Earn an Income After Traumatic Brain Injury

IMPORTANT UPDATE AT THE END FOR DECEMBER 3, 2019

How can I earn an income after traumatic brain injury? I have an erratic schedule, and (for survivors) erratic energy levels?

This topic hits home for many, many brain injury survivors and caregivers.

It’s important to be accurate, realistic, and give enough information for you to decide if you want to take some next steps.

I talk with so many people in the brain injury community that desperately want to work. But full time and even part time work is out of the question.

Many people write me asking about this topic.

I’ve responded to many of you recently saying that I’m working on something. Thank you for being patient.

I really wanted to know that this was a legitimate option, before I publicized it.

Since late October, I have turned myself into a guinea pig. First I wanted to see if this was legit and then I wanted to up with some strategies that I think would work best for brain injury survivors.

I’m finally ready to make it public.

Before I start, I want to let you all know that this isn’t going to work for everyone for various reasons (I’ll get into that later). It is work. It will take effort and time to start seeing an income. Again there are various factors that play into that. All of which I will get into.

Off the bat, you need to be a Canadian or US Citizen. Or be able to legally work in those countries.

FYI, you do not have to pay anything for this opportunity. You might need to buy a few materials to prepare for the interview process, but they are very inexpensive. If you have kids or grandkids nearby, you might not have to buy anything.

Background

As I looked for possible employment opportunities, here are some things I felt were important:

• Flexible schedule where you set your own hours
• Ability to earn some money, spur of the moment, if you find that you have some extra energy
• Ability to regulate your earnings to avoid problems with income for those who receive SSDI or other assistance that imposes limits on your income

This opportunity meets all of these requirements.

Enough with the Build Up. Tell Me Already

The opportunity is to be an online English teacher for a company called VIPKID.

VIPKID is a company that teaches English to kids in China via virtual classes with native English speaking teachers.

The lesson plans are already created via PowerPoint presentations with various levels of interactivity that teachers can do with the students.

Classes are 1 on 1 with a student and last 25 minutes each. And occasionally parents sit in to listen and observe classes.

I first saw them on my Facebook feed. After seeing them many times, I decided to do some research. It sounded almost too good to be true.

You really do set your own schedule around your availability. You can teach as many or as few classes as you want as long as you don’t go more than two weeks between classes.

The minimum you make is $7/class. Which works out to $14/hr. I’ve never made that little and I’m almost at the bottom of their pay scale. I’ll explain how that works in a little bit.

However you look at it, that’s much better than the minimum wage jobs many of us can find.

Requirements

There are several requirements for being able to get hired by the company.

• You have to have attended K-12 school in the US or Canada/
• You have to have a bachelors degree at a minimum.
• You have to speak with a non-regional US accent (or at least be able to turn your accent off).
• English must be your first language.
• You can live outside of the US and Canada as long as you can legally work in those countries.
• You need some experience teaching children or youth. My experience teaching Sunday school at my church and working with Boy Scouts qualified me.

I’m sorry if you were disqualified from that list. I knew when I started looking that I wouldn’t one solution that would work for everyone.

Now, in addition to that, here are some other qualities that will help move you forward if you try this.

• Be good with kids. It’s ok if you prefer one age group to another. You can target that group during your hiring process
• You need to be somewhat tech savvy. I don’t think the skills required are particularly difficult, and some of them you can learn on the fly. I should put a disclaimer here that I am quite tech savvy, so my perspective might be skewed. However, I see many older people in the training classes. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m guessing many of them are not tech savvy.

Considerations

Here are some other things to keep in mind as you consider this:

Schedule

The time difference from the US to China is quite a lot. As I am writing this, the peak teaching times during the week are 3am-7am MST (6pm-10pm BJT. All of China is on one time zone). On the weekends, parent look for teachers Saturday and Sunday mornings and evenings. For us on the other side of the International Dateline, that means Friday night to Saturday mornings and Saturday night to Sunday mornings.

