Job Discussion Forums

[Double_Dragon]

I think that using an agent would be ok if she/he just gets a one off payment from the school for my placement. It should be fairly easy to tell by market conditions and the offered salary whether or not the agent will be dipping into my hard earned every month(?). My current job was a direct to school hire, which was nice. However, this time I'm thinking of giving an agent some parameters and reclining while he/she does her thing.

So, why are so many dead against using agents, and is there some sort of list of reputable agents (or blacklist for the opposite)?

Xie xie

[SH_Panda]

Yeah a one off fee is acceptable, and no they aren't all bad. I'd say probably about 10% of them have genuine good contacts, and are trustworthy. It's just a case of finding those good ones.

If they are willing to introduce you to the school without any conditions, so you can do your own due diligence, I'd say they are are fine. They will already have an agreement with the school for a one off fee, should they hire you. At that point it's on you to make sure the school is good.

[XiaoWren]

One off finder's fee should be OK.

Sometimes they will seek to sign you up with a 3rd party rather than being contracted directly with the employer. I think usually it's better not to contract with anyone other than the employer.

One problem with using an agent is they may tell you anything to get you hired but if you find at the job it is otherwise you may have difficulty getting the problem resolved. People usually say you shouldn't rely on any assurances that are not in the contract.

[The bear]

Many are against using agents as they take a cut out of a potential salary. I say 'potential' as just because the agent got a fee doesn't mean the teacher would have been getting that. As long as you remember the agent's not working for you (unless you're paying them - another type of agent), they just want to place anyone in that classroom and will say a lot of things.

I think agents can be useful, they have contacts foreigners just can't get, especially if you're not in the same city.

It's important to say 'no', to things you don't like or are unsure of.

[Greg 09]

Top Ten Possible Uses for Agents:

1. Target practice
2. Fishing bait
3. Extra weight in the back your pickup truck on icy roads
4. Economical sandbag alternative
5. Pothole filler
6. Coral reef seeding
7. Economical traffic cone alternative
8. Ship's ballast
9. Tornado core measurer
10. Floyd Mayweather sparring partner

[XiaoWren]

[Non Sequitur]

Smaller and less experienced schools use agents because they don't know the process.
Don't ever pay a placement fee to an agent. They are the school's agent not yours.
Sign a contract with the school - not an agent and ensure you are paid and accommodated by and at the school.
If you refuse to use agents then you could be cutting yourself off from a good part of the market.

[XiaoWren]

[Greg 09]

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

There are some jobs that you won't know about unless you use an agent. From what I've seen and heard, those who have the biggest problem with getting stiffed by agents are those who put their CVs on a public board and they become prey to every Frank Zhang that lurks online.

Coming in a close second for personal unhappiness with their new school are those desperate souls who aren't qualified to work as teachers in any capacity anywhere. They sign on with with desperate agents who place them in schools that are desperate for foreign teachers. These schools may be out in the boonies. They may not be authorized to hire foreign teachers. They may not even be legal businesses.

I do believe that the greater the qualification of the job candidate, the greater the chance that he will catch the eye of a better school. Unless one does his homework, though, he can still fall prey to misrepresentations and false promises.

Somehow, would-be teachers make it to China on various inappropriate visas and believe the lie that their agents (and schools) tell them. When the school gets busted, they blame the recruiter and the school for the problem instead of assuming at least some of the blame for not doing their homework.

This can happen even when one deals directly with a school in-person. The school will tell the FT that it is authorized to hire FTs, no problem. It already has eight FTs working for them. When pushed to put it in writing, it will balk and then walk away from negotiations. I've been in that situation. The school didn't know that it had to be in full operation for thirteen months before it could qualify to hire FTs. When they found out that they were on thin ice, they had the decency to tell me that they just found out that they had another eight months before they could hire FTs.

Another downside is that many agents don't know anything about the school except what the university tells her. Unless she has repeated contact with the school, she can't know much about it. An upside is that a good agent will have done repeat business with a school and can tell you the facts of the school. She can procure photos of the residences. She may even already have photos. A really good recruiter will stay in touch with the FT and make sure that everything is alright. At one school, the bimbo FAO had me working eighteen hours while the other FTs were working only ten hours. In addition, she had me working on Saturdays (at university!). The recruiter read the FAO the Riot Act. Later, she got me a tutoring job, then a summer job.

Working directly with a university or a private organization has its benefits if you are in-country and can visit the campus and the administration. The downside is that any institution can lie to you, just as any agent can unintentionally misrepresent the school. On the public university level, my experience has been that one will talk to the FAO but have no access to an academic liaison until the beginning of the semester. This is a bad situation because you may not know whether you'll teach ten hours per week or twenty hours.

If he isn't in-country, I think that the prospective teacher isn't in any better position of snagging a good job with a good school if he works directly with the school or with an agent. His chances of finding a good school increase with the amount of research that he does before he commits.

I believe that this is true as well whether one is in-country and dealing with an agent or dealing directly with a school.

It boils down to one doing his homework.

[XiaoWren]