Job Discussion Forums

[leetrefz]

Well here's my experience with Zengcheng College of South China Normal University. For a BA they offer 800$US/7300RMB a month. The location is 70 minutes (with good traffic) out of Guangzhou down a bad road with buses stopping at 18:30. So for the last eight months I've been getting very mediocre pay for Guangzhou and not really been able to enjoy the benefits of the city as much as I'd like.

It hasn't helped that they try to organize our teaching schedules as thin as possible so you can't get a decent block of time to 'divert your professional attention' or just enjoy yourself. I asked them if I could get my 14 hours tightened up before we took off for spring fest, but all I got was dishonest lies, not the 'friendly co-operation' in the first sentence of my contract.

Another thing in my contract is a provided visa. Took them 8 months out a contracted ten. I've had it in 2 months from other places. They didn't want to bother giving me the foreign expert certificate because I'd have to hand it back in so soon anyway.

Huang bizarrely blamed me for them taking so long, apparently I should have been born with a foreign expert certificate stapled to my forehead and then they could get me the visa quick instead of getting the foreign expert cert first like everyone else knows they have to. they also waited for the last day of my z visa to go in to get the residence permit, and asked my wife to do it even then. I then lost my temper at the guy.

Since I lost my temper, and because they generally don't feel like they've gotten the bigger end of the stick with hiring me, They're trying to slip 4 more hours a week in on me without any more pay. I'm telling them I'll get to their new classes 8 months from now.

They expect me to work a week past my contract for nothing too. Not sure that's going to happen.

A lot of this is indeed par for the course in China. At least I'm not this guy:
www.whiterabbitsmom.org/

For me, if you've got a degree there's no reason to at least make 10000RMB in China or be in a nice location, like xiamen, zhuhai, yunnan, or closer to downtown Guangzhou. That's not to mention the open societies & way higher salaries of ROK & Taiwan. I can attest that Taiwan at least is a better place to teach than anywhere in mainland china. Why would you come here for an inconvenient location, mediocre pay (less than a canadian dishwasher), & poor treatment? Do yourself a favor. Don't feel like you have to accept jobs like this. You can find lists of schools on the internet. contact them directly and you can easily get over 10 000RMB in the PRD, the job postings online are largely not indicative.

If you like to live out of town, this far out in the fresh air and have a fake degree, are on the lam or something so are afraid you can't do better, well you probably can, but hey, you could do worse too, I guess. If they fired the two assistant directors, David Huang & Mr Tang and let the younger but competent people take over they'd at least be easier to deal with. But you know Chinese organisations. Don't hold your breath.

This is the second worst gig I've had in 5 years of China. The worst was at least a push over, took an extra 10 minutes to get treated right. These starchpants are cold as ice.

[Steppenwolf]

I think you were deluding yourself in comparing your fate to that of a Canadian DISHWASHER - such a person will never make 7300 IN CHINA!

Maybe over in Canuckistan, but certainly not here...

[leetrefz]

What...?

Canadians washing dishes in China? Yeah man, that's what I meant.

Although 7300y goes a bit farther here than a dishwasher's wage in Canada, you still can't save in any real sense.