Job Discussion Forums

[LarssonCrew]

Well, I finished my middle school this week, and I start at an international school in September.

I wanted to get some big hours down in the summer to pay for a trip home, and I saw an advertisement on echinacities for a New Oriental summer camp.

It was about a month ago,and stated it was 225 total teaching hours across 5 weeks with 2 days in between. I don't mind, I have loads of activities and games saved from my 18 months of teaching middle school.

The pay CLEARLY stated 200 per hour, 45,000 in total [ok, I expected some taxes, but lets say 35,000]

Anyway finally I get an email today, they ask if I'm still interested, sure I am, so I say let's do it.

I get the offer, and my jaw dropped.

I copied and pasted:


I am really glad to tell you the E plan program is undertook by Xi'an New Oriental School and the location is a Xi'an middle school. The courses mainly includes listening and speaking English. We have a textbook for it and you can prepare something on speaking and listening and combine to the textbook. The start time respectively are July 9th, July 18th and August 3rd. And each course for 7 days. Each class has about 20 persons and no more than 40. All students are middle and high school students. Teachers should work 6 to 8 hours a day and get 1000 RMB(before tax) a week. and we will provide 3 meals a day and a dormitory during your working time. If you can accept it we would like to do something you need to help you get your working Visa. We' d like to cooperate with you and hope to hear you soon! Have a good night!

I thought she mis-typed 10,000 as 1,000 but she added me on wechat and confirmed, it's 1000.

Let me work that out for you, you give your entire days for a week, living on site so they can no doubt get you to do promotion or activities, teach 6-8 hours a day [probably 8] to between 20-40 kids [it means 40] and pay you 1000 a week[BEFORE TAX].

Yup, $145 dollars pre tax for 50 hours [let's average 7 hours a day].

Yup, that's 20 rmb an hour.

1/10th of one of the original offer.

My wife is involved with one of the best universities in Xi'an and inquired the price for a student, 2,888 RMB.

So one week 40 students - 115,520 RMB.

And they pay teachers 1000.

I think I'm actually insulted, 2 years of middle school teaching experience, 4 years in China, and this is about as low as it gets.

Oh, and the living quarters are 6 person student dormitory.

Has a job offer ever got any lower than this?

Just found original job offer:

http://jobs.echinacities.com/jobchapter/1354441419

If you're too lazy to click it let me post a little info:

"Job Description

Responsibilities: Teach and build students’ confidence in conversational English, introduce students to western culture, Design lesson plans and class activities, organize games and sporting events, and participate in extracurricular camp activities

Classroom: Classrooms are equipped with LCD projectors, screens, microphones, and speakers; should interns choose to use a computer they must use their own.

Dates: July 3 – August 19

Orientation and basic training: July 5

Class start date: July 6

Number of sessions: 5 (2 day rest between sessions)
Length of each session: 7.5 days
Number of teaching hours per session: 45
Number of teaching hours per day: 6

Student’s age ranges from primary to high school students
Number of students per class is approximately 30
TA’s will be available to teachers and present in class

Total number of working hours: 225
Hourly salary: 200rmb/hour"

[The_Kong]

I'm sure they will find a nice Cameroonian gent to do this

Non-native English speaker would probably be the only one desperate enough to take this horrible offer.

Thanks for sharing.

[Markness]

I would reply back and ask them if this is some sort of joke. We are in DEMAND here to the point where they take non-native speakers quite regularly. 1000 RMB is a damn insult and the greedy rats that they are will continue to keep posting these sorts of ads as long as people keep accepting them. Some clown obviously is taking this sort of awful pay. I don't know why anyone would take 1000RMB for a week of working full-time when they can make that money in 5 hours of work working part-time at schools.

I hope their camp fails hard. And I would be enough of a dick to "accept" the position and then go "woops!" once they start to process things. Give them a bureaucratic middle-finger.

[Markness]

Hell, we should create a thread called "ESL Hall of Shame for job postings", and use this to start it off.

