Job Discussion Forums

[anlia]

I was wondering if the following had happened to anyone else recently.

I got a phonecall the other day from someone I had been in e mail contact with regarding a new job opportunity. While she spoke and gave me directions to her office it became clear that the name of the company on the e mail and the name of the company that she represents is not the name. I thought I might have made a mistake and checked both the ad and the header of my e mail again. I did not make a mistake.

Columbia has a bad rep in Taichung and anyone who has been here for any lenght of time knows that their teachers are underpaid and there are basic mistakes with the whole set up. All you have to do is search the web and you will find lots of warnings about them. I have had several friends work for this company and they had nothing but bad experiences. I went for an interview there when I first arrived many moons ago and said no thank you.

Has anyone else been duped into an interview with them in this fashion? Is it even ethical to advertise under a different name yet on the phone state clearly what the name of the company is? What can be done about this?

[matchstick_man]

You will find warnings against many schools searching the web...some valid and some not valid.

Columbia's pay seemed inline in with what I expected for a school that teaches adults.

[TaoyuanSteve]

Sounds like a recruiter to me. That would explain the discrepency between the person you dealt with and the company address.

[anlia]

Not a recruiter. I asked. The moment she mentioned the name of the school I reponded that it was not the same as the one listed in the e mails. She didn't have much to say about that.

[clark.w.griswald]

Schools advertising under different names isn't common, but is certainly not unheard of.

It tends to be done by schools that have a bad reputation among foreigners. As it is unlikely that the English names of schools is actually registered anywhere (except for the big chains who I am sure register their names as a trademark), then there is probably nothing illegal about schools advertising under different names. It is clearly unethical however.

The question that could be asked of these schools is why they feel the need to advertise under different names? There are some legitimate examples such as Cambridge Bilingual School who advertise their kindergarten program under a different name. Taipei American School advertise their kindergarten program as TYPA.

Probably the worst case of name changing from a bad school is Little Forest in Kaohsiung, which is known also as Hsiao Sandy Language Center, Sen Yuan Language School, and Taiwan Independant Schools Association.

The good news is that sites like Buxiban.com seem to be keeping a track of this and you can search for the variant names which are listed under the schools main name. Maybe you can pass the info about Columbia onto that site for the record.

[Aristotle]

It is very common for school to advertise under different names. Often times they do this to avoid the bad reputation they have gotten themselves by mis treating their foreign teachers or they are an agent.
Another reason is the fact that the Ministry of Education routinely extorts bribes from schools that have an ESL program they have barred by non judicial decree.
Ministry of Education officials get a cut of every foreign teachers pay one way or another. Public schools or private.
They do this by issuing decrees forbidding foreign teachers or ESL programs that are in direct conflict with other regulations that allow foreign teachers or ESL programs in these schools.

Welcome to Taiwan.
Good luck,
A.

[clark.w.griswald]