Job Discussion Forums

[chufeng]

My first encounter with true sliminess in the China FT job market.

I was contacted by "Jennifer" (Fang Li) who supposedly worked at the Beiying School. She clearly claimed multiple times that she was an employee of the Beiying school, etc. I made it clear that I did not work with recruiters, and that I am only interested in teaching at a high school level (or university, but since this was supposedly a middle school, that was irrelevant for her purposes). After some initial emails, she calls and asks me to come to the school for an interview. During the phone call, she mentions that the job at Beiying is teaching grades 1-3. I repeated that I was not interested in teaching little kiddos. She then tells me that their "affiliated high school" has a job teaching Gao 1-2 (grades 10-11) and names the school (it is the Zhongxue affiliated with Capital Normal University, which isn't too far from Beiying). At this point, I'm a bit suspicious, but I decided to go to the interview and see what the deal was. Travel time plus a LONG interview took several hours.

During the interview, she broke the news that she wasn't actually an employee of the Beiying school, but instead worked AT SAFEA for a "government run pilot program" to recruit and train good FTs for Beijing public high schools. She explicitly claimed NOT to be a private recruiter several times (I was asking lots of questions). We talked about the position at the high school, I made it abundantly clear that I did not work with private recruiters and also would not sign any contract that didn't specify what site I would be working at, how many hours, the general grade level (high school not elementary), etc. She, of course, said this was no problem. The interview actually seemed very professional. I told her that I already had offers from several universities (true) and needed to make a decision very quickly, so she promised to send me a contract as soon as I sent her additional documentation (diploma copy, etc.) This didn't raise any great hackles for me, because frankly, every single school I've dealt with has insisted on seeing this info before offering a contract, so I've just gotten used to it.

So a few hours later, she sends me a generic recruiter contract from "Beijing Opal Talent Center" (obviously a private recruiter) that says NOTHING about what school I would be working at, what level, etc. However, the contract does explicitly say that "Party B�s working load is 20 periods(45 min) per week. Party A has the right to make the schedule. The teacher may be placed to different location if it�s necessary." And of course, there is a massive "breach penalty" for breaking this "contract."

My favorite part of the contract:
Party B can not bring his/her emotion to the classroom, such as depression, disappointment and antipathy, etc.

Apparently you have to pay a $2000 breach penalty if you violate that as well.

[Itsme]

chufeng

I worked for this woman 2 years ago. I would have to say that the company is one of the most professional that I have seen in Beijing. I also worked at another public school this year and wondered why I even left the first.

Im not sure what the situation is now but, like I said, 2 years ago it was pretty good. The pay was on time and they did a really good job of making sure that the teaching was up to par.

Now I must say that this was my personal experience and I am sure that not everyone may have the same experience. I assume that you have your reasons for being upset with the lady but you are only mentioning the pre-employment phase.

If anyone has any questions please PM me.

[chufeng]

My problem is that I don't like being lied to. She is obviously a recruiter, yet point-blank lied to me about that, and I didn't know it until she sent me the contract, which was from a "Talent Agency" and not a school, as she had promised. And after I was crystal clear that I would only sign a contract with a school, she sent me a contract that not only did not specify a school, but explicitly said that I could be assigned anywhere they chose (or forced to work at a combination of different schools if one school didn't use my allotted 20 hours). The "interview" was very professional - her language skills are excellent, for example, but when she does so much lying it is hard to have a good impression.

I don't know anything about your experience - maybe you knew she was a recruiter from the beginning and didn't mind that, so she didn't lie to you. But can I ask, with all of the stories about schools and recruiters ripping teachers off, why would you agree to sign a contract that didn't even specify where you would be working or even at what level (kindergarten, high school, private language mill)?