[Toast]

Funny, as far as regular part time gigs go I never found New Oriental to be that bad. In the Wu' they generally paid 200 an hour while the others would force you to negotiate and beg for a more or less standard 150. (100/hr at WEB? *beep* off.) Not defending this camp in the slightest, as unless there's some kind of mistake it's a truly awful offer. Just would have assumed if they take care of their workers financially in a regular setting that they'd at least do likewise for a summer camp where they are pocketing some serious coin. Typical pennywise pound-foolish behavior.

[Javelin of Radiance]

If the job ad really is only offering 1000 a week then its obviously not going to get the best "teachers" and is probably aimed at those who have no qualifications and nothing better to do (African students on holiday, backpackers passing through, and what not). ESL is a business and every coin has two sides. From a teacher's perspective this offer looks like a big time shaft. From the school owner side, getting people to work for less while raking in more student fees, is considered a successful business model. You don't have to like it but that's the way it is.

I have a feeling whoever was spoken to on wechat or on the phone may have mistaken 1000 (一千) for 10,000 (一万). Common mistake with Chinese speakers of English (and possibly some native speakers too). Post the phone number and I'll ring em up to triple-check, got nothing better to do right now.

OK, please continue with faux outrage.

[Non Sequitur]

If you are staying on a your current U and in your apartment, look for summer work from home. This is probably an option for NZ, AU and SA teachers who are not much interested in a winter holiday in the Sthn Hemisphere.
The best I had was Wednesday to Sunday at a remote place about 3 hours by train away from home base. I stayed with the owners during the work days and went home to my uni flat for the Monday/Tuesday 'weekend'.
I did much the same timetable from my uni flat over another summer. Less commuting of course but the kids weren't so willing to learn ie city kids and spoiled.
Summer school to Westerners implies a remote camp-type scenario but think of it as 'summer work' and it gets easier and more plentiful.

[The Voice Of Reason]

Ugh [shudder] Summer Camp. Bu Yao xie xie.

[LarssonCrew]

Voice of Reason, I somewhat agree, but I thought on my 3 month summer break I could work 5 weeks, put away 45,000 and spend that 45000 enjoying the other 7 weeks.

Update, they came back to me and said there was a grave mistake, the offer has now been put up to 1500 a week, as long as I can give 3 days for free at the start to prepare all the materials for the Chinese teachers.

I didn't even waste my time replying.

[Non Sequitur]

Good move well done!
Best
NS

[coldcucumber]

I posted a reply to their ad. We'll see if I get the same reply.

[jimpellow]

I would assume that this is one of those deals where they are approaching ten thousand foreigners and looking for the handful who fall for it.

Another possibility is that in the past they were hiring non native speakers, or those from unapproved countries. Now with the new visa laws that supply is drying up, so they are simply and myopically applying their old strategy towards native speakers now.

If I were you and wanted to stay in China and make some money I would probably teach online or spend the summer in a city like Qingdao teaching Koreans in their apartments and such. Very easy to get good paying students and a great city to spend the summer. Plus with the new visa laws, I wouldn't want to be in another school from the one my visa was for if the authorities stopped by.

All the best!

[Songbird]

Very odd that NE is offering a dismal salary. I did a summer camp up in Beijing last summer with them. Hotel provided for a 2 x 7.5 day camp, bussed out to the venue (they were nice enough to realise the FT's would rather stay in the city than the middle of nowhere) and paid about 15,000 for it.

[kungfuman]

I worked for New Oriental before. They are the worst now it seems. In Suzhou no one wants to work for them. Several of my friends asked me about them and I warned them away - they didn't listen and got royally ripped off. they were promised a certain salary but when pay day came their pay was shorted by about 30y an hour. Everyone had this problem.

I would avoid New Oriental in Suzhou at all costs.

[Javelin of Radiance]

After seeing this thread I replied to the job ad in question and got a reply from a New Oriental centre coordinator. The positions offering 1,000 a week are for interns not fully qualified ESL teachers (who are paid more).