Job Discussion Forums

[theoriginalprankster]

So, in the pursuit of a new job for the upcoming academic year, I have been fielding interviews from all sorts of schools - seeing what different schools and institutions have on offer.

Spent an hour last week listening (mostly) to some clown try to sell me on Wall Street.

He did his level best to quiz me on how to deal with different situations and scenarios in the fish bowls .. er.. classrooms of WS.

Answered them without a hitch. Then had the pseudo-American interviewer offer up his alternative (which was crud, IMHO).

Then he tried to sell me on WS's generic language centre style (did it 10 years ago at Meten), tried to sell me on their fantastic 6 day working week, with 4 hour lunch breaks (you can go to the gym, study Chinese or even go sightseeing!!).

At this stage I cut him short. Our 30 minute interview was at the 47 minute mark.

He managed to get in the fact that if I recruited other teachers I would get bonuses for each teacher recruited.

Maybe he heard me yawning - I didn't make it to the second stage. I'm DEVASTATED.

Reminded me why I avoid chains/franchises/language centres.

And a good thing I have about 20+ other decent options.

Anyways, I had an hour to waste - try it out, or don't if you value your time.

[Markness]

Haha. That is the exact reason I avoid training schools. Always have dumb and dumber try and show you up if you don't do things their way. Have Chinese staff who have no formal education past high school, and it is all profit before education which ruins everything. The worst is that you would have possibly been micro-managed constantly by the pseudo-american who probably has no idea what he is doing in the first place (happened to me at my other job). They have no other options than a training school and the owner is happy that they go 100 percent with the job even though they sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger and irritate the other FTs constantly, causing them to leave.

"I'll be back" - WSE recruiter

Also forgot to mention, and edited, the training schools offer 4 hour lunch breaks... pfft... hahaha, good thing they make you do morning classes and have the afternoon off and then do evening classes, sounds great! "Paid demos", and then they forget to mention that you only get re-reimbursed for your time if they're successful. Have nincompoops dealing with extremely sensitive data such as your passport/visa and then doing it all last second instead of doing it a month earlier like when they originally had your stuff. Have to deal with people who are super entitled "I paid X amount of money, I demand THIS!". Have to deal with spineless co-workers who will not back you up, it is always customer first. And they wonder why they're revolving doors.. If I remember more I'll add after. I am on cold medicine right now and feel like I've been hit by a punch from an MMA fighter.

[thatsforsure]

What do you mean by pseudo-American?

[theoriginalprankster]

[D-M]

Despite the negativity, WSE are one of the few companies in China that I have always been interested in working for. We all have different tastes of course, but a harder sell for me would be large classes, unmotivated students and classrooms filled with a large mix of abilities. The small classes, adult learners and structured program always holds appeal to me.

The WSE locations and hours of work less so ... but you cant have it all.

Im actually working for an even more maligned employer at the moment, the dreaded EF language chain (although not in China). I have to say, contrary to all the commentary across the board, EF have given me a pretty good impression so far. Well resourced, structured learning, paid on time and a seemingly decent team to work with.

To each their own ... Different points of view are always good.

[3701 W.119th]

I've not worked for WSE (and almost certainly never will), but they're looking for qualified (NOT an online cert) teachers, with a professional manner, and ideally some discernible corporate experience. How unfair!

So basically, they're looking for people who aren't the typical China FT.

I wonder how they ever fill their positions.

[Quite]

WSE are self-righteous assholes who think they have a monopoly on qualified teachers. Teachers stay there only long enough to collect some students to tutor privately because the management is racist and abusive. My roomie was used to give a 2 hour demo class by the jerks who said they wanted to offer him a FT job, but then called him 2 months later to be a substitute tutor for last minute midnight run teachers. They bad mouth all the other chains but never look in the mirror.

[Hermosillo]

The recruiters and admins are quick to request an interview, but try to get them to answer a few tough questions about working legally and they seem to disappear.

[jimpellow]

I have been in through the Wall Street thing twice. The first time was in when I lived in China maybe 8 years back and boy were they arrogant. They wanted to hire me but kept changing their minds about one center or a possible new one etc and delaying things. As if the pinnacle of one's existence was to work at Wall Street and one should plan one's life accordingly.

Second time was more recently when I was toying with coming back to China. I had heard through a couple friends who worked in WS centers that the situation had changed and they were desperate for teachers. I certainly got that feeling from HR, but as usual, the center manager likes to play God and string the teacher along.

They need to address how they go about promoting to center mangers. They seem to end up promoting teachers who have very poor personal and management skills and suffer from severe self esteem issues which makes them feel demigod like once they are placed in a position of power.

I don't agree with the above comment about them being sneaky with visas. They are an above board company when it comes to professionalism.

Anyways, I walked away again from the process. Part due to the arrogance, part due to the fact that my desire to return to China is fleeting, and part due to the crazy hours and schedule they demand for a seeming high salary that once dissected is not actually very good. It is nice that they reimburse for flights and pre medicals rather quickly after coming aboard.

You can certainly do worse in China, but they are certainly not the gold standard that they portray themselves to be.

[RiverMystic]

I note their salary has not increased in the past 12 years. It really isn't that good, is it? And they give you about 2 weeks of holidays a year or something?

Apparently it's a good place to make connections with the Chinese corporate world.

Nonetheless, no thanks.

[creeper1]

Smaller classes and prepared lesson plans are great and all but losing your weekends and evenings would be a bit much.

[3701 W.119th]

[Aristede]