Job Discussion Forums

[arioch36]

There are many good stories about people working in China. Despite occasional frustrations, I find it much more rewarding then teaching in other countries. Nearly every single horror storie I have heard about over the years has involved someone who has used a recruiter.


A recruiter does not represent you or the school, he represents himself. It is interest to make a school sound as good as possible. But he doesn't just do business with that school. he will sell you to the highest bidder. In the worst case scenario, the school pays the recruiter for you to come, then pays the recruiter your salary every month, and then the recruiter is supposed to pay you. Bit of a scam.
Another one is they get you to come on a very low wage, maybe as a volunteer. Now if the school has the legal right to hire you, or can bribe another school to do it, the school gets 2,000 a month from the government. This allows a scam where one party can claim you are making more then you are, and pocket the difference. There are so many possible scams involving recruiters.
If for some reason you choose to use a recruiter (please don't) but if you did, the recruiter should let you contact the school direct, and have you sign a contract with the school in question. Doesn't this only make sense? How can a recruiter know the details of the school you are going to (assuming you end up at that school)? How can you hold the school responsible for something the recruiter promised?
Ask the school how many foreign teachers they have had. Contact some of the current foreign teachers. If the school is any good at all, this shouldn't be a problem, unles this is the first year for a school to have a foreign teacher. If the school has never had a foreign teacher before, you can be in for a good time, but be aware that you must be very pstient, and be able to endure a lot of frustrations, a lot of "broken" promises (from your point of view) etc.
Don't trust anyone on this board. If I tell you that you should go to this school, look into the school yourself, see above. I know a foreign teacher who recruited for the school we both went to a couple years ago. He's a moderator for a different web site, and he made some good money recruiting for the school. He was helpful to new people, but not really truthful about the disadvantages at a college that no foreigner has ever worked for twice. In fact this guy complained the most about the school, even throwing tantrums in the Department office. This year they had 15 foreigners, none will re-sign. Tells you something, doesn't it? The recruiting bug/ money hit him, and he started advertising for schools he had never visited. And this is a "good guy", one of us. Can you imagine a recruiter who isn't a "good guy"

long enough!

Good luck, I do like teaching my students,

Chris in Henan

[Roger]

Chris is right! Those recruiters put their foot in just about every door. Sometimes they are school principals that hire on behalf of other schools. SOmetimes they are fellow expats. Beware of native English speakers who ask you to put them in touch with one of your friends! Your friends will end up working for a fly-by-night operator that pays half the regular salary, and offers no legal protection.

[Jacob]

The Buckland group out of Guilin/Yangshuo poses as a school but is in fact an agent who will probably not employ you in Guilin as promised. Most likely you'll get shipped to wherever and whatever Chinese school gets duped into paying Bucklands owner Owen the fee of over RMB40,000 to get a teacher sent over and soon forgotten. I think it's terrible that they take advantage of people who don't know much about China and want to teach there. Even worse they are screwing schools out of loads of money. Don't waste your time with these types. Universities will pay just as much and it's a much better environment to teach in. That's all I have to say about that.