Job Discussion Forums

[jwbhomer]

I see GBI is still advertising here for English teachers, even though the new semester has started. That should tell you something.
I interviewed with them in the spring, thinking about a possible move for the new year. (As it turned out, I didn't come back after my summer holiday.) Things looked not too bad until they showed me the accommodation. I wouldn't put my dog in the flat they offered. Moreover, it was in a student dorm, with a 2200 curfew, restrictions on visitors etc.
So...if you're thinking about teaching with them, make sure you see the "apartment" first.
And don't take less than 6000 RMB/month. That's the going rate for Guangdong, or at least for Guangzhou.
And...one more thing...understand that they are located way out in the sticks, closer to Baiyun airport than to the centre of town. There is a bus that collects the CHINESE staff from town and brings them to school in the morning and takes them back at night. They are not so stupid as to live on campus.

[Steppenwolf]

How long did it take you to interview with them, coming as you did from Toronto? And check out the premises.

[vikdk]

[jwbhomer]

[quote="Steppenwolf"]How long did it take you to interview with them, coming as you did from Toronto? And check out the premises.[/quote]
Stupid. I was in Guangzhou then. It took me about 45 minutes and 100 RMB to get there by taxi from Tianhe.

[Kitegirl]

Strange, they actually have nice apartments for staff (foreign staff get their own apartments, chinese staff have to share), and the foreign staff apartments are decked out with everything the Chinese staff don't get (air-co, TV, washer, nuker, good furniture etc), so I don't get why you were shown a student dorm.

I had a lovely time teaching there, the students were nice, but it was the staff that really made my time there wonderful. There were always so many nice invitations - dinners out or at their homes, (dance) evenings in the teachers lounge, lots of sports activities with each other. Nancy was also a great FTA.

Yes, they are a bus ride away from town, but I never experienced that as a problem. I was just happy to be away from the foul pollution of the city, and to be surrounded by fields outside the village.

(Old thread, but I almost never log in)

[jwbhomer]

Well, kitegirl, I'm glad to hear you had a good experience there. To be fair, the people I interviewed with seemed quite nice. It was only the accommodation that turned me off.
There's a sequel to the story. Some weeks after the interview, when I had made other plans, I thought I'd better send back the course materials they'd given me to look over, so sent them by post. Two days later I got a call from the Head of the Department I was going to work for, asking why I sent them back! Apparently Nancy Zhang in the FAO never bothered to tell her that I wasn't coming! But that's just typical lack of communication.

[vikdk]

[asianbizarre]

I'll just add two cents in as much as I am currently employed at Baiyun. The campus is nice, students earnest. It is FAR from town, but the pollution makes it out here anyway. There are four types of apts. here for FTs. Some nice, some not so nice.
Big drawback is FAO--False promises and, yes, outright lies. Fights every month at payday to get paid the correct amount. Last time they refused to change my allowed quota of RMB to US$ even though the contract stipulates it. Since I've been here, three teachers have done runners. Those of us with half-year bonuses due are feeling compelled to confront the FAO to force a signed statement that we WILL get them on a specific day, so we aren't made to wait indefinitely for payment--like deferred until, end of Spring term, which I won't be coming back for.