Job Discussion Forums

[Fitzgerald]

Do people do this? I assume that they probably do, especially in the early stages of exploring online teaching, in order to see which outfits pay best and most promptly, which are the least flakey to deal with, etc. But I also guess that it is frowned upon by the outfits themselves - or maybe I'm wrong about that?

[esl_prof]

Unless an online school is giving you full-time hours and benefits, why would they care if you were teaching for multiple schools?

[Fitzgerald]

[esl_prof]

The best way to prevent you from working with the competition--if they really think you're that good--is to offer you full time hours, pay, and benefits. If they can't do that, they have no business complaining. If they want to make an issue out of that, you might want to think twice about whether or not your really want to work for them. Or, at the very least, you'll probably want to be discrete about who your other employers are.

Honestly, I think most schools that can only hire on a part-time basis are aware that many of their instructors will also be moonlighting elsewhere. My guess is that application questions regarding other places of employment are geared towards assessing whether or not you have a demonstrated track record of successful online teaching rather than trying to insure that you work exclusively for a single employer. Just my two cents.

Good luck as you move forward with your applications!

[Fitzgerald]

Thanks, you may be completely correct about that. My "live" part-time employer in Queretaro made it clear from our very first meeting that he has no problem with my putting in hours at similar outfits in the area. It certainly seems only fair. Of course, I would prefer to work a maximum number of hours for him because he assisted with the logistics of my getting here by helping me to find an affordable apartment. But I have to be realistic, too; I need to fill up my schedule with a combination of live and online classes as quickly as possible, to get the old cash flow going. Because no one pays my bills but me.

[esl_prof]

Within the U.S. context, it's generally understood and accepted that many part-timer instructors will cobble together a full-time living from a variety of teaching jobs at multiple schools. I suppose that visa regulations and such might dictate a different approach elsewhere in the world but, as you so well pointed out, you have to do whatever it takes to pay the bills.

Thanks for keeping us updated on your move to Queretaro. (I just now made the connection between this post and your previous posts over on the Mexico forum.) It sounds like, all things considered, your transition from Mexico City has been pretty smooth.

[Fitzgerald]

Fortunately, visa regulations in Mexico are reasonable on these points. In Korea, by contrast, you can only work legally for the outfit that brought you over. That theoretically means no private lessons, although everyone breaks the law and does them anyway.

[esl_prof]

[Fitzgerald]

[hollysuel]

In most online positions, you are an independent contractor, which means, legally, they can't stop you from working elsewhere. I have run into a few online schools, located in China and Korea, where they have a no competition clause, but they are also the ones that try to give you as many hours as you are capable of having and will pay you as an employee instead of independent contractor. For example, I had a contract with a Korean company once who contracted with an American company so they could take taxes out and actually send a W2 at tax time. However, most online companies will give part time hours and shouldn't care if you work for another company.