An Inside Look At Our Insane Process For Hiring Spanish Teachers

*This video is now out of date. We have a very selective process (actually more selective than described here), but this is no longer the exact process and exact list of qualifications we have.


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In this video, we unveil our entire hiring process here at BaseLang, showing you exactly what we look for and how we hire Spanish teachers. We know that the quality of our tutors is the most important thing for a company like ours, so we wanted to be 100% transparent about how we make sure they are amazing.

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“Oh my god man, she was terrible. I literally asked for more advanced stuff, and the next day she comes in and starts talking about the difference between Ser and Estar. Which I thought I understood, until she used some complex explanation that made no sense, and…”

I sat and listened.

I felt my friend’s pain. A terrible teacher is not just a waste of money, but time. But it’s hard to know what you’re getting into before you just try them out.

At https://BaseLang.com, you can do just that – try us out for a week for just $1.

But, I imagine you want to know how we hire our teachers first. How do you know they are any good?

That’s what this post is about. It’s an inside look at the full, rigorous process someone goes through to get hired as a BaseLang teacher.

We’re very selective.

Step 1: Application #
First, prospective teachers have to fill out an in-depth application.

We source applicants through long-standing relationships (read: years, sometimes decade-long relationships – this is how we are so successful in sourcing the best teachers and have so many applicants) in certain cities.

We also have developed a reputation for being an awesome place to work in those cities (we pay our teachers above average wages, give tons of support, healthcare, and they spend all day talking to fascinating people all around the world just like you), and get a lot of organic applications.

Step 2: Initial Review
Once an application is submitted, Joel (who handles the first round of hiring, passing on the top 20% or so to the next stage) reads each application, checking for a few key things first:

Degree
Has a degree in teaching both Spanish and English. By having both, it means that a) their English is fluent, and b) they understand both languages deeply, and thus can explain the differences better.

Experience
We hire teachers who have substantial experience actually teaching.

Age
We don’t discriminate on age (just experience). This is because BaseLang students range from teenagers to people in their late 60s, and different students naturally prefer teachers who are closer to them in age. Most teachers are in their late 20s or 30s, however.

Fun
If we wouldn’t have a beer with them, we won’t hire them. It’s very important that our teachers are charismatic, fun to talk to, and are super friendly. If someone is great on paper, but boring, they don’t get hired. This is important because if you don’t love sitting talking to your teacher, not only is it less enjoyable, but you learn slower and are more likely to quit the language as a whole.

Internet speed
We test their internet, both with sample calls and using speedtest tools to make sure they have a quality connection. We actually provide all teachers a data plan as well in case this goes out, so classes are never missed if the internet goes down or is choppy on a particular day.

Attitude
We check that they have a mindset of always wanting to improve. We make sure they are professional but not robotic. We make sure they can take constructive criticism well and immediately use this to improve (we have an optional feedback form after every class where you can tell us what your teacher could do better, and what you loved so they can keep doing that – you can actually read every single response to that here).

If a teacher passes the initial review, they move on to step 3.

Step 3: Teaching test #
The teacher has a mock lesson with Karina, who manages our teachers.

Karina acts like a struggling student who gets confused easily and challenges the teachers to be very clear. We cover topics at different levels and different styles of lessons to check teaching skills.

Keep reading the rest of this post here: https://baselang.com/blog/company/pro...

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