Job Discussion Forums

[Skylark]

Hey everyone. I've been gathering information on this forum to help with my finding a job in China. I've had offers from 6,000RMB-20,000RMB with all sort of benefits. I recently was contacted by a Rose Wu with FTinChina. She is offering:

Main Responsibilities:
- Adapt and deliver immersive English lesson plans for young learners ages 3-9
- Skillfully integrate teaching materials and learning software into daily lessons
- Facilitate holistic learning by regularly communicating with parents
- Communicate regularly with bi-lingual Chinese co-teacher and teaching management
- 40 hour work week including office hours and up to 25 hours teaching
- Work days are Wednesday to Friday, 13:30 to 20:30 and Saturday to Sunday, 8:30 to 19:00
Qualifications:
- Native English speaker from USA or Canada
- 4-Year Bachelor’s degree
- 2 years post-graduation work experience
- ESL Teaching certification (TEFL / TESL / TESOL / CELTA) (strongly preferred and must be 120
hours or more)
- Energetic and passionate about working with young children
Compensation:
- Monthly salary between 18,000(with 16 to 18 teaching hours per week) – 25,000 RMB(with 24- 25 teaching hours per week) (gross, DOE, 2 month probation)
- Up to 10,000 RMB contract completion bonus

- Student contract re-sign bonus
- Up to 7,000 RMB flight reimbursement
- 5,000 – 6,000 RMB annual living stipend
- 2,000 – 3,000 RMB referral bonus for successful foreign teacher referrals
- New student demo sign-up bonus
- 10 paid days annual leave plus 11 paid national holidays
- Sponsored legal Z working visa
- Health Insurance
- Up to 7 days free hotel accommodation upon arrival
- Help of finding accommodation
- Annual team building trip
- Birthday gift

I have found that researching these companies can be a little difficult. They may have a footprint in Chinese, but their English websites are hardly kept up to date, or it all. I am new to all this and am fairly certain I have already fallen for one scam, at least. No money lost, of course, just time - and possibly future identity theft. Time will tell.

Does anyone know about this company or can they give me any advice and assistance? I have an interview on Skype tomorrow. So far, I have found my interviews pretty underwhelming. No one seems to ask me about my teaching style or how I handle certain situations. I ask them a bunch of questions and then they ask questions that are easily answered by my resume. Is this normal?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[Laurence]

[JamesD]

This is a placement agency, not a school; LOTS of room for miscommunication and dissatisfaction. They only list two jobs, Beijing Adults Training Center and Network Technology Engineer.

The webpage, although it has a modern cookie-cutter layout, has more than the usual number of misspellings and grammatical errors. Several of the links (all of those at the bottom of the page) are dead.

"Our mission is to carefully screen all our schools to ensure our teachers know as much as possible about their school and the contract they will be signing."
Sounds like a nice loophole. If you have a problem they respond with "you knew as much as we did. Your contract is with the school, not us."

IMO, it comes off as a start-up with either an inflated idea of where they can place FTs or, as mentioned, a bait and switch. The general tone, terms, and presentation make nice copy but that's about it.

[stooze]

In exactly the same boat as you Skylark so I'm glad you asked the question.

More realistic position (9500 with free accommodation etc and not many hours) BUT I would be most interested in anyone and everyone's views too.