Peak teaching times during standard time (currently November-March)

• Eastern 5am-9am weekdays, 8pm Friday to 9am Saturday, 8pm Saturday to 9am Sunday
• Central 4am-8am, 7pm Friday to 8am Saturday, 7pm Saturday to 8am Sunday
• Mountain 3am-7am, 6pm Friday to 7am Saturday, 6pm Saturday to 7am Sunday
• Pacific 2am-6am, 5pm Friday to 6am Saturday, 5pm Saturday to 6am Sunday

Peak teaching times during daylight time (currently March-November)

• Eastern 6am-10am weekdays, 7pm Friday to 8am Saturday, 7pm Saturday to 8am Sunday
• Central 5am-9am weekdays, 8pm Friday to 9am Saturday, 8pm Saturday to 9am Sunday
• Mountain 4am-8am weekdays, 7pm Friday to 8am Saturday, 7pm Saturday to 8am Sunday
• Pacific 3am-7am weekdays, 6pm Friday to 7am Saturday, 6pm Saturday to 7am Sunday

These are the hours when kids come home from school and parents want teachers. Some teachers (especially with the younger kids) are successful in teaching in the evenings in the US. This is typically when the younger kids come home from school for lunch. It generally looks like this is something that these teacher work up to once they have been teaching for a little while.

While the hours are unorthodox (especially as you move west), there are a few benefits to them.

• Survivors can do their work first thing before other responsibilities sap them of their energy
• Homes are usually quiet during those times and allow minimal distractions
• Caregivers can earn some money before their loved one wakes up to start the day

Earnings

Short Answer:

• October 2018 – $133 for 14 classes ($9.50/class)
• November 2018 – $1,503 for 151 classes ($9.96/class)
• December 2018 – $1,881 for 198 classes ($9.50/class)
• January 2019 – I’ll probably make $2,200 for 230-240 classes ($9.50/class)

These are all gross amounts. You are an independent contractor with the company, so you have to make sure to hold back your taxes. I personally put 30% into a savings account before I spend any of it.

Long Answer:

When you are hired, you are given a base rate. It can be as low as $7/class up to $9/class. The exact amount depends on your education, teaching experience, ESL (English as a second language) experience, and how you do on your practice lessons during the hiring process.

I’m not a professional teacher, I have no formal teaching experience, and I only have a bachelor degree, so my base rate is $7.50/class. Masters degree? Formal teaching experience? ESL teaching certificate? Each of those can add to your base pay.

To be honest, I almost never receive as little as $7.50/class.

As soon as you complete a class, you are automatically given a $1/class bonus. That is for each class. That brings me up to $8.50.

There are volume bonuses too. If you teach more than 32 classes/month, they give you $.50/class more. If you teach more than 45 classes/month, they give you $1/class bonus. Both incentives are retroactive for every class that month.

If I teach more than 45 classes per month, my rate is $7.50 +$1 (completion bonus)+$1 (volume bonus)=$9.50/class.

Occasionally, some other things kick in to add to my earnings as well. If someone schedules a class less than 24 hours in advance, VIPKID gives you a $2 bonus for that class. For me, that means that short notice classes are $11.50 for a 25 minute class.

The only time I make $7.50/class is when someone cancels a class less than 24 hours before class. VIPKID will compensate for for short notice cancellations at your base rate.

Here is the schedule I am working to make the money I did:

• Monday-Friday 3am-7am MST (8 classes back to back)
• Friday and Saturday night 6-10pm MST (8 classes back to back)

This is something that I have worked up to as I have become comfortable with the teaching style, lesson material, and classroom management.

When you start, teaching these hours will stress you out and burn you out. Give yourself moderate expectations and be patient as you learn. I have a recommended schedule that you can start with and some recommendations if you need to make adjustments based on your brain injury situation.

Client Build-up

If you do some research on VIPKID, one of the biggest complaints you will find is how long it takes people to have classes to teach.

As I understand it (I’ve never seen the user interface from the parent/student perspective), essentially all teachers are in a directory, and the parents select you to teach their child.

I commonly hear that students trickle in for 30-60 days before teachers start to really fill their schedules.

With some research and strategy, there are things you can do to improve your odds. It worked for me, and I see comments from others who were hired at the same time I was who have taught nearly the same number of classes.

Equipment and Setup

As I mentioned, there is no cost for the application and interview process. However, you will need to purchase some tech and paper goods to be able to teach virtually.

In your first interview, they expect you to have an “educational environment” for your virtual classroom. This means you need some kind of a background. For me that meant a $6 world map, a 10×14 poster board with my name on it, a small Walmart whiteboard with markers, and a paper moon with some rocket ships to use as a reward. The whole thing was probably $20.

