If you are interested in becoming an economics tutor, then I recommend it greatly (with some caveats below)!
Tutoring benefits
Tutoring has been great to me. It has provided the following benefits:
1) Helping students
I have been able to help several students in economics with over 1000 hours of tutoring completed. I have seen students increase their grades, with significant increases in a lot of cases. I am very grateful to the students who have accepted my help over the last years tutoring. Seeing students improve has been immensely rewarding.
2) Quitting the day job
Thanks to the generosity of several students in wanting me to be their tutor, I was able to quit my day job (as an economist). I have been able to pursue tutoring exclusively since then.
3) Location independence
Apart from two tutoring students I had when I started, all my tuition has been online. This has allowed me to move abroad and carry on tutoring. As someone who enjoys learning languages and living abroad, I am very grateful to have this location independence.
4) Calendar design
As a tutor, you decide when you can do lessons. You can plan around commitments, other projects or create more free time, as you please. You can also vary the number of students depending on what you want to do: make good money full-time, cover living costs or just as a side job.
5) Time
Related to calendar design, tuition has allowed me time. Time is one of our most valuable non-renewable resources. It has allowed me to pivot into building websites, like this website here! Being a freelancer in general is a good way to bridge the gap between employment and entrepreneurship in a relatively low risk manner.
6) Learning the skill of teaching
Teaching is a great skill to learn. Or more specifically, being able to explain a difficult concept. It is also reassuring to know that one can always fall back on being a tutor in the future if needed.
7) Economics as a rich subject
Economics is a rich subject to teach. Students come up with new ideas all the time in the sessions.
It is also a subject with methodological and presentational challenges (are economists or politicians disliked more?) and often it is poorly taught in some schools.
All the more opportunity for tutors to help make sense of economics and dispel myths, while acknowledging the difficulties faced in economics.
8) Awesome students!
Ultimately, I have been very fortunate that (almost) all the students and parents have been great to work with. So it has been a lot of fun and a great privilege!
Economics tutoring challenges
Yet tutoring does face its challenges.
There can be a lot of admin work. Emails, scheduling, writing profiles, getting reviews and doing taxes etc.
Particularly when working with third party platforms, these platforms can make things more complicated. For instance, with commissions and awkward messaging systems.
That said, they can also make things easier in terms of finding students and arranging payment.
Getting tutoring reviews is critical to growing demand for your economics tuition. Early on, this can be difficult. However when you have your first few students and if you provide a good service, you can definitely ask them for a quick review.
Economics tutoring advice
That said, being reliable, competent and having a half-decent profile on a tutoring website will put you ahead of most tutors already.
Being a tutor will not suit everyone – you need to be organised, prepare well and have a reasonable grasp on the subject.
You shouldn’t just show up to sessions without preparation (unless you reach a point where you can or you are volunteering).
I was extremely fortunate to have received an education that made this possible. I should acknowledge that it is harder for those without this privilege, on average, to stand out as a tutor.
But education is just one way to stand out.
Writing a great profile, gathering reviews, getting experience and/or having a USP (unique selling point) can set you far ahead of someone who just happens to have been to a good university.
How to deal with not knowing the answer
One big issue is “what will I do if I don’t know the answer”?
It begins with stating “I don’t know”.
I say this a lot to my students.
But that’s not it. I recommend looking for a solution e.g. I’ll look it up and get back to you; or thinking about what the solution might depend on.
The main point is: not knowing is ok, as long as you do something about it.
Contact me
If you are interested in economics tutoring, you are very welcome to reach out to me at tomftutor@gmail.com.
You can also read more about my tutoring here.
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