Job Discussion Forums

defender190 · Joined: 15 Jul 2015 Posts: 3

Update

Through the help of people Pm'ing me i was able to find a university and they offered me a position

Thanks for your help everyone!

vikeologist · Joined: 07 Sep 2009 Posts: 600

Well, first of all, I'm anti-recruiter, but I wouldn't say that all of them are scams. Far from it.

If you really can't contact employers directly, Horizonseslchina seem to have the most positive reputation, or the least negative.

Secondly, getting a job for September at this point is going to be very tough. You'll need to email a lot of places directly to find one that still has vacancies, or has someone drop out as you apply. I guess a recruiter might know where the jobs are.

However, the problem with recruiters isn't that they're scams. it's that they get their money from the employers, not from you. Horizons will ensure that you are the quality of teacher that their customers need. You are not their customer. you're the commodity.

The person who will really have your best interests at heart is you.

Decide where you want to work and get a list of Universities / schools in that city / province from Wikipedia. Then use search engines to find the contact details. It's a bit difficult and time-consuming, but the act of finding the contact details should also give you more information about the school. There were a few places that I didn't bother applying to because I found out things that weren't ideal; location, bad reports etc.

Oh, and being Caucasian definitely matters, so make sure you include a photo of yourself when applying.

Getting a job for September will be quite tricky, so you may need to use a recruiter now. I'm not endorsing Horizons, but applying directly is time-consuming, and you don't have any time. Just make sure that you do full research on any employer they put you in contact with, (if they put you in contact with anyone. You will have to sell yourself to them).

defender190 · Joined: 15 Jul 2015 Posts: 3

Thank you i will try with them and hopefully hear some good news soon

Thanks for all your help

Non Sequitur · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 4724 Location: China

In addition to the visa/pp mugshot include a lifestyle/social pic as well. SMILE!
Seriousteachers.com has been mentioned but as others have said you'll get responses from recruiters only pretty much at this stage. As long as you can leave quickly, there will be opportunities once FAOs recommence say last week in August, for starts up to say end September.
If you are a mature 24 yo it shouldn't matter too much as you will be teaching freshmen - say 18/19.
Don't try to be their friend, hang out with other teachers not students.
Good luck

TEFL-AA · Joined: 11 Jun 2015 Posts: 8

I'm in pretty much the same boat as the op and just asked the same question in another thread. Please update with your progress.

JRJohn · Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 175

You can try the recruiters that have been mentioned. Bear in mind that it might still be possible to find a university job at this stage if you don't mind which province. In 2010 I found it easy to find a university job. However, it was in one of the poorer provinces. What I will say is that recently it got a lot harder to find university jobs, and this was partly because there were a LOT more unemployed young American and British graduates than usual, who would normally not have considered EFL as a career option. Also I suspect people who would normally have left the Chinese university earlier have stayed on. Both factors were caused by the economic depression in the west, and the long tail of unemployed youngsters.
I think this is starting to change.
Here's a common problem though. Sometimes there are jobs, but Chinese people play tricks. I applied for a job at Beijing University of Posts and Communications. But as soon as the Skype interview began, I was informed that actually, I was being interviewed for somewhere else. I was to go to Century colleague, a much lower-ranking university, in the rural desolate wilderness north of the Great Wall. (But still in Beijing). I decided not to bother. University ranking means less to me than to some. What matters is being in a dead, very quiet, very rural location. There are jobs available.

Russoregon · Joined: 23 Feb 2015 Posts: 14

Congratulations Defender 190, where did you get your job offer? Was it in Qingdao? I'm only asking because that's where I'm headed in a few weeks.

defender190 · Joined: 15 Jul 2015 Posts: 3

It was in nanchong Smile

OhBudPowellWhereArtThou · Joined: 02 Jun 2015 Posts: 1168 Location: Since 2003

roadwalker · Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 1750 Location: Ch

OP, it would have been better to simply add an update post instead of editing the original post. Now it will be harder for people in a similar position to know what it was all about, or even if they are in a similar position to what you encountered. Good luck in Nanchong.

thechangling · Joined: 11 Apr 2013 Posts: 276

Horizon's are not a good outfit because their offers are mostly all low in salary and high in teaching hours which is an indication that management of those schools is doing everything they can to skim off the salaries of FT's. It also indicates (as a result) that a high turnover of FT's occurs in those schools of which a lot are lousy training centres anyway which are never to be trusted in China unless you can get good independent feedback about them.