Tutor profile bios should be student-centric and focused on solving the student’s homework problems.
But how do you convince them you’re legit?
In this article, I’m going to share with you how new and experienced tutors get students without lots of tedious messaging.
Let’s dive in.
・What the Wharton School Can Teach Us About Connection・
In a study sponsored by the Wharton Behavioral Lab, Einav Hart, Eric VanEpps, and Maurice Schweitzer researched how to help recruiters interview job applicants.
Now:
Students want to know WHY they should choose you to help with their homework. To answer that, write a great bio that highlights your strengths.
But how?
To answer that, let’s check the core question of the Wharton research team:
Of the following competing concerns, which motive usually wins out during the interview process?
1. Desire to gather information
2. Desire to avoid discomfort and create a favorable impression
You probably already know the answer to this question, #2! No matter what our family, social, or national background, most of us prefer to save face, look good, and live in harmony with others.
This is the truth about human communication:
We are evolutionarily primed to get along and keep things simple. This is how we survive in systems, through conforming to the needs of others to get our own needs met. Einav et al. identify the major obstacle to doing that:
The concern is that by asking a sensitive question, askers risk causing discomfort that may harm the question asker’s reputation and harm their relationship with their conversational counterpart.
How does this relate to your tutor profile?
Too often, we take a bird’s eye view on our qualities without embracing the details that make our skills truly valuable to others. Your job when writing your profile? Feed the student’s desire to gather information.
For example, I attended the University of Missouri and was a GTA while getting my Masters degree. Great.
- But why should the student care?
- What did I actually do there?
- How does this position me to help a student today?
Students want to gather information about you, and these ↖️ are the questions we should be asking ourselves to establish credibility.
Which leads me to my next point.
・A Data Researcher Shares How to Connect・
Connection starts with authenticity. Which leads us to one of the world’s human connection experts, Brene Brown.
She did a viral presentation on TED that currently has over 43 million views. So it’s safe to say her ideas resonate with many people. Here’s the link (click the pic) if you haven’t watched it yet ↙️
Her message?
Embrace authenticity. After 6 years of researching the nature of human connection, here’s the point in her words:
[connected people] were willing to let go of who they thought they should be in order to be who they were, which you have to absolutely do
We must learn to show vulnerability with our potential students. Then you will convert your tutor profile into a magnet that attracts the kind of students that are true fits for your skill set.
Students have to see who you are as a tutor, where you’ve been, why you’re qualified to tutor subject X, and what you can offer them.
Answer those questions on your profile and you’ll win significantly more bids.
・The Rubber Meets the Road・
Remember that positively boring line I wrote about getting a Masters degree?
Here it is one more time:
I attended the University of Missouri and was a GTA while getting my Masters degree.
😴🤢🤧
Try this instead:
I taught 50 students how to develop practice routines, analyze music, and develop stage presence over the 2 years of getting my grad degree. Here was our result after our saxophone choir Halloween concert:
With that said, we can all embrace the standard set by Einav et al. and Brown:
- You’re a tutor in subject X. Get to the point of why you deserve to be there.
- Don’t write vapidly. Students care about how you’ve helped others before.
- Remember the human. If it’s dense and/or poorly organized, engagement will stay low.
If you’re talented in many different subjects, don’t make students guess why you chose coding and biology as subjects of expertise. Good communicators never take the details for granted.
・Conclusion・
The function of a tutor bio is to answer the WHY. And now you know how to turbocharge your SG profile. Now I want to turn it over to you.
You’re already an expert in something. What kind of details matter most to students in YOUR subjects? Is it scholarly papers published? Where you work today? Your alma mater and GPA? Groundbreaking research?
Whatever it is, leave a comment below about what matters most to students in your expertise.