(upbeat music)
- Good morning from Tucson, Arizona.
My name is Holli and I will be taking over
ITA's Instagram stories and talking to you
about the online companies I teach with
and also why my family's move to Germany
did not work out this summer.
Every day I wake up at 3:30
and teach from four to seven,
and then the rest of the day I am free
so I can spend time with my one-year-old daughter
while my husband works.
I completed my TEFL certificate online
and I got some of my practicum hours
at a school here in Tucson
before I went to Germany and then
I finished my hours teaching online.
So I just finished teaching
my classes for the day,
my daughter is still sleeping
so that's great, I can go
enjoy some of my coffee.
And I'm gonna go over some
of the requirements and everything
with the companies I teach with next.
With VIPKID I make $8 base pay per class,
that is for 25 minutes,
and then I also get incentives.
I also get $9 for GoGoKid
as my base pay plus incentives.
I only work 15 to 20 hours a week
and I am easily able to make around $1,500,
sometimes more, a month.
With GoGoKid there's even
a $300 sign-on incentive
if you finish three classes and get
no negative feedback in your first 30 days.
You do need a Bachelor's degree
for both companies.
There's no minimum requirements
for how many hours you have
to teach each week either
so you can switch it up.
If you need to take off, you can take off
and just not open any of your slots for that week.
You also need any kind of experience
with children whether that is teaching,
which I've never taught before teaching online,
or coaching, or tutoring, anything,
helping in your church's nursery,
anything relating to helping kids or teaching.
You also need to legally be able
to work in the United States or Canada.
It does not matter where you live
in the world, it could be anywhere,
but as long as you can legally work
within the United States or Canada.
I did not need a TEFL certificate
to be able to work with these companies
so you can still apply
if you have a Bachelor's degree,
but having a TEFL certificate does
look good as well when getting hired
and it's also added to your teacher profile.
So the city we tried to move to was Leipzig,
which is basically the "new" Berlin.
It is a university city so there's a lot
of young people and there's so much to do,
and it's just absolutely beautiful,
we loved it.
The peak hiring months are September and January,
but we decided to go early July
because we just couldn't wait
and I was going to be done
with my TEFL certificate in July
so we were just ready to go.
We actually went to Berlin
for two weeks in July because we wanted
to check it out and see how we liked it,
and we thought we were gonna like it
so much we sublet a flat for two weeks
and we were kind of stuck there.
Berlin was just a little too crowded for us
and we realized that after just two days.
We had spent all of our money on that lease
and we couldn't really go back to Leipzig
until we were done paying for that.
So because we did that we delayed
looking for a flat in Leipzig
and you cannot apply for your visa in Germany
until you have a permanent residence.
It actually wasn't that hard for me
to find jobs in Leipzig, the problem was
we didn't have a flat so we had an address
for those letters of intent
so we can start the visa process.
We could have actually started looking
for a flat before we arrived in Germany
but we didn't because things were
so hectic here before the move.
We actually found a place to live
at the end of July in Leipzig.
We were actually about to sign the contract
for our flat that we found,
but after going over our budget
we realized we wouldn't have enough
to last us until our visas came in.
The freelance visa can take up to three months to get
and you can't work with those German companies
until you have it.
Even though I could have taught online
until then, it wouldn't have been enough
to provide for us until then.
Even if our visas were finished within a week
we still couldn't risk the chance
of not making enough money for our family
because it does take a while
to build up that clientele
teaching as a freelancer in another country.
We saved enough money to last us
about three months, and that's what we had,
but we probably should have saved more
since we are a family of three
and there were some unexpected costs
that came up along the way.
So when I am not teaching in the mornings
I get to spend my day
with my 18-month-old daughter Evelyn.
So I'm really thankful I get to work
from home in the mornings
and still make a really good income.
I never really gave much thought
to teaching English online,
so I'm really glad I had this experience
over the summer because I needed
to finish my practicum hours
and so, I was able to do that online.
So I'm glad that now that I'm back
I at least already have a job.
After we realized we weren't gonna
be able to stay in Germany,
we decided to have a mini vacation
before we had to go home
so we spent the last 10 days in France.
Thankfully, from teaching online
I had enough money to last us
a little bit of time in France
and also to fly back home.
That money wouldn't have been enough
to last us in Germany, but at least
we were able to use it for something fun.
So I have my TEFL certificate
to show on my teacher portal online
and hopefully, one day I'll also be able
to use it while teaching abroad
later in the future.
(upbeat music)