Job Discussion Forums

[Chris300]

Hi, anybody could provide information on the best way to look for a EFL position in China?
Any particular agency recommendation?
Perhaps applying directly with schools is a better option? In that case could you recommend any site with all serious job adds?
Thanks for any possible links.

[Wicked Stepmother]

It depends on so many factors. As a starting point, ask yourself these questions:

1) What type of English - general or academic? Uni students or in-company?
2) Who do you want to work for - a university or a private TEFL organisation
3) Where do you want to work - e.g. in an affluent eastern province or elsewhere?
4) What will your education allow you to do? If you lack an MA or several years of experience that limits your options.

As for finding vacancies, there are countless websites. One is The Beijinger (over 1400 ads for English teachers currently):

http://www.thebeijinger.com/classifieds/employment-available/english-teaching

If you apply directly, you are not losing part of your salary to an agency. You may also get accommodation on campus for free if you work for a university, but the salary will be low. A lot of people work for a uni for 16-20 hours a week and a private organisation in their spare time. If you choose to approach a university personally, make sure you go to the English language section of the uni websites, because usually the adverts are there, with email addresses for the Foreign Affairs Department. Here is an example - the Language and Culture University in Haidian district, north west Beijing:
http://english.blcu.edu.cn/col/col9662/index.html

Good luck.

[Osiry]

As stated above, there are many factors affecting how you will go about applying for jobs.
Be careful of recruiters, some are good, and some just want to steal your identity and money!
I've had good experiences with a couple of recruiters: Gold Star TEFL put me in contact with a school and I was able to negotiate my salary directly with the school (I assume they got a lump sum kickback based on the referral). My wife got a rather good placement through a company called 'New Life ESL'. They're a small group of Americans living in Beijing who place teachers and seem to be quite picky about the schools that they partner with. Again, no contract with the recruiter.

Some general advice:
Be careful about sending out sensitive documents to recruiters.
Your first year in China won't necessarily be lucrative, but it will give you the opportunity to develop contacts to find out about the really good jobs!
Training centers can be a good stepping stone, but the hours are long and the working conditions can be questionable.
Explore all of your options! Don't feel pressured to go with any particular school, look at the entire package that they're offering you, do some research about the city. Sometimes 10k in Suzhou with accomodation provided could be much better than 20k in Beijing with no accomodation provided.

[EDIT]
Check out the job board on Daves, and another really good one is seriousteachers.com

[backtochina2017]

"Hi, anybody could provide information on the best way to look for a EFL position in China?"

Location is the most difficult and important decision. You can move to a new school if it is nearby, but if your new school is much further (like Beijing to Shanghai) you won't be able to visit the school which is a big plus when going to a second school.

After you decide where you want to live for the year, I would talk with recruiters. You don't have to take the job offers they give, but get an idea of what is available. Even if you could tell them exactly what school you want that doesn't mean it will be available.


"Any particular agency recommendation?"

Nope, they are all pretty equal. Just be careful with recruiters who want you to sign a contract with them. That might be happening less with the new restrictions, but teachers can have problems with housing and salary if things go bad.


"Perhaps applying directly with schools is a better option?"

If you know the school, but if you are asking these first-timer questions you might not have knowledge of schools. Also, private schools might lie to you to get a teacher. One school promised 3 teachers the same job, and when we came for our first month we found out that it would be split 3 ways and we would have to teach a different age range which was unacceptable to all 3 of us. Schools that have a recruiter are more likely to be honest from day one and tell you what the job entails because they aren't the ones looking for a teacher like the recruiter is.

A good recruiter will simply get you in touch with the school and have you and the school sort things out. If the recruiter holds off letting you contact the school, or they don't answer repeated questions (like housing or schedule), and they don't say anything about an interview, then these are red flags something might not be right. Make sure you get a contract to look over before you accept or decide to take a job offer.


"In that case could you recommend any site with all serious job adds?"

I have used echinacities.com but any recruiter could give you other offers. Don't just look at one ad with a specific intent for that job. You could contact a recruiter for a Shenzhen position but ask them about Beijing offers if you wanted to go there instead. They are going to ask you which locations you want to work in anyway. I don't know why they post specific ads but then completely ignore them when you reply to their ad.

One other note, I have been getting more offers recently with shared housing. I don't know if that is becoming a common thing now, but I am used to job offers which give private housing, not shared. This means the bathroom and shower facilities are together in your single room apartment, not down the hallway to be shared.

I know Beijing has a problem with housing because it is so expensive. The apartments typically have a large master bedroom with private bathroom, but then there is a small bedroom (for a child?) and a shared bathroom near the living room space. So, schools try to get 2 teachers to agree on who will get which and sometimes it is first come first serve. Clarify housing issues if you go to a big city. If you are going to a smaller city it shouldn't be a problem. If you get a university job, those tend to have large living areas because they are set up to accommodate a small family on campus. Also, the school will usually pay for the utilities since it is shared.

You should also decide workload. Do you want a full 40 hour work week (25 classes, 15 office hours), a language school position which is mostly 20-25 classes, little to no office hours (slightly lower salary), or do you want a university job which has about 16 classes and loads of time off but half the salary?

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

If you use a recruiter, you won't lose a part of your salary to him. Recruiters are paid a one-time fee by the school. Schools use recruiters because many times the person in the FAO charged with the job of hiring doesn't have the English skills necessary to distinguish a nut from a normal person.

If you go the recruiter route, you may be contacted by her to teach summer school elsewhere (be careful) or you may even be tipped off to a better school in which you were initially placed. Repeat business is how recruiters make money.

DO NOT post your CV on a public forum. Use a forum that requires schools and recruiters to subscribe to the forum to view CVs. Otherwise, you will be preyed upon by every scumbag out to make a quick buck.

This is MY experience: Most of the time when I thought I was dealing directly with the school, I was really dealing with a recruiter with the school's email address. One giveaway that you're not dealing with the school is when your contact can't answer many of your questions. Anyone who recruits for his own school knows the school inside and out from the standpoint of an FT. If you aren't in-country, be sure that you are dealing with a recruiter.

If you have no experience dealing with large groups of children, avoid primary (and possibly secondary) schools. The best intro to teaching in China is by teaching for public universities that have English departments.

[backtochina2017]

Wicked Stepmother might have been referring to something like this: http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewtopic.php?p=45560

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

Someone who does his homework wouldn't be such a victim.