Job Discussion Forums

[chinatimes]

So, I have finally moved out and have a new school. The past month and a half has been nothing but a series of misleading offers and demands by recruiters to satisfy them before I actually could communicate with the schools.

Today, I just got phone calls from 2 schools (it's not even afternoon) I was very interested in working at. For a month no one has contacted me, less than 24 hours after I move to a new city with a new school, now I get phone calls from the schools? In mid-July I was "ordered" to go for an interview with the recruiter before I could be promoted to speak with the school. Now they call me? Something has obviously changed, and I wonder if I should have just worked a summer camp job and started the September job search now. I thought I would secure a full-time year contract first, then look for the summer jobs. Back in May, this all seemed plausible.

That's a side issue, what do you do with your belongings if you get a summer job and still need to get a fall job later? Where do you put your belongings?

What I really want to address here is the slow tactics these recruiters are playing. They make you wait days before responding, then they give you a bad offer. When the job you wanted was supposedly taken, you look elsewhere and another recruiter does the same thing. One school I spoke with today said they only received my resume last night, but I sent it last month. I talked with the recruiter back in May and have talked with them in the past.

I suggest no one take the first offer by recruiters if you did not specifically reply to an ad for it and know you want it. When they do this bait and switch tactic on us, they are trying to make us take a worse job offer. The more people do this, the more recruiters will think they can get away with more. I had one recruiter offer me 2 university positions, and 3 weeks later before they wanted me to go to the interview I pushed to see the contract. I found out that the reason they didn't want me to see the contract was that they wanted me to pay 2,000 rmb/month from my "high" salary to the recruiter as commission. The threat was if I don't, they will lose reputation.

This is a crucial time. Hopefully, I have found my school for the year, but there are other teachers coming back from summer camp. If you are experienced at this, have no place to live, you have 3 suitcases and 2 big bags of stuff to carry around (as well as kitchen/bathroom supplies, books, etc...) how are you going to find your next job? Will you stay at a hostel? Rent an apartment short term if you can?

And, pertaining to the thread, how are you going to handle these recruiters who lollygag around before you can decide on a school?

[Non Sequitur]

Sorry if I've missed something re a place to live.
I moved schools after summer 2004 and as soon as the new school had a teacher leave at the end of their contract - about 5 July I recall, they let me move in.
I then went on my summer job and used my new apt as a base as the location was only a 3-hour train journey away. We worked Wed-Sun and had Mon-Tues off.
Re recruiters. This is ongoing and seemingly getting worse.
Perhaps we need a sticky - courtesy of the MOD and let these dodgy types know they have been black listed.

[chinatimes]

[roadwalker]

I don't accumulate much but I did end up asking Chinese friends to leave some things at their apartment until I returned in the fall once. They were good friends and had enough room. And my stuff was probably half a cubic meter at most. If I didn't have Chinese friends (or fellow foreigners in long term stays) to leave my stuff with, I would have sold or gave away or tossed a lot of what was saved for me. Perhaps I would have shipped some books to my new school or back to the States. Or packed heavier for the summer holiday flight home.

[Non Sequitur]

A small local carrying company stored my stuff on another occasion. Needed a Chinese friend to tee up the details, but it all worked out.

[Bud Powell]

What I really want to address here is the slow tactics these recruiters are playing. They make you wait days before responding, then they give you a bad offer.

Start your search earlier, ask for a higher salary than you expect, and if the counter-offer isn't acceptable or there's a problem with the contract, walk away and don't look back. If there's a problem in the beginning before you even sign, there'll be more after you sign.

A last-minute response could be indicative of one (or more) of three possibilities:

a. someone backed out at the last minute (a possible warning sign)
b. The school is hoping to take advantage of the desperate
c. The school waited too long to begin the hiring process (the most likely reason. I like to believe that inefficiency is universal).

[Non Sequitur]

[tangal]

One of the problems is that many of the same schools are recruiters are running the show, that is to say, that the majority of jobs on websites like this one are placed by the same schools and recruiters.

Make no mistake about it, the main goal of many of these schools and recruiters is to keep salaries and benefits for teachers as low and minimal as possible. That's part of the game.

As teachers, more often than not we're devalued and exploited by clueless and/or game-playing schools and recruiters because there is such a wide mix and gap in the of ages and experience levels of expats who make their living as teachers in China.

Most job seekers (included both experienced and inexperienced teachers) have no choice but to use and deal with the current system of job placement here and most, if not all, suffer some of the consequences.

Many of the schools and recruiters who run the show know this. Believe it or not, there is probably more method to their madness than we realize.