Job Discussion Forums

NewMoon · Joined: 16 Nov 2009 Posts: 1

Hi everyone Smile

I've been browsing this site for a few weeks now and i just have a couple of questions

First of all i'm a UK male, 25 years old with a BSc in biological Sciences and an MSc in Sustainability (Environment and Development). i graduated a few months ago but i'm having a hard time finding a decent job in the UK at the minute.
I visited China a couple of years ago and travelled quite a bit and got some mandarin lessons, since then ive been thinking about going back and teaching english and improving my mandarin. i figure now is as good a time as any as my sister has just moved to beijing

I'm pretty set on trying to find a job teaching oral english at a university,as ive heard this can be a relatively easy job with lots of free time, and is the best way to find out if teaching is for you. i've a few cities in mind: mainly Chengdu and Xian at the minute,

so i'm about to start emailing universities and i was wondering

1)is there anything in particular i should include in my emails? i was going to attach a cv, scan of my passport and a recent photo, anything else? and should i just ask if they have any positions available or should i flesh the email out a bit?

2) does anyone have any recommendations for good unis in either chengdu or xian?

3) would a lack of teaching experience or certificate stop me getting a job in a university?
and

4) is there still a chance of finding work in feb/march 2010?

thanks for reading everyone, any advice would be much appreciated

mat chen · Joined: 01 Nov 2009 Posts: 494 Location: xiangtan hunan

Chinese like to cannibilize. This means you must get your job thru a recruiter and the recruiter will get a month of your salary for the service. Now the FAO will lie to the recruiter and say they are really paying you about 1,500 less than what they really are, and then they pocket the money. I have had many of these FAOs tell me not to tell the recruiter I signed with them.
But you are right the best jobs are gotten by dealing directly with the schools.

sharpe88 · Joined: 21 Oct 2008 Posts: 226

^ that's nepotism, not cannibalism.

mat chen · Joined: 01 Nov 2009 Posts: 494 Location: xiangtan hunan

It has nothing to do with family. It means that they both put each out of business. Recruiter finds out they have been tricked, FAO must find a new recruiter and the process repeats and soon no-one trust anyone.

alter ego · Joined: 24 Mar 2009 Posts: 209

A standard cover/query letter should do. You can find many uni and poly websites online now. Many of them have employment links to their HR or foreign language departments along with contact information. Consider taking a TEFL course, preferably on site, but online would suffice and give you some tools of the trade. You might not technically need a TEFL cert. to get hired. The rest will be on-the-job, trail-by-fire training. Lots of jobs to be had during the two hiring times of August/September and February/March. Here's one link you can try:

http://mit.edu/cdemello/www/cn.html

There are many more where that came from. Google good. Me like Google.