Job Discussion Forums

[Netminder]

So after 6 months of hand-wringing, expensive faxes, multiple face-to-face telephone interviews, cajolling former employers to send on satisfactorily-complete "work records," hassling my alma mater to fax the EMB directly, being contacted by several high schools in Hong Kong and chosen by one, I thought I was through the starting gate- but then they just PULLED ME BACK IN. Last week I was told by EMB that they are "still waiting on my work records" in order to calculate my salary, work records that had already been sent in. I told them such and that no more would be forthcoming, and that they must calculate my salary with what they've already got.

So am I high and dry now? What is your experience?

[well-travelled]

Netminder.

My old friend!! Welcome to the sub-real world of the EMB.

They will calculate your salary on the documented evidence they have received from you re. your previous employers. Any experience you have written on your CV but that is not fully documented IN EXACTLY THE WAY THAT EMB WANTS IT will be unacceptable.

From your post, it's not clear to me whether you have sent ALL the documentation in and EMB has misplaced it, or the documentation you have submitted does not verify all of your past posts on your CV, or the documentation you have submitted does not conform to EMB's exact requirements.

However, I don't see you being high and dry. If you have accepted a post (Cheung Chau?) then that should still go ahead, albeit on a reduced salary scale. That scale can be modified later (& back-paid) if you can provide the adequate documentation later.

And if you thought the bureaucracy in the Middle East was bad .......... !!!

Perhaps I should also add, that many prospective NETs face the problems you're facing - you just have to be very patient and hang in there.

well-travelled

[islanddreamer]

Netminder - I had the same problem. They put me on the lowest rung of the pay scale until I could verify some ridiculous details of jobs I had many years ago. They then put me where I should be and gave me backpay. In fact, many of my NET friends were in a similar situation.

[Netminder]

Well thank-you both for that. Having taught in Taiwan, I have come up against the formidable foe of, dare I say, Kafkaesque Chinese bureacracy. In point of fact I had all the records sent (those that could be), and EMB started nit-picking about details that I was too embarassed to go back to employers with, old bosses who'd already gone far out of their way to help me.

It is re-assuring that people who faced the same scenario prevailed, albeit at a lower pay scale; but even at the reduced pay, it does pay much better than any other posts I've ever seen for BEd-holding TESL teachers, including Saudi Arabia et al. In any case, my motives transcend pay scale, so it is only of minor consideration at the end of the day.

[pompomouse]

I have similar concerns. I was told I was recommended for hire May 20th and it was just two days ago that I received an email asking me to verify one item on my CV. I responded saying I could not get the proper documentation for said job because I have lost touch with that previous employer. I was told too that they are still verifying my documents and establishing my salary rate and then I will begin to receive job offers. It is a bit unsettling knowing others have already received job offers while I have not heard a thing yet. Should I be worried?

[well-travelled]

pompomouse

Im a secondary NET so my situation may not be revelant to u as a PNET - but, as far as I know, what has been posted above (including my own postings) is, in fact, relevant.

They are desperately short of PNETs. The bureaucracy is just the way they do things - and they do this with ALL NET teachers - they aren't picking on you.

I suggest u email EMB and say yes, you understand, but u really want to work here & u will provide the full documentation later...

Once u provide it, then they will re assess your salary scale & backpay what they owe you

That is the way it works....


well-travelled

[islanddreamer]

I am a PNET and not renewing my contract this year. My schools have known that I am off to greener pastures since March, and I completed a form for the EMB around that time too. To date we have received two CVs from prospective NETs - one already in HK hoping to change schools and the other based in Australia. The first NET then changed her mind and decided to stay in her current schools because she couldn't be doing with the hassle of trying to find new ones, and the second one never answered the email we sent her.......

So, at the moment, we are high and dry waiting for more CVs....something to happen.....I really wanted to do a proper handover but it looks like my schools won't get a new NET before I go!

The EMB are sitting on piles of CVs and successful applications. They're just not getting farmed out to the schools!

[Zero Hero]

The EMB as an institution has a responsibility to ensure that only applicants whose work records and qualifications have been thoroughly investigated and confirmed are passed onto (i.e., recommended to) school heads. This is an example of a professional measure that safeguards us all from wannabes with falsified references and documentation (such as are prevalent on the Mainland).

If you do not wish to work for a government scheme that takes work experience and qualifications seriously (and which certainly pays a serious amount, perhaps only matched by Japan, Singapore, and the KSA), then my advice would be to not work for the EMB of HK but to go somewhere where they take people on their word. It will be obvious what type of person is attracted to each system.

If this is frustrating you then my genuine advice would be to actively seek employment elsewhere. If the professional procedures to which you refer and about which you complain (which are by no means unique to HK, just go to Singapore or Brunei to experience the same) cause you so much Angst then at some point in the future the EMB are likely to send you over the edge.

[Netminder]

Indeed, Zero Hero, but thet does not quite address the point- being that we have already had our work records faxed and verified- yet the EMB chooses to be punitive in their selectiveness in detail. My former employers dotted all of their i's and crossed their t's, however the EMB asked the same questions AGAIN and wanted the employers to fax them AGAIN.


EMB is certainly not immune to snafu's, and I would give your posting a lot more credit if not for the fact that the EMB is so desperate to recriut teachers thta they've stooped to posting job vacancies through CECN and Dave Sperling- two methods I would attribute to the self-same "lesser discriminating" schools you cite in your post.

[Zero Hero]

I do not care one iota where they now advertise, the requirements are the same. I am sure they will endeavour to advertise where they think they can have exposure to the most people. Most serious employers in the world of TEFL are 'desperate' for well-qualified, experienced staff with documented work records and references; it is not unique to HK or the EMB.

Employers select employees, but the reverse is also true. If you are not content or impressed with the EMB thus far, why select them as an employer of yours?

[well-travelled]

Well, here we go again!! A while back, on one drunken evening � and the thread must still be here somewhere � I posted a disparaging comment abou