Job Discussion Forums

[Raul739]

Is it okay to request the email or phone of expat teachers who are currently on the ground of the country from the employer/recruiter? So I can verify if they have been misled by the employer/recruiter and so that I will not fall for the same trap. Assuming they will actually give me the contact info.

[nomad soul]

You can ask, but be aware you risk getting contact info of hand-selected, biased employees who might provide sugar-coated responses only. Therefore, it's better to post your questions about specific employers within these forums.

[scot47]

That would be an inappropriate request. Even if the employer conceded, what sort of creep would (s)he put you in touch with ?

[rosalind]

I don't think it's an inappropriate request at all. Some of these institutions have a very low online profile, at least in English, making it hard to figure out on one's own how reliable they are or how strong their reputation is.

For me, as an American (and a woman) going to Saudi Arabia for the first time, I would not, and did not, accept a job offer from an employer with a low online profile until I had communicated with other Westerners currently working there, who could vouch that their contract terms, living conditions, and personal safety were all up to par. I think that's an extremely normal kind of due diligence to perform, particularly when going to countries where foreigners' rights are not clearly protected by law.

Some of the recruiters I'm working with offered up front to put me in contact with current employees. (Admittedly, yes, those people run the risk of being hand-picked.)

I don't see how this would be inappropriate on the part of HR or the recruiter. Obviously, they will have secured permission from the current employees in question before handing out their contact info to new recruits. I also don't see why, scot47, you imply the employee would necessarily be a "creep." These are people who will have dealt with the same questions during their own job search.

I did, however, have the problem of the recruiter and university HR not being able (or willing, in a timely manner) to give me any such contacts. At the suggestion of friends, I took the route of first searching LinkedIn to see if I could find any current employees; and then signing up for a one-month LinkedIn Premium membership (actually a free trial, luckily), which allows you to send "InMail" messages to people even if they are outside your networks. I reached out politely, and, luckily for me, received some very friendly and generous responses.

This is the only method I found for researching this particular employer. If it hadn't worked, then I quite simply would not have accepted the offer. I would have gone instead with one that might have somewhat less advantageous terms, but did have an HR department and/or recruiter willing and able to put me in touch with people I could talk to one-on-one.

I do of course agree that it's a good idea to also post questions here. However, helpful as it is, this forum is simply not able to provide answers to all questions.

In my case, I wanted to contact women who had worked for this specific employer within the last three years. Since
a.) these forums skew heavily male,
and
b.) as has been mentioned elsewhere, people come here more often to complain than to praise, which means a well-run employer may not be much discussed,

asking here yielded limited advice, albeit useful to the extent it was able to cover.

I hope my experience is useful to you.

[nomad soul]

[Shaecarts]

you might want to try something like Linked In and start a conversation with a current or former teacher.