Job Discussion Forums

Volver · Joined: 27 Sep 2013 Posts: 181

OP,

If you are the type of person who longs for a job examining with the BC, then you have both my admiration and my sympathy. Of course, you simply could be ignorant of the realities of working for them or how much money you actually net. Run the numbers at ¥24 gross (which is in the ballpark from what I understand from friends who are examiners) and see how much you actually net. It is not that much when you factor in taxes, no flight, limited holidays, and (gasp) housing costs. It gets even worse when you add in your travel time and calculate what you make on an hourly rate. Having done it too many times, there is NOTHING in this world that would ever induce me to travel on a Chinese airline again.

As for making ¥20K tax free salary as another poster mentioned, that's no big deal. When I first started here working at a uni in a dump of city in Henan, I never dreamed I'd make decent money without IELTS. How very wrong I was. ¥20K tax free plus flight, housing, visa, etc. without having to work anywhere near as hard as you would for the BC is just not difficult to achieve. Be smart, listen to the good advice on this site, hustle, negotiate, and you will do it.

V

Strike_Back_Frank · Joined: 17 Dec 2015 Posts: 4

shawadywady · Joined: 13 Mar 2013 Posts: 40

i'd stand by my statement that a DELTA over-qualifies you for IELTS work but if the BC can afford to cherry pick candidates then of course the more qualified you are the better.

i can see how someone awarded a DELTA some time ago and who is a bit tired of teaching may choose to take their foot of the pedal for a bit and do IELTS but if you were to go through the rigors of the DELTA process only to immediately become an examiner.....well i think that would be a backwards step.

just my opinion though.

Elicit · Joined: 12 May 2010 Posts: 244

airapets · Joined: 22 Jul 2007 Posts: 78 Location: The Middle Kingdom

The ad said they wanted thirty examiners. I was told each interview will last about forty minutes and they are doing it for two weeks(last week and this week). How many total interviews could they reasonably do in that period of time? At what point would they get tired of doing interviews? I'd think no more than five a day, but that would make only fifty interviews for thirty positions. Is it that the interview is more just a confirmation of the application rather than a real hurdle?

China2 · Joined: 04 Jun 2015 Posts: 56

I was just wondering how long it will be before they need to take on part time IELTS examiner again. I was told that apparently there were over 1 million IELTS candidates last year in China!

Shanghai Noon · Joined: 18 Aug 2013 Posts: 589 Location: Shanghai, China

I doubt if that's the total number of candidates. Some of my students take it five times. It still requires a lot of examiners though.

Non Sequitur · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 4724 Location: China

Volver · Joined: 27 Sep 2013 Posts: 181

Talking about the part-time examiner model coming back is a favorite pastime of most everyone currently or previously involved with the BC. Don't count on it. It looks like the decision is not theirs to make and they have to muddle through. Funny thing is that it makes sense. Some part-timers had been doing examining and marking for many years and were both good and quite happy to continue that way. Every single part-timer I know who went full-time had a specific period of time in mind for how long they wanted to continue with the BC. Of course, they never told them this. It would be great if part-timers could come back, I'd sign up in a heartbeat, but don't plan to waste my life waiting for such an event.

V