Job Discussion Forums

[jeahbaby]

.................in China and also the Shortest time....and WHY>>>>>in other words what made you stay or made you leave.....!!!!

[Mister Al]

My present one....3 1/2 years.........I love it

5 months.......manager ran away with all the money and the owner shut the school. It was sh1t anyway.

[tommchone]

The ONLY one I've had in China: 11 months. There have been problems, but they've always been fixed (thus far). I had to demand things rather strongly a couple of times, i.e., threatened to quit if they didn't fix it, but it's always worked; plus, I wasn't bluffing when I said I would quit (would have been with good cause, too, all of the problems were basic living and working conditions, guaranteed by the contract). NOW they've got the idea. I don't make frivolous requests, when I say I need something, it is NEEDED. In addition, I wrote a letter to the vice-president saying as much. He passed it on to the dean of the department. You want results you go to the top.

[Chris_Crossley]

In my case, my current job is the one I have been in the longest, not just in China, but in my whole life.

I started it as a 0.8 FTE (= full-time equivalent) part-time teacher in February 2005 and this lasted until July 2005, so this was the FTE of 4 months' full-time employment (i.e., 0.8 x 5 months = 4 months).

On August 16, 2005, I technically started with the same employer as a full-time contract teacher. Hence, April 16, 2010, is the date by which I will have been a full-time teacher at my current employer for the FTE of exactly 5 years.

[RonHex]

good to hear Chris. seems like u found one of the few good schools in Hankou. ive been at my current school for 1.5 years. im sure ill be here again next year.

[peruisay]

WHY THE ALL CAPITALS!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! ....... and anyway, I've been at the same school nearly two years. This is my second school.

I'm satisfied and so I stay.

[bradley]

I'm in my fifth year at the same university (I've been teaching 14 years total, not all in China). I have great students, a fair salary, great holidays and no problems with my visa or paperwork

[tommchone]

AND just received word (about an hour ago) that they wish to renew my contract! I couldn't have been TOO demanding!

[Chris_Crossley]

[tommchone]

I learned something. Every US teacher I've ever discussed dough with has always been paid in RMB, although I haven't talked about it with anybody in the private training centers. (I still mentally convert everything into USD, though; old habits....].)

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

Longest over four years. Shortest, one day.

I get paid will where I am, and came back after a bit of a rest and getting married.

I stayed at one school for a day until I was told that my salary was not actually as advertised.

[jeahbaby]

[mat chen]

I was at two uni's in South Korea for a total of 8 years. I China I have had six one year jobs and even though the cost of living has gone up a lot I am still making about the same. It is because they have one thousand recruiters here who all have one thousands jobs to offer you.
The recruiters cheat the schools and the schools cheat the recruiters and they take it out on the teachers with things like 2,000rmb electric bills, and having you spend your money to go to Hong Kong and not paying you the salary owed for fear that you may not get back in. It's a great system where you pay your money to go to a school then they tell you everything will be looked after when you leave. I am looking for one of those rubber meat cleavers that the comics use. I would like to walk into my FAO's office and swing away at him.
As the Chinese say a win win situation. They win two times and you lose two times. It should really be they win win win win win situation.

[Moon Over Parma]

Two and a half years. It was in EFL but in another "country" that you have to refer to as an "island" to placate some people in China. Average stay: a year. Here, in China I literally left a job the day before it started because the school would not honor any of the stipulations on the contract I had signed before I arrived. After a week of b. s. and runaround, and 24 hours before the first day of classes commenced, I went online, found a new university position and I coerced the dodgy university I had yet to work for into giving me a letter of recommendation and release despite never having worked a single minute there. It took a very heated conversation to convince them to let me go. I basically had to be very mean, very rude, and very blunt. They also feared that I would instigate a mutiny with the pair of equally dissatisfied teachers they hired the previous semester. Two days after the event I started working in a better position at another university. It was so close to the start of the semester I was able to talk the new employer up on the salary. It worked out for the best. The teachers at the school I bailed on are currently miserable and the pair of potentially mutinous teachers ended up quitting after the first payday for that semester.

Not even a day. I think that's a record.

[Molson]

Moon Over: If we are counting changing jobs and contracts, I've done that too, however, it wasn't in China. I signed a contract for a job, and then found another job that I liked better afterwards. It was easy for me to change though as I signed the first contract like a month before the start of the job.

Since I've only been in China for 4 months, I guess I can say that is the longest here. I will stay at my current job for a total of two years, then I will be leaving China.

The longest I've worked at one particular place was 6 years. It was a high school in Korea. The shortest was I think 6 months. I worked at an afterschool type government program. The problem was they would never pay me on time because it was a third party running the program and they always were short on funds. I warned them if they didn't pay me on time I would walk, and well I walked at the 6 month mark.