would say is that in the beginning it was pretty slow in terms of classes so the pay wasn’t that great, but after a few months I was able to get more students. 

The pay is criminally low.  The actual pay is 5 dollars per hour.  They advertise higher pay than is actually given.  You are only paid for the minutes you are actively are teaching.  It is expected for you to be online and available in between classes and regularly refreshing the page.  It is also expected for you to do paper work will not teaching.  You are not paid for this time.

An I-9 job is contract labor. This was an actual job with posted hours and direct supervision. It should have had withholding taxes.
I enjoyed the sessions with students and being able to give them feed back on their English. 
The hard part was posting evaluations while talking.

The pay is low but super great for supplementary income. The students are Korean adults, and most of them want to practice speaking English. Some like to use the textbook lessons (which you are given a teacher's guide that explains what you need to do to instruct the student) Super flexible if you need to call out last minute. You can easily reach supervisors via email or Skype. 

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