How To Become An Online Tutor: What It Is and Career Path

What is an online tutor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted Experts

Dr. Cynthia Carver,

Karen Chandler Ph.D.

An Online Tutor helps students learn in a non-classroom setting in a virtual meeting space. They usually tutor students individually or in small groups and provide various services from study skills, note-taking strategies, test preparations, homework assistance, and grasping new concepts. Their ultimate goal is to improve a student's academic performance.

To become an Online Tutor, you should keep in mind the following pointers: determining your requirements, knowing your audience, choosing your subjects, choosing a course pattern, setting a course model, choosing an online platform to see your courses, managing your courses and marketing your electronic learning platform

Educational requirements for an online tutor mainly depends on the subjects you decide to teach. For example, if you decide to teach coding, you should have at least a bachelor's degree in computer science or a related field. Most customers won't ask for work history. However, individuals who have proven history will be given preference.

An Online Tutor is a great job. Their hourly average salary is $17.63 an hour. That is over $36,000 annually. Many prefer online tutoring because it helps people earn an extra bit of cash.

What general advice would you give to an Online Tutor?

Dr. Cynthia Carver

Associate Professor & Chair, Oakland University

Be prepared to work hard - your first year of teaching will be demanding - but know that you are doing important work. We are the profession that makes all others possible. And don't forget to ask for help.

ScoreOnline TutorUS Average

Salary

2.4

Avg. Salary $30,886

Avg. Salary $59,228

Diversity

9.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.49%

Asian 11.52%

Black or African American 10.58%

Hispanic or Latino 15.43%

Unknown 5.83%

White 56.15%

Gender

female 65.88%

male 34.12%

Age - 42

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 42

Stress Level

3.9

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

5.3

Complexity Level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

9.4

Work Life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an online tutor

Explore online tutor education requirements

Most common online tutor degrees

Bachelor's

60.6 %

Master's

22.6 %

Associate

8.5 %

Start to develop specific online tutor skills

Skills	Percentages
Math	89.03%
GRE	4.18%
Grammar	1.72%
K-12	1.41%
Language Arts	1.21%

Complete relevant online tutor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New online tutors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an online tutor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real online tutor resumes.

Research online tutor duties and responsibilities

Used different tools to achieve student success such as the whiteboard, websites, and role playing.
Identify necessary technical corrections in areas such as grammar, sentence structure, and accurate word usage.
Tutor students in the subject areas of economics and business management.
Tutor for high school/college level calculus, economics, statistics, computer science

Prepare your online tutor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your online tutor resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an online tutor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Online Tutor Resume templates

Build a professional Online Tutor resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Online Tutor resume.

Apply for online tutor jobs

Now it's time to start searching for an online tutor job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do online tutors rate their job?