Job Discussion Forums

[mirabelle]

Does anyone know anything about China Connection Education Services? Shanghai Foreign Language Activity Center for youngsters? They say they are attached to Shanghai International Studies University. I applied for a summer job with them and they replied by sending contract to be signed and sent back which seemed a little suspicious. Anyone worked for them before?

[SimonM]

Yeah, some places send contracts without interviews.

Hell, the job I ended up accepting (and I've had to turn down a bunch now ) didn't bother interviewing me. It's also in a very remote location, something I actually wanted.

From what I have gathered a school may hire without interview for two main reasons:

Low interest in position
High demand for teachers in the region

The low interest could be because it's a bad job (lots of summer camps are) or because it's in the back and beyond, or because the renumeration package is sub standard or just because the demand for ESL teachers is high enough that their specific job has not garnered attention.

Read your contract carefully. Learn as much as possible about the specific organization offering you the job and about the region of China the job is in. Make an educated decision; certainly don't jump at the first job offer you recieve, you WILL recieve others, but don't discount it out of turn because it doesn't operate exactly how you expect.

[randerso]

I can vouch for this camp. CES is just covering it's butt. I agree that you should read the contract carefully, but I taught at the camp in the winter - and they really are organized, structured people who pay what and when they are supposed to. Good conditions for work, actually, in many ways it was better than where I am now. You never deal with the CES people, you'll be met and taken care of by the Shanghai people. Don't worry about this one. PM me if you want more, specific info.

[Yu]

I worked at a top ten school in China and WAS NEVER INTERVIEWED.

[rickinbeijing]

Contracts often extended without so much as a phone interview, so no sweat there.

But "affiliated" means next to nothing in terms of the reputational transfer from university to language school. Usually it's just a ploy and the motivation is strictly to make money, hardly out of altruistic or intrinsic educational concern.

An example is Zhejiang University, a key school of some "stature" in Hangzhou which sponsors a summer camp but doesn't monitor its progress, or lack thereof.

However, Shanghai is inundated with foreigners and operates generally in a more professional manner than anywhere else on the mainland.

That being said, if there are any sticking points in the contract, get it in writing before signing.