Job Discussion Forums

Opiate · Joined: 10 Aug 2011 Posts: 630 Location: Qingdao

I do not understand why you are so hell bent on keeping this going. Your original post had 6? reasons you did not like this school. Two of them were petty the rest were sound. I called you out on one. This is less about the exam than it is about the trivial reasons some people look for to take issue with a school. Boohoo the school wanted you to take a meaningless and quite hilarious exam. DAMN THEM! DAMN THEM TO HELL!!!! No FT should work for such a school....amirite?

[1] My join date is hardly relevant. If the test is given by 1% or 80% of schools it is also irrelevant. This is still an absolutely petty reason to dislike a specific school. Did I think the test was pointless? Yup, and I have said as much. How you believe I am defending the exam is beyond my comprehension. I am not defending it, I am just laughing at the foolish reasons some people come up with to create a problem out of thin air.

[2] My language never implied there was a 50/50 chance or anything like it. As I said, people have had different experiences when it comes to the hiring process and most else here. This is no different. Some took it, others did not. It is likely that more people did not take it. Maybe many more. So? If you have a point to make, I am not seeing it.

[3] Are you looking for an argument this hard? Seriously? .....yeah, I said the exam was 10 minutes of your time. It is a short exam. A brief period of time. A figure of speech.

[4] Yay! A free clue for me! Maybe you should be less condescending since you are the one making a mountain out of a molehill. To clarify, I do not believe you are literally making a mountain out of a molehill, this is also a figure of speech. However you are right, I would not easily know the origin of spam email. Since I do not get any spam related to ESL or spam from Chinese companies or any spam different from before I ever set foot in China, it perhaps means that I am not getting any additional spam because of this test. So if you'd like to discuss the origin of the spam I am not getting.......have at it.

GeminiTiger · Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2012 5:14 am Post subject:

opiate,

The FAO told me this was a national requirement for this year. This was one lie, and she had lied about the commute time as well and this was just in the first 1 or 2 phone calls! I do believe that when a school asks you do abnormal things for a job offer and lies to you about it's reason you should consider why that is. I should also consider abnormal things at this stage as a sign of things to come should you take the job offer. When a FAO is comfortable lying about small things at first, a FAO will lie about big things later.

You can consider this reason as petty and childish, but that is like just your opinion man.

ps- Don't make claims you cannot prove. Don't say 10 minutes when you don't mean it. Bullshiting people about facts to try to get people to sympathize with your sense of correctness along with your many other exaggerated points is just weak. The test wasn't listed because it took an hour of my time. It was listed because it was crap, it gave out my personal information to people I didn't want to have and because the pretext for the test was based on a lie delivered by the FAO. In combination with other things it became a point of contention on why I would not accept the job that I was offered with this school.

teachfortoday · Joined: 21 Jan 2011 Posts: 48

Seems as though this school has also had some problems in the past:

"We may be leaving our position in Suzhou. What ever you do do not accept a job from Suzhou Health College!
They took out passports for 2 months and in that time did not get us the proper documentation for our residence permit and now we are illegal and they are blaming us?!?!?!?!
Absolutely ridiculous"

http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=84983

piglet44 · Joined: 26 Aug 2010 Posts: 157

Passport reason and tax reason are more valid than making you do a stupid test.I did one (over the telephone!) for a school in Fuzhou and then turned down the school cos they sounded like nitpickers.They told me it was a requirement of their Australian partner. It was quite hilarious and stupid too.. that's not necessarily the school's fault. (just my 2 mao)

Babala · Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 1303 Location: Henan

This is a different test. This one is required for you to get your FEC.

kungfuman · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 10:59 am Post subject:

Babala · Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 1303 Location: Henan

As far as I know, everyone in Suzhou is required to take it.

Miles Smiles · Joined: 07 Jun 2010 Posts: 1294 Location: Heebee Jeebee

heinz77 and Gemini Tiger

I know where you're coming from. Three-year colleges have a high turnover rate in the FAO and/or the waiban. I've been in a couple of 3-year public colleges, and I have been told that the schools are under pressure to privatize. When the funds run short, the first ones they short change is the FT.

Gemini Tiger, you nailed it. The two-campus joy ride is common to 3- year colleges and universities alike, wherever the university has built a second campus outside of town. Typically, the teachers live on the old campus, teach some classes there, then take a one-hour bus ride to the second campus. And yup, you're told that it's a twenty-minute "ride" to the second campus. AND WE'LL GIVE YOU A BICYCLE TO GET THERE! My bike was the sorriest piece of grits you'd ever want to see.

As soon as the second bus trip is mentioned, think: a one-hour ride on bus, then a twenty-minute walk across a sprawling campus.

My advice to anyone: if things begin to go south, start looking for another job. At a public university, look for an English-speaking female FAO in her late forties or older. This indicates party seniority. The older the female FAO, the more sensitive she is to the needs of her FTs.

Leave on a good note, if possible.

But back to the OP: I understand, and you have my sympathies. Not everything in China is grits. There's much to be learned. Look on the bright side if you can.