Air Tutors Review Summary

Air Tutors is a US company hiring experienced graduates on $45 an hour (pro rata) to tutor small classes of 1-4 K-12 schoolchildren online. A teaching certificate isn’t required but the application has several stages, hours are flexible but are allocated first come, first served, and there is less demand in summer.

Air Tutors Pros and Cons

Pros:

• High potential pay of $45 an hour
• No teaching certificate required
• Classes are assigned for a whole semester or year
• Mostly positive reviews from its tutors

Cons:

• Multi-stage application process
• Must have tutoring experience
• Classes are first come, first served
• Less demand over the summer months

Is Air Tutors Legit?

Air Tutors (not to be confused with AirClass, who is also hiring), is an online tutoring company that is based in Los Angeles, California, and was founded by CEO Hasan Ali in 2015. Its legitimacy is underlined by having formed several public school partnerships, and being featured in American media such as this news report:

What Is Air Tutors?

Air Tutors works with public schools across the United States to help struggling K-12 students get the support they need through targeted, customized tutoring.

You may choose the grades and subjects you wish to tutor, though support is primarily needed for Math, English and Science.

Air Tutors tutoring is conducted online using a Miro virtual whiteboard, either one-on-one or with small groups of up to 4 students.

Worksheets are often available, and older students may upload their homework or study guide to work through, though tutors will sometimes produce their own supplementary materials.

Communication, including class allocation, is conducted through Slack.

How Much Does Air Tutors Pay?

The Air Tutors salary is one of the higher pay rates you will currently find amongst online tutoring companies, being US$45 an hour. This is billed in 15-minute increments, meaning you have to teach a 60-minute class or two 25/30-minute classes within that time to receive the full hourly rate.

Air Tutors Hours and Schedule

The length of Air Tutors classes can range between 25, 30, 35, 45, 60 and 90 minutes long.

Tutors choose when they wish to make themselves available. There is higher demand between 2-5pm (PST), however, times are available during and outside of school hours and on weekends for multiple time zones.

Class requests are sent out by the company via Slack that match tutors’ availabilities, and are then allocated on a first come, first served basis, according to who grabs the opportunity first. These can disappear quickly, meaning a constant and vigilant monitoring of Slack is required to secure sufficient paid work.

Tutors usually retain their classes for the full semester or year, depending on the school district, though hours drop off over the summer months.

Air Tutors Requirements

Air Tutors is looking for:

• US residents
• Exceptional educators with ‘plenty of’ classroom teaching experience and a passion for mentoring students
• Graduates from top universities
• Enthusiasm and a communication style that shines through the web
• Bilingual educators (welcomed but not essential)

Air Tutors Application Process

There are 5 stages to the Air Tutors hiring process:

1. Application form
2. Questionnaire
3. Self-recorded video
4. Interview and teaching demo
5. Fingerprint and background check

To begin, visit the Air Tutors careers page and submit the following details:

• Full name
• Email address
• Phone number
• Do You Live In The United States of America?
• What is your highest degree earned?
• How many years of academic teaching experience do you have?
• Upload a resume (accepted files: pdf, doc, docx, max. size: 128 MB)
• Tell us a bit about you and why you wish to work with us

Should your application form pass the initial screening, you will be invited to answer a questionnaire and record a 2-3 minute video discussing your background and displaying your personality (you may be asked to share something funny or memorable from your career).

Air Tutors Interview

The final interview lasts up to 40 minutes, including 10 minutes for a teaching demo where the interviewer will role-play as a student. You will use the Miro board for this, and be sure to make your mock lesson interactive, as otherwise interviewers have been known to act bored and start scibbling on the screen!

These are Air Tutors interview questions that have previously been asked:

• Tell us about yourself.
• Describe your teaching style and experience.
• Why are you interested in working with Air Tutors?
• What grades and subjects do you feel comfortable teaching?
• What grade is your lesson geared for and what is your goal with the lesson?
• How would you handle a disruptive student?
• What is one funny/memorable teaching moment?
• What do you do for fun?

Air Tutors Reviews – What Is It Like Working for Air Tutors?

The Air Tutors Glassdoor page gives the company an overall score of 4 out of 5, with 83% willing to recommend them, though this comes from just 27 contributors (at the time of writing). I have collated all the comments from these Air Tutors job reviews, which talk positively about the flexible schedule, supportive admin, pay and communication, though there are complaints regarding inconsistent hours (especially during summer), technical issues, and difficult-to-motivate students, while views of management and the platform are mixed:

• Advantages:
  • “Easy once you get the hang of it, contacting admins for help is easy as well.
  • Flex time is great at home. All positive aspects of remote work.
  • Great pay, innovative platform, and leadership that truly cared.
  • Flexible time, work from home.
  • Flexible with schedule. Good pay.
  • Great place to work at.
  • Positive and supportive work environment.
  • I loved working with the kids! And many of the other tutors are really great.
  • Great work environment! Supportive team!
  • Great leadership, good compensation (hourly pay), communication.
  • Excellent communication between employees and management team -Management team respects all the employees -Management team works hard to match students with tutors -Management team never pushes employees to take on new students -Students and parents are really great to work with.
  • I love the sense of community I have with the other tutors. The application process was lengthy, but understandable as AirTutors does not hire any novice tutors, only professional tutors with a proven history of success with students. Hasan and the rest of the administrative staff are so passionate about the work and it seeps through in every conversation.”
• Disadvantages:
  • “Not many classes to pick up, technical issues arise often.
  • Students are difficult to motivate.
  • They ask for a lot of work, hours are limited, not a very good pay.
  • Inconsistent hours. Low summer opportunities.
  • Management is very disorganized and disrespectful. They consistently ask staff members to do work that isn’t compensated (but is required for the job). I ultimately left the position after being asked to do unpaid work and being treated very poorly by management when I (fairly) requested compensation for my time.
  • Lack of opportunity for full-time work.
  • The online tutoring platform could do with improvements (like a chat feature in case a student’s mic stops working).”

There are currently only 2 Air Tutors employee reviews on Indeed, rated 4* and 5*, which concur mostly with the previous comments, adding that there are subbing opportunities, though tutoring materials will sometimes have to be created:

Conclusion – Is Air Tutors Worth It?

Air Tutors offers one of the most attractive pay rates currently available among online teaching jobs, and so are certainly worth considering by those who qualify, especially as tutor reviews are also generally positive. The biggest negative is the fact that bookings are assigned to those who respond fastest on Slack, meaning you will have to be active in looking out for jobs on this channel. The company is also not the best option for those needing summer hours.

You can apply for Air Tutors jobs through their website. Additional opportunities can be found in our list of online teaching companies.