Redheaded Jill

Part 1: Getting the job.

When I was in my second year of working at the bank (and hating my life) I began plotting how to escape. I wanted out. I wanted to work from home. I wanted a job I liked. I wanted a commute that was literally six steps from my bed to my desk. I wanted to teach English to kids in other countries.

I’m pretty sure a facebook ad is what first drew my attention to VIPKid. I found a person with whom I shared a mutual acquaintance who worked for the company. They answered all my questions and I was granted an interview. The initial interview was fine, another teacher who had long worked for the company asked me a bunch of questions and gave me material for part 2 of the interview.

The second part of the interview was teaching a class to another teacher who pretended to be a student and be disruptive and silly. You had to teach and keep their attention and field any questions they threw at you.

Eventually I passed the interview and signed my contract. This all happened in October, 2017. In November I got my first full night of students. (12 classes in a row!) The students (at the time) were all in China so our days and nights were reversed. I quit my job at the bank in December, and taught full time for two years (before covid ruined everything).

I taught kids ages 3-16 from about 4 a.m. – 8 a.m. every day for two years. (Sometimes I took time off, but rarely.) This job was a dream come true! I could work from home, work on vacation, even work in the car!

I loved my students, and even remember a few of them. The kids got to pick English names (if they wanted) and some of my absolute favorite kiddos went by: Louis, Cherry, Angel, Socrates, Steve… I can still picture their faces and hope they are doing well. (During rona most of the parents could no longer afford lessons, so I lost most of my students. Then, China passed a law that the only foreign teachers permitted to teach had to live in China and teach in person. VIPKid is still a thriving company, but their students are now from other countries. I want to get started teaching again, but it will take a while to rebuild my student list. If you ever get a chance to teach like this I would highly recommend it.)