Job Discussion Forums

rlgordon · Joined: 19 Jul 2005 Posts: 4

I have contacted multiple agencies and schools in search of a postion teaching in China. Some of the responses I received are from: China Teaching Network (Chris Ryall), Gateway China/Konall Culture Exchange, Hengshui High School, Beijing New Asia Language School, and Footprints Recruiting. I would be extremely grateful for any information about any of the companies or schools I have mentioned. I am very new to this whole process, and I want to make it an enjoyable rewarding experience and not a painful one. Also if there is any other information I should know please don't hesitate to tell me on here or PM me. Thank you kindly for any help.

Rob

Babala · Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 1303 Location: Henan

My advice is usually to stay away from recruiters and agencies. There are alot of bad ones out there. If you are interested in going through an agency then I would use New Times. If you do a search on the China forums there are plenty of positive comments about them. PM Nolefan, he does some work I believe for New Times.

go_ABs · Joined: 08 Aug 2004 Posts: 507

Agreed. There seems to be plenty of scam artists posing as recruiters in China - and, I'm sure, other countries too.

Look at it this way: a recruiter works for a school which has some money set aside for hiring a foreign teacher. That amount doesn't change whether they use a recruiter as a middle-man or not. If you can approach schools directly, you stand a better chance of earning a good wage.

Do a search on China Job-Related: there's heaps of comments about recruiters there... very few of them are positive.

Good luck!

rlgordon · Joined: 19 Jul 2005 Posts: 4

Appreciate the input. Recruiters do scare me, but so does the thought of putting all my trust in a school with no one to turn to if things go sour.

On another note...how's the rugby in China?

go_ABs · Joined: 08 Aug 2004 Posts: 507

Crap. They barely know what it is.

When you're dealing directly with the school, INSIST that they give you the e-mail addresses of a few current teachers. They will be honest about what it's like, what you should expect, what you'll need to take.

If they can't provide e-mail addresses of current teachers, they are: lying to you, unable to legally hire foreigners, or such rascals that no teacher sticks around for any length of time. Or, I suppose, they could be a new institution.

If this is your first time, I'd strongly recommend only accepting positions where there are other foreign teachers around.

Good luck.

schwa · Joined: 12 Oct 2003 Posts: 164 Location: yap