Redefining Piano Teaching/High Potential Start Up Culture - Stage One Professor Piano Oclef Employee Review

CULTURE 1. 100% Remote with exciting optional in-person opportunities in San Jose, CA (ex: camp, recitals, concertos, community events) 2. Company is invested in employee growth and professional development. If you voice an interest, management can help you find resources to learn skills that you’re interested in growing (ex: scoring, composing, event planning, publishing a book, graphic design, etc). These skills you can practice to help develop the company and Oclef community. Very mutually beneficial. 3. Business model is great and it works. You will see fast growth and students who truly are passionate about music. Student retention is very high because the model will set you up for success. 4. Healthy learning and work environment for students and employees. Focus is always improvement and never “perfection”. Always felt supported from everyone that I’ve worked with. 5. I also learned more about the “business side of things”: intrapreneurial skills, systems thinking, customer service, sales meetings, client relations. These are skills that I use outside of Oclef- it’s extremely valuable. 6. The teachers and students really care about piano education. Very genuine and incredible faculty to work with. If I had to sum up my colleagues in 3 words it would be: caring, hard working, and resilient. I will definitely miss working with them and the students. CURRICULUM 1. You have flexibility in building curriculum for what fits your students needs. Especially for students who have learning differences. S1 is very focused on sight-reading and prepping them for how to practice more independently in Stage 2. Goals are paired to their stages of development. 2. For students who are Stage 2+, they typically work on CM or a Path Project. They also have endless opportunities to contribute to the Oclef community or possibly even work for Oclef. It’s a very holistic education and students like to leverage these additional perks of Oclef to help their college resumes or for personal growth. I especially loved working on Path Projects with my older students who were prepping for college. It’s very rewarding for the students when they grow with this holistic approach. My students participated in recitals, camps, and even worked on publishing a book of compositions. I enjoyed watching them grow and learn to appreciate music these other lenses. BENEFITS + PAY: 1. Stock options and partner track. I became a partner within my time at Oclef and very grateful for the opportunity. I felt like I had a very important role in the company and felt very valued as an employee. I was able to bring my ideas and opinions to the table to help the company grow and evolve. 2. The financial structure is commission based. By year 2, I earned a very comfortable salary during my time at Oclef and felt very happy with my earnings for the work I put in. I also worked very hard to maintain a studio of 30+ to be able to achieve that. 3. Unlimited time off, all holidays off, week long summer break and week long winter break. This past year my work life balance was really good and there’s a great culture of respecting work life balance. Nobody is “micro-managing” you. There’s a lot of autonomy and independence which I appreciated. 4. Access to apprentices to help you take on more students, grow you studio, and balance work load as needed. 5. Employees have access to fun projects and unique opportunities. For example, I was able to score media and compose music for various projects which was a dream of mine. I also published multiple books which was another lifetime goal of mine. Other employees have conducted their own scores with our Oclef students and the San Jose Youth Symphony. Overall: Highly recommend this job if you’re very passionate about teaching piano and prefer remote teaching and don’t mind being on Zoom for long stretches of time teaching. It was a great first job for me and I left with positive memories and experiences! I gained so many skills that have enhanced my teaching and other skills that have prepared me well for my next career opportunity! I will definitely miss the community and students.

1. Oclef currently does not offer health benefits (I did not need benefits while working at Oclef, but for employees who do need benefits, I would recommend asking about alternative options). 2. Zoom fatigue. When I first grew my studio to 20+ students, I had a lot of back to back 15min classes. Definitely had Zoom fatigue from being online and working past 8pm. I recommend that you schedule in breaks as needed and set strict boundaries and be firm about it. As I grew my studio, I was able to have a lot more breaks in my schedule since they attend Kaizen class or Performance Seminars. Schedules can get pretty heavy so just be self-aware and set boundaries as needed. Use apprentices as additional help. 3. Salary can fluctuate a little bit (but not too much) if students decide to prorate, freeze, or drop. But usually most of my students didn’t freeze or prorate since piano lessons are remote and can do theory remotely even if they didn’t have a piano accessible. It just depends, so be aware the salary can fluctuate. 4. Working hours are in the afternoon-evening or early morning (typical for piano teachers). I chose to teach: 7:30am-8:15am and 2:30pm-8:30pm. (These times varied with breaks in between). I do know that the company is trying to have an earlier end time for professors in the future so keep this in mind. You are also in control of your own schedule so don’t feel that you have to take on super late times or early times. Just set clear and healthy boundaries.

not too much work and not strict management

hard to switch hours and students