If you love talking with people and learning about new cultures, and are looking to get paid while doing that, then this is for you!
Note: If you decide to join Cambly by using my referral link, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you
Sign up and start tutoring on Cambly: https://www.cambly.com/invite/U6TXSFRV?st=082321&sc=4
Teaching English was never in my plans but when I graduated university with an International Tourism Management degree in the middle of a pandemic, where the tourism industry was completely shut down, I had to think about a plan B. I did research and I found many different online teaching companies with some great pay! Most of them required a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) so I went ahead and signed up for a 120-hour course (affiliate link) which is the minimum hours that the jobs asked for. I started working with a couple different companies, teaching English to young children and at the beginning it was great - good money, enough hours. However, after a few weeks, I barely got any lessons and I was spending hours and hours every day trying to market myself to potential students and it just wasn’t worth it. After a few months, I came across Cambly.
About
Cambly is a one-on-one tutoring platform that allows you to teach students from all over the world at any time of the day. You can choose to teach kids or adults or you can teach both.
The lessons can be as long or as short as you like and you can use Cambly’s “Priority Hours” system where you sign up in advance to be active in certain time slots where you are more likely to receive calls from students. I did that a lot in the beginning until I gained a lot of regular students and then I just started opening my regular schedule for reservations instead.
I usually teach about 12-15 hours a week as I also have another job but you teach as much or as little as you like. I only teach adults as I personally prefer it but if you are good with kids, you can earn a bit more by teaching on Cambly Kids.
Why teach English online
Whether you are doing it full time or just a few hours per week, teaching online offers you a flexible schedule and if you are like me and don’t want to live in one place, you can travel long term and work from anywhere in the world. If you have another job, Cambly can be some extra spending money. I have been teaching on Cambly for more than 6 months now and I absolutely love it.
Pay
Cambly doesn’t pay per hour but per minute. So you earn $0.17/min ($10.20/hour) which is about £7.50/hour teaching adults and $0.20/min ($12.00/hour) on Cambly Kids which is about £8.8/hour. You get paid via Paypal every Monday.
Pros
Flexibility - because there are students from all over the world and therefore different time zones, it doesn’t matter what time you open your schedule, you will always have students wanting lessons.
Meeting people - you get to meet people of all ages from all over the world and learn about their culture. I have met people from many different backgrounds, from a computer engineer living in Japan to a national football player in Turkey, it’s amazing how you get to talk to people you wouldn’t usually meet.
You don't need to market yourself - unlike many other companies, you don’t need to spend time promoting yourself in order to get students.
No preparation needed- a lot of the lessons are just conversational English and therefore do not need any preparation beforehand. Luckily, for the lessons that are focused on grammar or business English, Cambly provides all the course material you need for them. There are also many slides about conversational topics in case you run out of ideas to talk about.
Cons
Low pay - compared to other teaching companies, Cambly has one of the lowest pay in the industry. However, if you are living in a cheaper country or have another job as well, it isn’t too bad especially considering it’s not a stressful job. Most of the time, it feels like I’m just chatting with a friend and I’m getting paid for it.
Classes are not guaranteed. In my experience when I open my schedule, I get fully booked, however Cambly is not obliged to guarantee you classes so each week may vary. This is why it’s always good to have multiple sources of income and to not only rely on Cambly.
Requirements and how to apply
Unlike other companies, Cambly doesn’t require experience or a teaching qualification. You just need to be a native speaker and have a laptop and a good internet connection.
The application process is very straightforward and only takes a few minutes. All you need to do is to fill out the application form provided and then upload a 2 minute intro video.
In my video intro I mentioned:
-my job (marketing content creation)
-hobbies/interests/something to make me stand out (I love travelling and meeting new people)
-my university degree and TEFL qualification
-What I can help with, e.g. grammar, conversational, business English
-how my classes are, e.g. fun, encouraging, making the students feel comfortable
It took about 2 weeks for me to hear back from them after I sent in my application and video, however it may take longer depending on the demand and how many applications they have.
As I mentioned earlier, Cambly is a great way to meet people from all over the world and most of the time it doesn’t feel like work. I look forward to the lessons every day and I am very grateful for having the opportunity to meet so many amazing people through it. It is a very rewarding job and I could not recommend it enough.
If you sign up through my referral link, I will get a small commission at no extra cost for you. And if you decide to sign up for Cambly Kids, we will both get $10 each.
Sign up and start tutoring on Cambly: https://www.cambly.com/invite/U6TXSFRV?st=082321&sc=4
If you have any questions about tutoring on Cambly or just generally about teaching english online, please do not hesitate to message me on Instagram @marisa.vogiatzi or comment down below on this blog post.
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