Job Discussion Forums

DosEquisX · Joined: 09 Dec 2010 Posts: 361

After every job interview, we are left with some kind of hunch. I suppose it's sort of a learned intuition given the amount of interviews we've had with Chinese employers. Perhaps it's something that everybody accumulates over time regardless of their experience.

The question I don't know the answer to is, "How much can we trust that first instinct?" Are you willing to let further information override that instinct (such as positive foreign teacher insight)? Or do you disregard further pursuit and move onto the next interview?

To me, it's hard to figure out the answer because we don't know what could have been if we ignored our hunch and took the job anyway.

What are your opinions?

Non Sequitur · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 4724 Location: China

Applying for my first job (2004) I would say my instincts were poor and I bailed after 6m.
My most recent job? I would say my instincts were good, but that didn't stop the employer wanting to sit down and renegotiate the contract after a few weeks.
I had NOT seen that coming!

GeminiTiger · Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 4:43 am Post subject:

my opinion-
instincts are more or less useless here.
you can't sense a lot of thing things that
happen in a country like china.

xiguagua · Joined: 09 Oct 2011 Posts: 768

I would say it's probably best to be skeptical about everything and everyone in China. I came to China with zero expectations, I was expecting the worst, so I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe since then i've gotten comfortable so i've started to expect things of people.......which has ultimately led me to be less happy. I don't think I realized the reason until I just now when I wrote that.....interesting.

chinatimes · Joined: 27 May 2012 Posts: 478

Offers are presented differently. In Korea and Japan, I had to accept or reject package offers as they stood (very little negotiating room). In China, this isn't the case. You have to make a checklist of what you want in order of priority and then discuss it with them. The further down you get the better deal you have.

The only bad experiences I have run into in China have been due to changes (2 schools changed location), and I didn't find out about the apartment at another school.