Being a tutor could be as fascinating as you think or you make it, however, as every coin has two sides, this profession too has its pros and cons. Let’s see how this profession makes your life easier or difficult over time and what you could do about it to feel better.
Pro: There is never a lack of work for a college Tutor
The profession is such that there is always a demand for a college tutor. The money paid to a college tutor is also a good amount. Especially if you have spent around two years in this profession, there is a handful of money that you can earn being a tutor. There are so many students and even brilliant ones are looking for some guidance in the form of a tutor. You can be in any place, and this profession will always have some sort of demand.
Pro: The job comes with a certain amount of flexibility
This is like being self-employed, you don’t have to listen to anyone else and can do your own thing. No performance pressure, no restrictions on time when you should work and no peer pressure. You decide on your timings to work, you decide your number of students and how you want to keep it. You can work as many hours as you want, and every hour spent counts as more money earned. Which tends to keep you motivated as well. You don’t work for others but by yourself.
Pro: There is no bound on what subjects you can teach
Things like the recession never touch this profession. You just need to be confident in your subject and you will always have a market for it. The best part is your confidence and mastery grow over time as you just add on to your knowledge and skills. As you become more pro in your subject, you tend to earn better with time and things become easier. You can do it on your own or get involved with some tutoring agency, it is all up to you.
Pro: No time limit for this profession
This profession can be done both as a part-time job to earn extra bucks and as a full-time job to become a reputed tutor over time. There is no end to this profession and no time limit. You can work in extra time and mostly it occurs during hours when students are not in college that is during weekends and evening hours, and hence you can pursue without any bound with your other full-time job to earn extra bucks.
Cons: It could be difficult to start up as a tutor
Starting up as a tutor could be somewhat difficult as it requires a lot of patience and effort to establish yourself. If you are already a master of your subject, then maybe it could be fine but dealing with college students without a flair for your subject could take a toll on your reputation for a long time. We suggest that in the start one should start with being a tutor with an agency and then once you establish your confidence and build a line of students you must start your way to tutoring.
Cons: Risk of payments
Many times your payments and demand depend on your student’s performance. If your student fails to perform over time, then you might get kicked out and won’t even get paid at the last session. The trick is to ask for advance payments or payments after every session if you are teaching some high-end courses. This way you can save yourself going broke at the end of your month and not getting paid even if they don’t want you after a certain period.
Cons: Toll on your social life
Tutoring students, mostly happen during weekends and evening hours and hence you might get restricted during these hours to entertain anybody else. And as your demand will increase, your students will ask for more and more of your time. A simple tutoring session goes anywhere from one hour to two hours during peak evening hours and your availability may depend on the number of sessions you might be taking. Also, multiple sessions mean more earning potential, however, it’s up to you how you manage your work-life balance.
Cons: Initial progress can be slow
In the starting phase, you might get difficulty finding students. The growth could be slow, and it could be frustrating. It is like any business while setting up, there is a lot of effort involved maybe with very minimal or no profits. You must deal with this with patience and keep working your way to improving your skills and building up your repo in the market as a good and successful tutor. As easy it seems to become a tutor, a similar toll it could take on your future. You may have to put in a lot of effort into solving books and questionnaires before you present them to your students. It, not an easy profession as it seems if you were not a pro-student during your own college time.
Being a tutor comes with its pros and cons. But you can do it as being a student yourself as well if you have so much confidence in your subject. Sometimes you can just take up this profession to help your juniors, however, this profession comes with a lot of commitment as your students will look up to you for their success and you can leave the field without any stone unturned. There are a lot of moral obligations and expectations build-out of you to make all your students succeed and pass with flying colors. You might have to put extra effort into each of your students and build a learning plan for each one of them. It not just that you understand the subject well, it’s also about the methods you deliver to your students and how they pursue it further.