Job Discussion Forums

[william wallace]

I notice that if you put the full name of a school up in "Subject" then if someone does a search they'll get a direct hit.

Yesterday at 9AM I spotted on That's Beijing ( Ad placed at 8:30AM)a job with Vivid English Club.
Last year I did a demo for them, and while it's in a glitzy part of town(Soho) the joint is not for serious teachers. There was no time given for preparation. I had a business lady(biatch) having dropped in to see if she wanted to study there (about 30-ish and Band 6 IELTS), there was a 16-19 year old meek geeky gal (band 4),and a dumbfounded new employee(band 3). Having no prep, I decided to give an overview on IELTS, after seeing that the teen was the only active student. The business lady was forthright and confrontational...the demo was a mess.

This job was looking for a "Teacher Evaluator", and having done so with IELTS, PET, iBT TOEFL for sometime I quickly applied. The salary stated "From 15,000 to 25,000 RMB".Holy cow! But, as I had suggested on another thread prior to the actual interview today, something seems fishy.
I'm asked to do a demo, but I ask "what for?", this gal says it's policy and I ask if she had gotten my resume;which I had sent care of "Eric" the day before, and the gal this morning that called to make the appointed interview time asked me if I "had ever teached before?"To which I told her 15years,mostly in China. So now I ask this girl standing in front of me if she had looked at my resume. She said yes,and I quizzed her to my resumes contents-Not a blessed clue. Out comes Eric, cuz he thinks I'm yelling. I actually was just trying to get her to admit she hadn't seen my resume. Eric the Yellow (he was Chinese) comes out (why was he the contact person via That's Beijing, but not for face-to face ?) After a few minutes (he's a Band 8-9)he tells me that there is NO teacher evaluating job nor a full-time ESL instructor job,only P-T stuff."We just run the ad every week or so".
I'm trying to guess the scam angle.I think they're looking for people with serious credentials who will work P-T as instructors ,and for a 10-100 RMB, allocate a student for a specific level or grade.That's the only angle I see.
Cheers and beware

[wailing_imam]

Mate. the school is called Vivid English Club! What do you expect? Almost as good as Sunny Language Centre.

[InTime]

VIVID...???
Rings a BELL...

EMail Search for VIVID

Dear ... ,

It was a great pleasure hearing from you. I am very impressed by your CV and references and would love to schedule an interview with you. Are you currently staying in Shanghai? Maybe we could schedule a phone interview if it would be more convenient for you.

My number is:
My Cell is:

Looking forward to hearing from you.

All the best,

Alice Z
Director of Teaching Department
Vivid English Club
====================
About the didn't-read-the-CV syndrome
Yes...that happened to me at a school in Shanghai
After nearly 2 months of long-distance EMails,
I arriv3ed in Shanghai and showed up for the 1st dace-to-face meeting,
and Apple
(or was it Happy...or Candy...or Sunny...)
wasn't there...
BUT...another girl who, I soon realized, hadn't read my CV.

My reaction was similar to WW's, resulting in another staff person, also a male, coming with a Neo/None-Confucian querulous-officious expression:
"What seems to be the problem?"

Filmic elements from these scenes include:
*Death of a Salesman
*On the Waterfront (I coulda' been a contender...)
*Contact (Jody Foster making the SETI/UFO pitch to the Foundation)

[william wallace]

nil

[Itsme]

It's a money-making place... plain and simple. The guy who owns the place makes the process look like a work of art, really.

They promised the sky and always tugged the string with the cheese on it a little out of reach but after a while I figured it out.

and even the small things too.. they said they would pay for lunch if you go out with the students but only if you are the only teacher present.

they said they would take care of the visa if evaluations went well.. but they must have gone too well because they were "lost." Better wait until the next round.

They over quoted for visa and by the time I had left they were about to implement a pay system based on evaluations which had about a thousand loopholes in it.

The students were really cool.
The technology and equipment was great.
Guo Mao area is the finest in Beijing (in my opinion)

Just a little too shady, that's all.

[InTime]

So typical
So generic
Modus Operandi
"different cultures"...as they typically/generically say