Job Discussion Forums

[Flabs]

No, we haven't been interviewed, and interviews have never been mentioned!...whatever that means. The wording of the email was basically 'We're glad you've decided to accept our offer, please send us the following documents etc.' (this was after several questions about the school which were all answered by them). We also had to fax a 'note' to them agreeing to sign the contract and with our signatures on it. This was exactly the same procedure as we had when we signed up with our current school in china, so I didn't think anything amiss until I started reading this forum! Maybe they're saying different things to different people, but I am definately going to email them and start asking about 'when to book my flight'.... once I can get the email working here in china!!

[jasperella]

E-mails to me were worded exactly the same.
I decided against them in the end.

[mansikka]

Hi,
Same here... had thought the contract wasn't firm as it took so long for (part just) to arrive!!! But they just emailed to ask about arrival date.

[Eddie2005]

I worked at Cosmopolitan school last year and the best advice I can give anyone is to stay well clear.
The reason the director gave for none of the previous teachers returning is rubbish. She's saying that she assumed nobody would go back but the truth is that she asked most of us to come back (some of us even more than once) and everyone refused.
Admittedly they do pay better money than some of the other schools but the director will have you doing anything and everything she can under the clause in the contract about the basic salary which says that "you may sometimes be asked to perform extra duties". (In the final 2 weeks we all had to perform around an extra 30 hours of 'standby' time in the school before we could get our final pay check. Unpaid of course)
I'm not suprised in any way to hear that some of you have had problems getting your questions answered and that the school has even stopped responding to you. Their interest in you goes as far as what you can do for them. That's it.
Ewa (the director) is probably the most underhanded and unreasonable person I think I've ever met and she'll tell you absolutely anything you want to hear only to do the exact opposite.
They treat their teachers with complete disrespect and they have no loyalty whatsoever. For example, they had to cut the number of Polish teachers last year due to dwindling student numbers so they decided which ones to get rid of and just cut all of their classes and stopped inviting them to staff meetings. It was then up to these teachers to ask why they had no classes anymore only to be told that they didn't have a job.
Of all of the Polish teachers I know working in the school, not one of them is happy with their job and the last I heard a big number of them were actually considering leaving.
In my time with cosmopolitan I had numerous altercations with the management and was always left feeling unhappy and misused.
If it taught me anything it's that I should definitely read the fine print of contracts much more carefully in the future and question absolutely everything.
If any of you are still trying to decide, I'd say make other arrangements. And If any of you have already signed your contracts, I'd say 'Good luck'.

[Eddie2005]

if anyone wants to email me directly I will be more than happy to give you some advice. My email is '[email protected]'