Job Discussion Forums

nashboroguy2 · Joined: 16 Dec 2014 Posts: 14

I know teachers love to blacklist schools for various reasons.

I am interested in knowing which schools and recruiters are the best to work with. I think this is more valuable for people looking for positions than a blacklisted school or company.

Please submit the school/recruiter and maybe a contact information.

You might also want to add a reason why you like working with them.

Thanks.

piglet44 · Joined: 26 Aug 2010 Posts: 157

Impossible to say because things are dynamic and changes in personnel at schools (and I guess agencies too though I have no experience of those) and also in conditions means that you really need first hand info from someone who has worked at a school recently.Recommendations and blacklists from a year or so ago may prove inaccurate.

thechangling · Joined: 11 Apr 2013 Posts: 276

Piglet is right because personal changes a lot at recruiting agencies and schools/unis in China so frequently (which in itself can be a sign of systemic instability) that a prospective teacher has to be vigilant when applying for any job.
Three things that must be done before accepting any contract:
1. Get email addresses of 2 current/former teachers and ask them if their contract details were upheld at the intended school.
2. Search and read widely on these and other forums for any history on that particular school.
3. Examine, clarify and question all parts of the contract you don't agree with or appear 'interpretive' (because otherwise when you get there and question something in the contract, the contract will always be interpreted in the employers favour).

Bud Powell · Joined: 11 Jul 2013 Posts: 1736

Listerine · Joined: 15 Jun 2014 Posts: 340

I agree with the others. A few years ago I was at a school here which was golden. I was teaching decent students, the admin was on the ball and honest, upheld all their ends of the contract. They were looking for new teachers every semester and I was recommending it to my ESL buddies.

In the space of 6 months the Dean of the school, changed, the FAO bosses got shifted around, competent was replaced with incompetent and the programs with the motivated students got shut down.

The wheat very quickly became chaff, and unrecommendable to even someone I disliked.

The next part may sound callus, but in all honesty I've landed a decent gig, which took me literally hundreds of hours of dud emails, pointless phone calls and stress to find. Sifted through Nigerian spammers, Hangzhou Helen love letters, had to stop using an email address I'd had since 1998 as a result of hundreds of messages of spam a day (currently has 3,000 *unread* messages in the inbox) that it was bombarded with. Endless BS. I think most people with similar quality jobs put in the same hard yards, hence I think many posters are perhaps a little reluctant to casually throw out the connections they worked their ass off to get to random strangers. I dunno, maybe I'm petty, but in a sense it reads as though you're looking for people who invested countless hours of stress and headaches to find a job / connections for you.

For what it's worth I'd say most of the jobs here don't belong on a black, or a white list...a gray/grey list perhaps. Start following leads you're getting, and ask on here about specific names, provide more info about what you're looking for (locations, types of schools, pay range etc.) and people might be more helpful, but for now it reads like "I want a smoking hot girlfriend, can someone find one for me." There's no real shortcut. Start sending out messages, texts, phone calls, telegrams STOP and STOP do the due diligence STOP

(/unchannels Hilena)