Job Discussion Forums

[mysterytrain]

My first job in China I got through a somewhat dodgy agent, with somewhat dodgy results but no real harm done. My first overseas job.

My second job in China, a few years later, direct through the school.

My third and latest, as mentioned above, through a well-established recruiter with a good reputation and other than being somewhat annoying in the process, worked out fine. I got the job I thought I wanted and the problems I found with the school and the job after working there were nothing to do with the recruiter. (The recruiter is FindWorkAbroad, and I do recommend them ... just watch out for the annoying bit.)

[mysterytrain]

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[mysterytrain]

So two days after I gave notice to the "international" school, I got an email asking if I was interested in a public school job in Hunan. I had actually applied to a public school there through another recruiter (Teach Away) so at first I thought it was themreplying, but it was for a different school and city. The message started with "We are a public middle school located in xxxxx City ..." (I know, the fact that she said this does not mean it was true)

She says if I'm interested to set up a Skype chat "with us".

After a couple of emails I told her I was curious as to how she got my name and email. I asked her point blank if she worked for the school or for a recruiter. She answered that "I work for school, but also work with recruiter to max the teacher pool". Okay. She set up a Skype chat with a woman whose Skype info says she is based in Beijing (hm).

Skype chat lasted about seven minutes and the woman was about as engaging and warm as a vending machine, but I was interested in the job so I kept the ball in the air and talked to the first person ("su mei") about doing the visa transfer thing.

At my request she gave me contact info for a current teacher there and I got in touch with him. He said everything was basically copacetic with the school.

[mysterytrain]

Then out of the blue "sumei" asks me if I'm interested in a language school paying twice the public school salary. They'd also sent me offers for both a language school and a university job in yet another city in Hunan.

This time I bit and said yes I'd consider it. She sent me the contract and it looks okay, standard China FT contract.

Wasn't sure what to do because of the salary / working hours differential. Pick your poison. Didn't ask why she offered me the different job with no explanation, but it certainly all got me thinking.

If she does work for the middle school, how much sense does it make to spend her time recruiting teachers for a language school in another city?She works for the middle school but is moonlighting for a recruiter? Or she doesn't really work at the school at all (more likely I think).

It would not be a deal breaker for me if she was / is a recruiter, pure and simple, and just told me so, but the deception itself might be. Clearly the lines are very blurred here.

And aside from sending me contracts, she has never offered to put me in direct contact with anyone else at the public school, where she says she works, or the language school, where she doesn't ... ? (She did ask me to make a short video for the school, which I provided.)

Whaddaya think?

[Elicit]

Sounds like she’s an agent for me. The deception, if indeed there is some, wouldn’t necessarily put me off if I was going to get what I want, but it would make me more cautious.

[mysterytrain]