The tech equipment wasn’t crazy. I purchased a good webcam ($50). Many laptops have them now, so you might not need one if you will be teaching from a laptop. I had a USB headset with a mic already, but you can pick up a headset and mic for $8. My daily use headset cost me $24. You don’t need anything crazy, but it does need a mic that comes down to your mouth. Here are some pictures and links to the two I have.

Keep it simple. You don’t want to spend a lot of money, until you know that this is going to work out.

In addition to the props you have, you also need to make sure the lighting is good. Depending on your resources, it may take some experimenting to find a good spot in your house. I teach in my basement. I achieve good lighting with two desk lamps and some modifications to my camera settings.

But that’s it. You shouldn’t need to spend more that $85-100 for your stuff. Many of you are probably more resourceful that I am and can do it for less.

Hiring Process

There are few routes to being hired. They all start differently, then end the same.

1. Interview – The first and most common way is to have an initial interview with a brief lesson. To get to the interview, you fill out the online application and then schedule an interview. The interview is with someone in China. Within a day or two after the interview, you will hear back if you passed. They’ll send you some feedback of things to work on.
2. Recorded lesson – Forgo the interview and teach in a virtual classroom. In this situation, you only teach the practice lesson. Then you wait a day or two to receive feedback and see if you pass or fail.
3. Express Lesson – Once you have applied, you will get several emails telling you to schedule a time for your interview. If you ignore them for a few days, they will send you an email with the option for an express interview. This is slightly different from the initial interview option, as the teaching periods are shorter.
4. Coaching Days (this is what I did) – In various places around the country, VIPKID holds live training seminars, with experienced teachers, to give you some training and tips for teaching English in a virtual classroom.

After you pass the initial step.

With whichever option you choose, your goal is to pass it. One good thing about the Coaching Days option, is that you automatically jump to “Pass” without having to teach anything.

Once you get passed this first step (whichever of the 4 options you choose), you are “in”. While you still have a few steps to go, you can redo them as often as you need until you pass.

At this point, you need to present a mock class with a VIPKID evaluator. There are several possibilities of what you will present that depend on what age and English level you want to teach.

Once you pass this mock class (after the first time, or after the 10th), they will issue you a contract and you will need to upload your employment and education documents.

FYI, one of the education documents is an ESL (English as a second language) certification. VIPKID has one that you can do for free as part of the hiring process. There is one you can purchase from Groupon that is supposed to be easier than the VIPKID one. I have only taken the VIPKID quiz, and it was an older version. The new one is half of what I did.

That’s it. Now you can set your schedule and start teaching.

Get started or ask me questions

While this isn’t going to work for everyone, this can be a great opportunity for many. If you want to get started, you can sign up here. Here are instructions to make the signup process simple and easy.

Once you sign-up, I’ll be in touch to go over some things and help you get ready for the hiring process. I’m working with a few people right now, and we are seeing good results for them.

So you know…

VIPKID gives a referral incentive for referring new teachers. Using the referral link above means I get the incentive when you get hired.

There is no charge to you when I receive the incentive.

I truly feel like this company is an opportunity for many brain injury survivors and their caregivers to earn some income with a flexible schedule. I am creating resources to help move you through the hiring process and get started building your client base. There will be special attention to conditions specific to brain injury included in these resources.

My benefit from helping you through the process is added financial resources to create more ways to help others on our shared journey through brain injury.

Help others while helping yourself. Sounds like a win-win

Recap

VIPKID can be a great opportunity for many brain injury survivors and caregivers to earn an income on a flexible schedule.

If you want to sign up and get started, click here.

If you want to ask me questions and be on the video call, fill out the form above.

Do you know of other good opportunities for those touched by brain injury to earn an income? Please share in the comments below.

UPDATE
VIPKid used to allow teachers to see the email addresses of those who used their referral code. To protect privacy, they are only allowing us to see this m***********@gmail.com, so I can’t reach out to you as I promised.

If you would like my help through the hiring process, please send me an email after you submit your application. Just tell me your first name and the email address you used to apply. My email address is

ma**@re***************.com











. Then we can get the ball rolling and help you start teaching.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you soon!