Job Discussion Forums

[acmoon90]

I just graduated from college last week, at the end of summer semester. I expect my diploma to arrive at the beginning of October. There is nothing I can do to make it arrive faster.

1.Would I be able to apply for jobs now or do I have to wait until my diploma arrives?

2. If I have to wait until October, will it be harder to find a job? Since public schools and Universities are already in session?

[toteach]

1. yes

2. yes

Can you not get a letter from the registrar indicating that you've completed your diploma? This, on official letterhead, should pacify your recruiter / potential employer.

If you can't come until October, it will be more difficult to find a job at a public institution. But language schools and private institutions hire all year 'round, and vacancies do open up in public schools...

[roadwalker]

Sometimes universities ask foreign teachers to arrive late I'm the first term to teach 1st year students who begin the school year in military training. So it may be worth discussing a late start. Most schools already have their teachers but there will be a few still looking. A bigger problem may be a lack of post-bachelor teaching experience. No harm in applying. Good luck.

[Azile]

As someone who is involved with hiring FTs at our University, I can tell you that there is hiring window each semester. A lot of this is because of the holidays, we literally need to hire, get all your docs, apply for the work permit, apply for the FEC, then send all the docs to the teacher so they can obtain their Z visa to come for the upcoming semester. Then on your end, you need to get a health check and obtain your Z visa, arrange travel and verify all this back to us...before we close for the holidays. So for us, that hiring window for teachers not currently in China would have closed at the end of May. Uni here shuts down July 15 until Sept 1. In the fall, it is similar because of the winter holidays.

So if you are trying to get a Uni job, apply april/may or november/december. The earlier the better.

Also sometimes a teacher who was hired fails to show up and then they will look for someone to hire during the start of a semester. And there are some who will start teachers in October because the freshmen are doing military training until after the first week of october (national holiday).

Private language schools, kindergartens especially are typically hiring year round though. Language centers, because of the teacher churn...they are always hiring....but we all know what working at a language center is like....

As far as your diploma, in almost all cases, a statement from your school that you have graduated and will receive the piece of paper on xyz date will usually work, except that some areas, provinces and schools will cite the two years experience problem, this two years of experience seems to change from city to city, province to province.

Last problem you might face is your current age. At one point I was told by my director that the age restriction is 24 years or older to apply for the FEC succesfully but again, that could vary from province to province. Things in Guangdong became a lot more strict in the last two years. Our University is checked by the PSB every semester. Every FT attends a meeting where they verify all the documents, take further copies of our passports and RPs and so on to make sure anyone working here is 100% legit.

Good luck with your adventure...hope it works out for you.