Experience is very dependent on center director and owner
Pros
You get to help students. My center was in a good area, and we always had excellent students. The staff was unbelievable, and I consider them some of my best friends. Schedule is flexible, but you need to be flexible as well. Overall, I loved working here, but yes, I gave it a 2 star review for how they treated me.
Cons
During my stay at HLC, the center had a huge turnover rate. This is not the type of job that you do for money. Tutors came and left, but many of us stayed. We also had about 10 directors during my few years with the company. Almost all of them were great, but they couldn't take the pressure the owner put on them. I constantly picked up hours I did not need, just to help out. I did office chores, came in early and left late, without logging the hours. I enjoyed working there, and I would even stop by on my days off to lend a hand organizing. I picked up students when other teachers cancelled on short notice. I took the books home and learned them so I would be better able to present the material. Another tutor actually ran the center for about 5 months when we did not have a director. Although my experience with the center was overall positive, the center showed me what loyalty gets you. Word got out that the management (and new director) wanted to schedule higher-paid experienced teachers less, as they could get a revolving door of new teachers working at base pay. As a result, my hours kept dropping. My center director announced that they would no longer let tutors teach SAT prep if they could not teach both Verbal and Math. While I did score high enough to teach verbal, we had excellent verbal teachers who could no longer work. I told them I would not feel comfortable teaching. Because I had several students who only wanted to work with me, the center realized it would be a net loss if I left. I was told I would be the only math/subject tutor (for schoolwork assignments) since I was no longer able to do SAT. The next day I was scheduled to train a new subject tutor. The longest tenured teachers quit (nearly 1/2 of the staff), including the ones who helped run the center when we did not have a director. Several long-term, high hour clients have confirmed that they are not renewing their contracts, as their children only like working with these tutors. As a math-only SAT tutor, I had a lot of success during my stay at HLC. I had parents try to recruit me to work outside of the center. I took our answer books down (which had errors) and rewrote their explanations. I had students coming to the center and signing up, with the condition that I'm the only one who works with them - students requested me before I even met them. I only called out once during my years at the center (severe flu). I worked New Years, Easter, July 4th, etc for base pay. I even lost a paycheck once and didn't make a hassle because I knew the center was struggling - I only admitted it when the owner asked why I never cashed it. I didn't ask for a raise the entire time I was there, however I was awarded several raises ahead of schedule. The management decided my extra work was not worth it, and would rather pay new teachers $2 less per hour. For a 10 hour/week gig, you have to question their judgment.
