Job Discussion Forums

Joese · Joined: 12 Apr 2011 Posts: 25

How do recruiters work in China? Do they charge the school/company a certain amount for every teacher they find for them? Or do they take a cut from the teacher's salary every month?

There's too many recruiters. It's getting hard not to use one.

Son of Bud Powell · Joined: 04 Mar 2015 Posts: 179 Location: Since 2003

If you're not in China, you'll pretty much be forced to use one.

No, they don't take a percentage of your monthly salary. They're paid a one-time fee.

Stay away from the "cultural exchange programs" or anything that calls itself a program. Don't pay anyone to get you a job.

If you are out-of-country, and you think that you're dealing with the school, think again. In all likelihood, you're dealing with an agent who is using the school's email system.

Joese · Joined: 12 Apr 2011 Posts: 25

Thanks for clarifying that. That's what I expected, but some people in other discussion boards were claiming that their recruiter had taken a percentage of their salary every month, which is outrageous.

It's hard to trust recruiters, employers, and sometimes even other teachers.

rogerwilco · Joined: 10 Jun 2010 Posts: 1549

Joese · Joined: 12 Apr 2011 Posts: 25

I thought recruiters and agencies were the same thing in China. With teaching salaries in China already being kind of low for a westerner, I'd rather not work for an agency.

Thanks for the pointing that out. I have to find out whether an agency or a recruiter is behind the ads I'm answering.

Son of Bud Powell · Joined: 04 Mar 2015 Posts: 179 Location: Since 2003

Agency/recruiter... it's semantics. The "programs" that promise cultural exchange and extoll the joys of enriching the lives of young learners and accompany those claims with of dozens of photographs of FTs and children joyously interacting while promising 3,000 rmb per month for 25 hours of work time per week are certainly suspect.

Which recruiters have you looked into?

You need to do a lot of homework to determine what is fair pay in a given area.

rogerwilco · Joined: 10 Jun 2010 Posts: 1549

Recruiters typically connect you to a job where you are hired directly by the school.
Agencies typically hire you themselves, and then collect a fee from the school where you are placed.

Recruiters- you are paid directly by the school.
Agencies - the school pays the agency, and then the agency pays you.

hdeth · Joined: 20 Jan 2015 Posts: 583

Itis not uncommon for an agency to recruit people for low-end jobs in China and take a percentage of their salary for a period of time. E.g. take 20% of their salary for the first two months.

That's for low-end jobs.

For higher end jobs, of which being a foreign teacher is one, head hunters are paid a one time fee by the school.

Uni salaries are somewhat more standardized and it's maybe more important to look into the housing arrangement.

high schools vary by a crazy amount and the same school will offer different salaries. At my school some teachers make almost double what other teachers make, even if the lower-paid teacher has better qualifications...because one teacher didn't do their research. Every school knows what's the max they will pay but the lower the salary they can hook a qualified person in for the better. You need to know enough and have confidence enough to walk away, but also know when the school is capping out.

The Great North · Joined: 24 Feb 2015 Posts: 26 Location: Beijing

I think some of the answers here are misleading. Teachers who get their own jobs without recruiters generally make more money. Even though the teach does not pay the recruiter directly, the recruiter gets his money from the general allocation set aside for the teacher's salary. I think this article explains it better than I can...

http://open.salon.com/blog/china_business_central/2013/02/21/chinese_school_principals_now_millionaires

So the less money paid to the teacher, the more money the recruiter and principal can make. This is why all the ads online are always low-balling people with crap pay. In reality most teachers who get their own gigs are making over 15,000 rmb.

rogerwilco · Joined: 10 Jun 2010 Posts: 1549

roadwalker · Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 1750 Location: Ch

You get paid what you get paid. Some schools will bargain more than others. Some schools need recruiters because they are in unpopular locations, have bad reputations, don't know how to communicate well with foreigners, or just don't want to be bothered with it. They might have more in the budget for a teacher if they didn't use a recruiter, but I find it unlikely that they would pay the teacher more. If anyone has any fictitious polls to back it up, then I will change my opinion by 37%.