Job Discussion Forums

[piglet44]

Trying to locate a Uni job for September. Half of the emails I send come back as mail unknown. What to do? is it possible that all the emails on the websites are incorrect? Also anyone got a hot tip for a nice town not too big and in a good area in terms of climate (ie not freezing in winter and boiling in summer)?Would I be right to go for Yunnan or Sichuan? Any other recommendations for areas?

[Non Sequitur]

Are you 'cold calling' ie contacting people who aren't advertising? If you are that is a legitimate part of the process.
However, responding to 'warm' leads ie people who are advertising on job boards is best especially at this stage in the uni recruitment cycle.
If you are cold calling, suggest you get onto the job boards.

[piglet44]

All the ads seem to be posted by agents and I don't want to go thru an agent. My question is how to get in contact directly with the UNIS I know there ARE jobs but the contact info is missing. The agents aren't going to give it to me are they?

[TexasHighway]

Many of the universities in China don't advertise on public forums. Just google a list of universities for the cities you are interested in and contact the schools directly. Just like anywhere else, a lot of the best jobs are never advertised. You have to do a little more digging but it is worth it.

[MisterButtkins]

I put my resume online a few weeks ago. I specifically said I wanted a university job in a smaller town. In the first ten days or so I had probably about 30+ generic replies from big recruitment agencies (useless). Then I had about 6 different school offers from independent recruiters, all of them various universities. Then I had 3 offers directly from universities. My resume is okay but not great - I have a BA in English literature and 2 years teaching experience. I have taught a lot of the standard books they use in China, as well as IELTS prep and business English courses. Ultimately though, I think a lot of the places are just looking for a warm body to fill the room.

I would suggest this as a good path. As other people have said, cold-contacting schools is a perfectly good option, but don't expect a high response rate. Last year I took that route and sent out about 35 applications, got about 5 'cannot send' messages, about 6-7 replies, and 3 serious job offers. Personally I feel the offers I've already gotten are better than the ones I got last year, although if you really want to put the time in I would attack the problem both ways. Personally I was 90% decided as to where I was going to work next year, but put my resume up anyways because I was just curious in case anyone made me an extremely high offer.

One more thing, is that some schools will notice your email and dump you in a 'applicants' folder, or whatever, and then in like a month will contact you back saying they might be interested. By this time last year I was close to settling on a job, but kept getting replies until the beginning of June.

[piglet44]

Texas that was exactly my problem.I googled and the emails that came up were incorrect and bounced (many of them).
I have 30 years' experience of EFL and also an MA. I really want a uni job and I REALLY don't want to go through a recruiter if I can possibly avoid it.Mister Buttkins, when you said you put your resume online WHERE did you put it?

[choudoufu]

you can go to the wikipedia page for whichever city
you're interested in. the education section will
often provide links to the websites of the universities
in the city.

websites may have an english page, but if not,
try to locate the contact page.

when the page is in chinese look for: 联系我们

[piglet44]

done all that. The links they give me are either in Chinese, or the emails that come up don't work. I know how to look for the Unis and to find their webpages. My problem is when the page is in Chinese or if the email is out of date whatever. I am not in China yet ,can't read Chinese and don't want to come without a job sorted ahead of time.Is it worth faxing them if the emails bounce?

[TexasHighway]

Here is a ranked listing of 667 universities in China with their official web pages, many with English links. (Sometimes you have to hunt for the English link hidden within the Chinese home page). If you could dig up a Chinese friend where you are, you could have him call the ones you are interested in and ask for the International Affairs Office. Hopefully, you should be able to find something that suits you:
http://www.hr4europe.com/world.php?cpl=cn15en

[piglet44]

cheers TEx that's a great idea
thanks