Pros
I've had experience with several online ESL companies, and in my opinion, Magic Ears is without a doubt the best one for several reasons. - Higher pay. If you look at their pay scale, they pay a solid 10-20% more than the other companies for essentially the same work. As a brand new teacher I was able to make $22 an hour, whereas all other companies offer around 16-20. - Flexible schedule and cancellation. They are extremely lenient when it comes to cancellations or time off. They also don't require a minimum amount of hours. Teach as much or as little as you want. - Great interactive customized platform. Other companies simply have scanned slides for their teaching material. The Magic Ears platform is relatively high-tech with many features. The only other company that I've seen with as good a platform as Magic Ears is Qkids. - Great support and organization. They're still a somewhat new company, so it used to be a little hectic and disorganized. However they have improved immensely in last couple of months. And I see they're still constantly improving and innovating. very responsive and never any problem with pay or anything. - Extra jobs. I've never had the privilege of being offered one, but I see that a good amount of teachers have been given extra jobs such as interviewing prospective teachers, editing, social media and others. Which is something I like to see.
Cons
A lot of the cons are not unique to Magic Ears, but I'll list them all anyway. - Awkward hours. This is inevitable and not the company's or anybody else's fault. Just a matter of geography. You'll have to face this no matter what company you go with. - Unreliable/low bookings. This can especially be true for newer teachers. Magic Ears has a system where they give more bookings to teachers who have better parent reviews and have been with the company longer. Which is totally fair if you think about it and I've experienced this myself. I got fewer bookings just starting out but I'm starting to get more now after 7 months with them. There's also periods where there's a low amount of students/bookings due to Chinese holidays. Just something to keep in mind.
