Job Discussion Forums

Elegantstatue · Joined: 24 Dec 2013 Posts: 70 Location: The Multiverse

It would be much easier to apply direct to schools in China, but if schools don't advertise there is no option but to use a recruiter or agent. We all know its best to apply direct to schools, because one can negotiate and get facts directly from them.
Currently I am dependant on Angelina's ESL cafe to assist me in sourcing a job, if there was another way I would use it. We all know agents and recruiters can not be trusted. As a comparison though, I found South Korea recruiters much more transparent and honest, than their Chinese counterparts. Could somebody recommend a good agent or recruiter in China? So far all the ones I have used have been unreliable. Thanks.

Osiry · Joined: 19 Mar 2015 Posts: 84 Location: Nanjing

I've found New Life ESL to be extremely transparent and great to deal with. I think at one point there was someone claiming that they are a re-incarnation of a dodgy Chinese recruiting company, but this just isn't the case. They're a team of three Americans in China who used to be FT's themselves.
They find trustworthy schools and then put you into direct contact with the schools, you don't sign anything with them so your salary isn't being garnished. They give you contact details of current FT's at whichever school you're applying with so you can get a realistic idea of the conditions there.

To be fair, I haven't dealt with many recruiters, but New Life ESL have been a lot better than any others I've contacted.

PYT · Joined: 28 Oct 2010 Posts: 35

The best jobs are never through a recruiter anyways (with a few rare exceptions), so why use them? The best jobs are through #1: Word of mouth/Networking or #2: Direct Contact.

You can just pull up a wikipedia of all the schools in the local area and start cold calling. It's even easier if you know Chinese since you can just ask the front desk to transfer you to the english department.

I personally think recruiters will always give you a raw deal in China. There is no incentive to be "honest" really.

Russoregon · Joined: 23 Feb 2015 Posts: 14

I just now sent a thank you note to Nancy Wong with Horizon. I know many of the recruiting agencies get a bad rap, but I have nothing but good things to say about the job they did for me. Like you mention in your opening comment, some jobs are only listed through a recruiter. For my first job, I am very satisfied with where I am. Horizon was always very professional, and responsive to my questions.

Just my two cents. I found Horizons because someone else here on Dave's recommended them, so I'm just paying if forward.

Russ

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

buravirgil · Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2015 2:31 pm Post subject: Re: Chinese recruiters and agents

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

jimpellow · Joined: 12 Oct 2007 Posts: 913

I think to add to the discussion from another angle, Chinese are not so great at being proactive and marketing themselves or their organizations.

I am sure there are a fair amount of schools out there with a decent reputation that would love to bypass recruiters themselves as they be aware of the unethical nature of the majority of them. It brings problems upon themselves as well and can't help but to reflect on their own schools in a negative way. One could more simply state that the schools are cheap (thrifty or rationalized profit driven businesses to be nice about it). A lot of these recruiters are of course not only to maximize their take with the teachers, but with the schools as well.

Having said the above, there are also a good amount of instances where corrupt and greedy schools prefer the recruiter route as they find it advantageous as a way to collude to exploit the teacher.

PYT · Joined: 28 Oct 2010 Posts: 35

weigookin74 · Joined: 30 Mar 2010 Posts: 265

I think schools are willing to pay more than recruiters advertise? But maybe it depends on your experience?

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

CNexpatesl · Joined: 27 May 2015 Posts: 194

Most recruiters/agents are scum. I've only had negative experiences with most of them. Pretty much every other teacher I've known in China has said the same thing.

Always better to apply directly to the company or school if you can.

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

buravirgil · Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2015 12:53 am Post subject:

hdeth · Joined: 20 Jan 2015 Posts: 583

I got my uni job (first job) through horizon. Experience with them was fine. I had an interview with the department head and she basically couldn't speak English so I can kind of understand where they would get intimidated by the process and hire a recruiter. My current school has several western-educated staff who deal with foreign HR issues and is able to do their own recruiting pretty easily. For this job I tried to go through recruiters as well as look on my own but found that

1. recruiters don't want to deal with you until fairly late in the hiring season. Your current school will be asking you to decide whether to stay or not before they'll give you the time of day, so you have to take a bit of a risk: you have to say you're not going to renew, but you don't have a job lined up. That is not a fun position to be in when your housing is tied to your job in a foreign country.

2. Recruiters will always push you towards a quick deal or a hard to fill job, which generally means not a good job. If you are too picky they won't put much effort into dealing with you. I imagine it's the same on the school's end...if the school is too picky the recruiters won't want to work with them.

I didn't talk with any who were despicable cheats (at least that I know of) but they want to, understandably, close as many deals as possible which generally doesn't work for me where I'm at right now. I wouldn't hesitate to use them if I was a bit up in the air and/or looking for a job ASAP.