Job Discussion Forums

[Non Sequitur]

I think lack of confidence is an issue with schools who use recruiters.
It may be English ability or just lack of cultural awareness.
As I came to end of my last gig, for which I had been hired by a recruiter, the FAO approached me and asked about the process that had been followed.
Later my contact guy in the FAO asked me to forward him the whole email string from go to whoa, that I had had with the recruiter.
It seemed the recruiter had got greedy on fees and orders had come from on high to do the recruiting in-house.

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

I don't understand why so many people say that they have problems with recruiters. It should be obvious that if you put your resume on a public job forum that you'll attract charlatans. Job forums that don't require the recruiter to pay for its services attract the blind, the crippled, and the crazy (both prospective teacher and recruiter).

Recruiters that charge the applicant ANY fee should be dropped. Don't work with them. That's a dead giveaway that something is wrong.

Sometimes, when the new FT arrives at the school, the manager or the FAO oversteps his bounds and takes advantage of the new recruit in more ways than I can recount. The recruit who has acquired the requisite qualifications and done his homework over the period of several months (applying for jobs, reading numerous contracts, reading job forums such as Dave's, etc.) should be well-armed to deal with nearly any situation. In situations in which things go south right out of the box, a quick call to the recruiter should get things straightened things out pronto. I've been in such a situation.

Cases in which the manager or FAO is devious and can move faster than the recruiter can aren't the fault of the recruiter. It's the fault of the school. In many cases (if not most or all), established schools whose practices are abusive, the fact is well-known. The newb who takes a job that pays well despite the fact that the school has a bad reputation has no one to blame but himself. Recruiters' jobs are to fill positions. The recruiter may extol the virtues but fail to tell you the down side of the job out of ignorance. It's the job of the recruit to learn if the school has a psychopath at the helm. Google is the recruit's friend for gathering this information. FTs can and DO complain online. Strangely, many don't complain to the recruiter, the one person who should be informed of problems at the school.

I had one really horrible experience at one school. The rooms were cramped and dirty, the refrigerators stunk, the beds were little more than park benches, the FAO was a lunatic who hated westerners and required us to work beyond our contracts. I spoke to the recruiter who straightened the FAO out rather fast, but she could do nothing about the living conditions. The school had a good academic rating. FTs, however made frequent midnight runners, and they never took it upon themselves to inform the recruiter. The recruiter had no way of knowing the situation. When I called her, it was the first time anyone had ever told her anything. She offered to place me somewhere else. I declined because moving across the province would have been difficult. I accepted the situation by choice. I found out later that the recruiter no longer handles the schools.

If one has never used a recruiter, he has no right to an opinion expressed as a first-hand experience.

If one has had one horrendous experience and never used another recruiter, he has no claim to condemn all recruiters.

One who swears that the recruiter is getting a monthly cut of his paycheck is nuts. Absolutely nuts. He probably also believes that extraterrestrials are running the planet.

I think that the maturity of the recruit should be taken into account. The recent two-year work experience requirement is a good thing. Millennials and late Gen X workers are, as a whole, a difficult bunch for employers.

The Millennial employee problem has been discussed at length for a few years:

http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2012/06/27/millennial-workers-entitled-needy-self-centered


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/19/survey-says-are-millennial-employees-flakes_n_1325331.html

The entitled, coddled Millennial worker won't do well in China until he understands the realities of the workplace that can be acquired only through experience.

The FT who has problems at every school and in many social situations should look inward and take responsibility for the outcomes. Too many fail to look before they leap.