Job Discussion Forums

Regular_Guy · Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Posts: 22

I already have a job to go to. I was wondering if it is a good idea to bring original certificates of degree with the risk of getting lost? Or it be good to take if I want to look for other work when I finished my contract?

tw · Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 3898

Nah, just scan the documents and put them on a CD or USB key, or store them online.

Chris_Crossley

I brought all my original certificates to China back in October 2001, though I have only shown them when I was approaching schools for positions, including the public-sector primary school where I taught for one year and the school where I have just renewed my contract. Whenever I approach schools now, I send them scanned copies of the most important documents, such as my TESOL certificate. I will not actually let them see the original copies unless they ask for them.

Hence, I would say scan your certificates and send them through e-mail, but keep your originals with you just in case. After all, it is very easy nowadays to fake a certificate and send the scanned version, although it is a fair bet that lots of "cowboy outfits" will be only to happy to accept anything that remotely looks genuine, so long as the PSB are not bothered with what they are given as "evidence" of being qualified to teach EFL.

Oddly enough, whenever I have had temporary jobs at private language mills, nobody has ever bothered to ask me for any certificates at all, if only because they know that I have a full-time teaching job elsewhere so they assume that everything must be OK as regards quals + exp, though I suppose that the fact that my wife knows at least one member of staff at each of these schools has something to do with it, since it is through her that I have landed these temporary jobs. Hence, the schools asked me to teach there, not the other way around.

tarzaninchina · Joined: 16 Aug 2004 Posts: 348 Location: World

No. There's no need to bring originals with you. No one needs them here.

Keep an electronic copy online (i.e. a web email account) and keep at least one hardCOPY on you.

I have my originals in a safe in my parents home. Cool

Mideatoo · Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:37 am Post subject: Re: Uh, Nooooo

SueH · Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Posts: 1022 Location: Northern Italy

Or why not just notarised copies?

tw · Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 3898

KES · Joined: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 722

quoth mideatoo:

If you ever to plan work for a university. (You know the real deal, like in the states for instance�) The kind that has 2000 employees, a President, a V.P, each department having a Dean and assistants Deans, a bench of PhDs to manage the teachers; then you will need your originals... like in any other place...

Completely incorrect (in America, at least). Your certificate (or diploma) serves only one purpose - to hang on a wall for you and yours to admire.

If you apply for a professional position (especially at a University) you will never be asked to produce your diploma.

You will be asked to sign a release of academic records form. This form will be sent to your academic institution and they will send an official copy of your transcripts (not diploma) to your future employer.

Many employers are interested in your G.P.A., (Grade Point Average) what courses you took, etc. A diploma provided by you would neither provide this, nor serve as evidence that you ever really attended the institution.

This has been the practice for at least the last twenty years in the United States.

Don't believe me? Email the personnel department of any upper level academic institution in America and ask if a copy of your diploma can be used in lieu of your official transcripts for employment at their school.

In sum, no need to bring a copy of your originals. A quality scan, saved in gmail or a similar web based account, will more than suffice.

Mideatoo · Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2005 10:58 am Post subject:

denver · Joined: 26 Jul 2004 Posts: 76 Location: PANAMA

Keep it simple n safe.

Scan your original documents/certificates.
Keep them online or on a USB Key or CDROM (3.5 Disk for the backwater schools)

Keep your originals back home in a safe place. If the school requests the originals, pick a different school. Very Happy

Denver

KES · Joined: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 722

Quoth myideatoo: "Not automatically, as you speak like a bureaucrat,"

1. Why do you find it necessary to be insulting?

2. When did you ever speak to me or hear me speak?

Ariadne · Joined: 16 Jul 2004 Posts: 960

I had to show my original certificates and diplomas when I signed
the contract in country. I was advised of this requirement before
I arrived at the university in China. Most folks don't carry around
their diplomas so schools will probably tell you if they need to see
the originals.

tw · Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 3898

bubblebubble · Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 2:26 am Post subject:

dialogger · Joined: 14 Mar 2005 Posts: 419 Location: China

Do also think of the step you might want to take beyond China.
If you plan to apply for a job say in Saudi while still on the ground here in PRC make sure there is someone at home who can access the originals or notarised copies and get them to the school in KSA/wherever.