With the major health crisis affecting most people, many have had to work from home. Others may have lost their job or are facing job loss or cut hours in the future. If you’ve been toying with the idea of teaching English online, now may be the time to get started. You can supplement your hours or replace a lost income. Today I’ll show you how to start finding job openings teaching English online.

With the coronavirus affecting so many countries, some of my students in my Teaching English course have emailed me asking if teaching English is still a viable job option.
It’s a good question considering that many jobs are being badly affected. However, there’s good news for online teachers! With so many businesses and schools closing, many are going online.
For many teachers that I’ve talked to, they are busier than normal. More children are taking English lessons, as parents want to keep them busy while at home. Adults are using the time to pay more attention to the goals they have like learning English.
So how do I find a job?
Well, Google is going to be your best friend! If you’re already a Google search master you’ll be able to easily find current job listings. But what if you still don’t know where to start?
Today I’m going to show you a few search engines to use to get started. These sites have current job listings. Remember these sites are not exhaustive, meaning that not all jobs are going to be listed on these sites but they will give you a good place to start.
Dave’s ESL Cafe
Dave’s ESL Cafe is a very well-known site for English teachers. It’s especially geared towards teachers looking to work in other countries but they do have some jobs listed for online teachers.
- First, choose the International Job Board.
- Then go to the Search box and type Online
- You’ll then see a list of all the online teaching jobs available
- You can go through and find something that interests you and follow the directions to apply
Simply Hired
Simply Hired is another job board. They have many jobs in all different categories, so you’ll have to look specifically for online teaching jobs. They have quite a few online positions available.
- Start by typing online teacher in the search box.
- You’ll then get a list of all the positions available
- Look through the list to find any interesting positions that you qualify for
- Follow the directions closely on how to apply
Indeed
Indeed is another popular job search site. You’ll find a variety of different positions listed here. So like the previous example, you’ll need to search for the type of position you’re looking for.
- In the Search box, type Online Teacher or a similar term and click Find Jobs
- You’ll get a list of available jobs
- Go through the list and find something that meets your requirements
- Follow the directions closely on how to apply
Remote.co
Remote.co is a job search engine that is geared especially towards online or remote jobs. So all the jobs you find on this site are all online jobs! This is cool if you have some other skills that you can market.
- You can choose the search term Teaching in the list of example terms
- Next, you’ll get a list of available jobs
- Go through and find if any of the positions interest you
- Again follow the directions carefully for how to apply
What if I don’t qualify?
This can be a valid question. You may find that many of the positions ask for teachers to have a bachelor’s degree for example. Does this mean teaching is not for you?
Not necessarily.
There are opportunities to teach English without a degree. You can read a post about that here.
Now there are some instances where you should and should not go ahead and pursue the job, even if you don’t meet all the requirements. Let’s talk about those.
When you should pursue the job
A degree isn’t listed as a requirement.
There are some job adverts where they will list a bachelor’s degree as preferred but it’s not listed as required.
You have a degree in an unrelated field.
You may notice in some job descriptions that a bachelor’s degree is required but you will rarely see that a specific specialization is needed. This means that you don’t need to have a degree with a major in English, Linguistics or Education.
You’re a university student.
If you’re a student, you can definitely find a job teaching English online even though you haven’t finished your program. Companies like QKids hire university students.
You have previous teaching experience but no degree.
Depending on the company you may be able to present your experience instead of a degree. Now, this won’t work for Chinese teaching companies because of changes in the law but some others it could be a possibility.
You have your TESOL or TEFL certification.
This will always be to your advantage when applying to teach English online. For some schools, this is all the certification needed to start teaching. If you don’t have your teaching certification, we recommend Bridge TEFL.
When you shouldn’t apply
A degree is listed as mandatory.
Basically, if the company says they require a degree and you don’t have one, there’s really no way around this. For many companies, this may be due to government regulations over which they have no control. So, in this case, it would be good to keep looking if you don’t meet the requirements.
So can you make it happen?
Definitely! Even with the above-mentioned things in mind, many teachers are finding work online. They come from various backgrounds, with and without degrees. So using your newly found search skills you can find work to supplement your income or replace work!
If you’re just getting started teaching English online be sure to check out my FREE Teach English Online Masterclass by clicking here.
If you’re looking for an online TESOL certificate check out my top recommended TESOL course by clicking here.
Do you know of other job search sites that you’ve found useful? Share it below in the comments!
These are great suggestions – and what a perfect time for people to get into online teaching. Thanks for the detailed info at such a critical time!
Thank you, I agree very detailed information and great resources for working at home. Been praying about this, so hard to find legitimate sites for remote work. I will look into these.
Thanks so much for sharing this info not only including teaching but other work from home opportunities during this time.
Thank you! Very helpful information.