6 Important Questions to Ask During an Online English Teaching Job Interview

It could be overwhelming if you are new to the online English teaching world. Here is a checklist to help you better prepare for the interview for online English teaching positions and knowing what questions should be asked during the Interview. Your future teaching experience and happiness not only highly depending on the ESL company you work for, but also including the factors like compensation (base hourly rate, bonus, etc), pay schedule, weekly time commitment, time zone, etc. Ask the right questions can save you from many unexpected and unpleasant situations.

What Questions to ask during the Interview?

1. Class Schedule

• What is the class schedule in local time?
  • Majority of the ESL companies are based in China, so you are very likely teaching to Chinese students 6 – 10 pm Beijing time.
• Is there a minimum weekly hour commitment required?
  • Typical ones are 9am~12pm and 5pm~11pm local time.
  • For Chinese companies, some require teachers to commit a minimal weekly “peak” hour time, meaning 6 – 10 pm Beijing time.
• How many hours per day or week is expected?
• Is it a fixed or flexible schedule? How about the extended hours?
  • There are 3 main types of class schedules
    • Recurring students at fixed days. ex. Mon-Wed-Fri or Tue-Thu-Sat 6 – 7 pm
    • Pre-selecting time slots about 2 weeks ahead of the time.
    • Open time slot spontaneously. ex. Palfish allows you to push a button and see which students need a class in at the moment or your can do a recorded live streaming class.
• Do I get recurring students?

2. Compensation

• What is the base hourly rate?
• How long is per class session?
  • Class Session can range from 25, 45, 60, or 90 minutes.
• How will I be compensated for extra hours?
• What type of bonuses do you offer?
• What is the cancelation policy? What are the potential penalties?

3. Class Curriculum

• Is there a set class curriculum to teach with supplementary materials (teaching guideline, teaching materials, etc)?
• What are the expectations for class preparation? Is it part of the working hours or outside?
• If there is no set curriculum, then what kind of teaching preparation is expected?

4. Class Type

• How many students do I get per class?
  • Size of the class could range from one-on-one, one-to-many, or one-to-too-many (some are teaching local school students, so end up having 40+ students in the classroom).
• What is the age group?
  • Preschool, K12, college students, adult, etc.
• English level?
  • Beginner, intermediate, advanced, college prep, business professionals, etc

5. Onboarding Process and Training

• How is onboarding training arranged?
• How long is the training session?
• Is training compensated?

6. Resources and Support

• What kind of resources and support are available? i.e. technical issues, teacher & student relationship, etc.
• Is there any professional development or internal growth opportunities?
• What kind of expectations does a company have for the English teachers? How do you measure the teachers’ performance?

Beyond questions, it would be a great idea to do some homework on learning the company you’re applying for. For example, search for the company page on OETJobs or Google it to see what are the feedback and review about the company, get information from our Facebook groups (Online ESL Jobs and Online ESL Reviews), there are many teachers are working or worked there who are more than happy to share their working experience with you.

The greater the clarity in expectation would help you avoid or at least mitigated the surprises, especially when online teaching jobs are typically running outside of your home country. The questions listed above will provide you insight into the company and the level of professionalism. Great ESL companies are usually upfront with those questions and clear about their policies and procedures. So don’t be scared with all the uncertainties. Just ask questions, enjoy the teaching, and start making money!